Curtis Ippolito Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

Curtis Ippolito
Curtis Ippolito works as a communications writer for a nonprofit biological research facility. Previously, he is a former newspaper reporter and has been a writer in the health care industry.

He was born and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, up until the age of 10, and then lived in the Dallas area of Texas, before he moved to California. He’s got a bachelor’s in news writing. When he is not busy writing fiction, he can be found hiking, lifting weights, traveling, and any other hobby which piques his interest.

Curtis has considered himself a writer since he was in college, where he studied to be a newspaper reporter. He also took several creative writing classes and minored in English. After graduation, he worked as a reporter for a number of years, writing some short stories on the side sometimes, but not too successfully.

He got frustrated with his short fiction over time and got nothing published for around eight years. Curtis actually did not complete any fiction work again up until the year 2019, when he wrote his book. A few things inspired him to begin writing again. One, was a former newspaper colleague of his, named Chuck Cox, wrote a book two years before and it really got his mind turning that Curtis could maybe write a book too, that maybe he had it in him. The second was, the idea for this book and he just could not quit thinking about it.

After finishing the first draft of this novel, he reread “On Writing” by Stephen King, and it motivated him to begin writing short fiction again. This time around, instead of literary fiction, he began writing what he enjoys reading: dark/crime fiction. He has published and produced more fiction from 2019 to 2021 than he has at any other point in time.

While Curtis was starting to write “Burying the Newspaper Man”, he believed the main theme would be retribution and/or revenge. However the more he wrote, the more the theme of trauma and the ways people cope with terrible traumas came through naturally. He knows this theme may not be for everybody, however he would like to think that he handled the subject matter in a respectful way which encourages empathy for real life victims of abuse.

Curtis doesn’t try doing all that much research during the first draft, however doing a little digging sometimes helps move the process along for him. While writing the novel, he did all of the interviews, and the general research after he’d finished the first draft. While writing, he also drove to Ocean Beach, the main setting of the novel, a bunch of mornings before the sun rose and walked around, or sat on the beach retaining wall to take the vibe in, to soak in OB, just hoping to get everything right.

Nature flavors his work. He finds that he has to watch it so that he does not go too overboard with description in his work as a result. However describing the landscape, plants, and trees, it all anchors him in place, and he wants his readers to see what he is seeing when they are reading a story of his. Then people, obviously. Most writers enjoy people watching, and Curtis is no different. It is always helpful to eavesdrop, as well.

The majority of his ideas will come while he is taking a walk, doing something in his yard, or going for a drive. He came up with the idea for “Tonight’s Got to be the Night” as he was driving to the grocery store one night and passed the concrete plant just down the hill from his home.

Curtis does his best to be as original as possible in his storytelling, realizing that every sort of story has been told already. So all you are able to do as a writer is just try and put your own unique spin on it and give the reader something that’s fun to read.

“Burying the Newspaper Man” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2021. A dark past. A dead body. One ordinary man with everything to lose.

Marcus Kemp is just a regular beat cop that lives a normal life in San Diego, California. Up until the day that he makes a stunning find: a corpse in the trunk of this stolen car. What’s worse is that the victim winds up being the man that abused him as a child.

Marcus instinctively wants to help this killer get away with murder and is going to stop at nothing to make it happen, ignoring his police oath completely. With both his freedom and job in jeopardy, his investigation leads him to this unexpected killer, and Marcus quickly gets faced with a rather impossible choice.

Can he bury the past finally before it drags him under?

Curtis delivers an incredibly dark noir thriller that echoes the best work of Lehane and Hammett, yet is still an original story in both execution and story. He takes on very disturbing theme of sexual abuse and handles it with both humility and compassion. And as a writer he brings a concise and clear eye to his writing which makes this story incredibly emotive and visceral. Each of his words hit dead center, like Curtis is some trained marksman, picking off targets.

The sharp and short chapters help keep things intense. Readers felt they needed to continue reading at a rapid pace as you want to know exactly what path Curtis is taking you down.

While the novel hits its zenith, readers found it to be genuinely exciting. The final three or four chapters are highly enjoyable and fans recommend sticking with this one as the ending is incredible. Marcus’ character makes this premise rather believable in the steps that he selects and when the events take control, he finds his training takes over. You don’t see Marcus in his normal daily life. You just see him while he reacts to this unexpected event in his life and everything that he does afterwards that is effected by this event.