81-year-old writer combines history and fiction through his books

When 81-year-old Peter Moscovita sits down to write at his Country Club home, he said he completely loses himself.

Of course, nobody else is really looking for him at 5 a.m.

That is his time to write, when the sun has yet to rise and there is a peaceful silence at his Lakewood Ranch home. He puts on some soft music in the background, and then turns his imagination loose.

He said it is like he enters a completely different dimension. 

With a passion for history and research as well as fiction, he has written and published (through Olympus Story House) seven books in the last seven years, including his most recent book, "My Journey to You," that was released Sept. 24.

"My Journey to You" is a story, according to Moscovita "of two high-powered people, an ocean apart, who find unexpected romance in the deceptive world of online chat sites, where a hidden agenda will keep you guessing."

Moscovita began writing six years ago after he was diagnosed with Mantle cell lymphoma, a blood cancer, that required more than a year of treatment.

He took a negative and turned it into a positive by exploring his passion for writing.

Moscovita's wife, Martine, was the first one to encourage him to write novels after hearing him talk about the adventures his father Amilcari had as a maritime officer in Austria. 

Photo by Madison Bierl

"Writing about (his father) took me away from what was killing me inside," said Moscovita, who grew up in England and moved to the U.S. in 1966.

Now Moscovita, a former design engineer in the aerospace industry who later formed a medical instrumentation company, will spend eight to 10 hours in a day sitting at his laptop.

“Writing a book is something very personal,” he said. "It's you, it's your imagination. It could be a litany of different things, but the main thing is, when you finish that book, you look at it and say, ‘I achieved this. I wrote a book.’ It doesn't matter if anybody ever sees it.” 

When Moscovita started writing his first book, “The Following Storm,” in 2018, he thought he might be a “one-book wonder.” But that book earned him accolades and a positive article in the Hollywood Book Review, which serves self-published authors, and prompted him to write more novels. 

"It appeals to your ego, it has to," Moscovita said of the positive review. "There's a lot of people trying to get that and not many get it. It appeals to those that are scouts for movie companies, traditional publishing companies, literary agents, and also gives credibility to your ability."

He never thought he would fall in love with writing, but he did. His books are fiction, but with historically accurate information included. 

"I've always been fascinated by the human stories behind global events," Moscovita said in a release. "The characters in "The Following Storm" live at a time (World War II) when survival demanded both bravery and love. Their struggles mirror the moral choices that define us in any era."

In his early days as a writer, Martine said she had some advice for him. "I said, ‘Peter, if you want this to be good, you’ve got to put some sex and romance in it — and he did,” Martine said.

Photo by Madison Bierl

Moscovita said his novel “The Ultimate Sacrifice,” which revolves around an English fighter pilot who falls in love with a French nurse, is being considered by a film company.

Martine Moscovita said she hopes that at least one of her husband’s books does become a movie. Her first choice would be his first book “The Following Storm” but she said “The Ultimate Sacrifice” and “The Unexpected Encounter” would make beautiful movies as well.

Courtesy image 

Moscovita hopes other aspiring authors take the jump like he did, sitting down, and just beginning to write.

“I've had good things happen all because of books, and there's a lot of people who have suppressed feelings that they would like to write a book, but they are scared of what people are going to say,” Moscovita said. “It doesn't matter what people say.”

On top of writing books, Moscovita also has a passion for writing poetry and song lyrics. 

"I just let rhythm and rhyme go through my head and then I put it down and I start changing words so they either rhyme or flow better," Moscovita said.

Moscovita writes as if he was part of the story. He is experiencing whatever his characters are experiencing. 

Other than racing a car or sailing a boat, he said there isn't anything he would rather be doing than writing.

“He loves it and he's 81 years old,” Martine Moscovita said. “If he wants to do this, I let him do it and enjoy it.”