Title: The Ballot Boy
Author: Larry Mellman
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 02/15/2022
Length: 85300
Genre: Historical, LGBTQIA+, YA, historical, lit/genre fiction, gay, coming out, 14th century Venice, political rulers, political intrigue and plotting, wartime action and adventure, sexual longing, family drama, betrayal, bullying
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Description
Venice, 1368.
War hovers in the wings with the fate of the Republic at stake when the old doge dies. Fourteen-year-old Nico, a street urchin from the poorest Venetian parish, is chosen at random to tally votes in the upcoming election for a new leader. Uprooted from his old life and transplanted to the doge’s palace, Nico becomes an alienated outsider at the mercy of scheming nobles.
Andrea Contarini, sixtieth doge of Venice, wants the ducal throne less than Nico wants to be ballot boy. Both walk a golden tightrope over treachery and deceit. When he witnesses a court clerk burned at the stake for being gay, Nico despairs. His romantic attraction to men is as powerful as his fear of fiery death and an eternity in Hell.
Taking advantage of the fraught transition in the Doge’s Palace, the hostile duke of Austria pushes Trieste to rebel against Venetian domination, jeopardizing her mastery of the Adriatic Sea. The Venetian nobles split, trapping the doge between hawks rabid for war, and rich merchants desperate for peace. With his own life on the line, Andrea Contarini opts to attack decisively and end the crisis swiftly, but his gambit is sabotaged. Trusting only the boy at his side, Contarini sends Nico to Trieste to be his eyes and ears. As the Venetian commanders wrangle over tactics, Nico falls for Astolfo, the young, charismatic lord of Castle Moccò, an indispensable but unreliable ally.
Will Nico return to Venice a celebrated hero? Or will he be forever haunted, guilt-ridden, and still concealing his deepest secret?
The doge sits on his gold cushion flanked by the three heads of the Forty. I’m on my stool behind him. I’m supposed to remember everything, but I can’t concentrate. I still haven’t been able to tell Serenissimo what I heard at Marullo’s.
Between Matteo and Alex, I think I’m going crazy. Letting Matteo touch me felt so good, and he says other things are a thousand times better. Of course they are; that’s why we go to Hell for them. When I’m not worrying about the price of my sins with Matteo, I can’t get Alex out of my head.
At the meeting’s end, Marino grabs me for a Latin lesson. My hand writes, not my mind. The quill catches on the paper. A blob of ink splatters across Book IV of The Gallic Wars.
Marino hands me a fresh sheet of paper, and I start all over again.
“You’re very clumsy today. Is anything wrong?”
“I’m fine.”
“I thought maybe you were upset about something…”
He always sounds like he knows more than he’s letting on.
“Why would I be upset?”
“For one thing, it appears your nemesis is about to become a very rich man.”
I try to concentrate on the Romans setting an ambush for the Gauls.
“Who’s my nemesis?”
“Ruggiero Gradenigo.”
“How is he getting rich?”
“The noble way—marrying a merchant’s daughter. The richer the better.”
“Who said that?”
“It’s on everyone’s lips. I’m surprised you haven’t heard.”
“Why would a rich commoner marry a deadbeat like Ruggiero?”
“To bear noble sons.”
I drop the quill. Marino isn’t stupid. Why is he tormenting me? I refuse to confirm the rumor.
“It’s stupid gossip,” I say.
He raises his eyebrows and smiles. “The odd thing about gossip is how it has a way of being true.”
After my lesson, I check the lion column. Abdul left his mark. I find him at home.
“Did Blackbeard make up his mind?”
“He’s dithering,” Abdul says. “Most unlike him.”
“Does he know anything?”
“Not yet. He’s at his mill in Treviso.”
Before I’m up the rope and through the window, Alex is pleading.
“You have to get me out of here before they make me marry that monster.”
“Where will you go?”
“Have you heard of the Poor Clares? The priest at San Raffaele mentioned that they have a house near Padua.”
“You want to go to a convent?”
“I’d rather marry Christ than Ruggiero Gradenigo.”
“Ruggiero will find you and drag you back.”
“Sanctuary is holy and inviolable. He can’t. If he does, I’ll kill myself.”
“Don’t say that. Your father hasn’t said yes. Maybe he won’t. He loves you.”
“When I told Papa that Ruggiero is a beast, he laughed at me. He said all men are beasts to young girls. He also said Ruggiero is young and handsome, and that’s a lot better than a fat old man with gout and two wives already in their graves. I told him I would never marry Ruggiero, so he locked me in here and said when I was ready to be reasonable, he’d let me out.”
“I’ll kill Ruggiero before that happens.”
“You can’t kill him.”
“You’d be amazed how easily I could.”
“No.” She grabs me and shakes me. “A commoner cannot kill a noble. They will track you down and draw and quarter you between the Columns of Doom. Rats and seagulls will eat your guts. You can’t. Swear!”
I say what I must to calm her fears. In the palace, that is known as diplomacy.
“I swear.”
“Now that’s settled, I need to escape. I can get away as a boy, but I need a boat.”
A commotion breaks out downstairs. Alex presses her ear against the door.
“Oh, God. No.”
She’s white and trembling.
“It’s Papa. If he finds you here, he’ll gut you.”
Doors slam. Keys rattle. Alex flutters like a bird caught in a trap.
“Behind the screen,” she whispers.
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Larry was born in Los Angeles and educated in literature, political science, and life at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked as a printer and journalist in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Larry also worked with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground on the Exploding Plastic Inevitable in NY, Provincetown, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, was mentored by Dean Koontz, and shared a palazzo in Venice with international opera singers Erika Sunnegårdh and Mark Doss.”
While living in Venice for many years, Larry also taught English, led tours, and immersed himself in the history and art of the Venetian Republic. The Ballot Boy was born in Venice and completed in St. Paul.
Larry is a lifelong social activist and writer, a voracious reader and researcher, an opera fanatic, and devoted walker. He currently lives in St. Paul with his partner of twenty-one years and his ex-wife of twenty-five years. His son is a pianist devoted to blues and jazz.
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