Biography

Victoria C. Slotto

Registered nurse, kidney survivor, novelist, poet

Author of countless poems, articles, and short stories, Victoria C. Slotto enchants readers again by creating a new world to explore in the genre of women’s fiction.

Victoria C. Slotto has been writing poetry and short stories for years, but it wasn’t until her marketing position for a local hospice was eliminated that she went home and told her husband she wanted to write full-time. Having had her poems and short stories published in multiple magazines and journals, Victoria was even then no stranger to effectively gaining and entertaining an audience. She was ready to write novels.

Her writing has been described as poetic, with a style that is similar to famous authors such as Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult. Her subject matter has been attributed to her years working as a nurse and dealing with “end-of-life” issues. She has been able to create new worlds within modern settings to show readers that no matter how dark the cloud, there is always a silver lining.

With her first novel, Winter is Past,Victoria used her real life experience as a nurse and as a recipient organ donor patient to create the character of Claire. In Claire’s story,Victoria pulls at readers’ hearts and challenges the mind by exploring the character’s emotions, such as fear of loss, and showing how an inner strength is the greatest of survival skills.

Kidney Transplant

In 1996, Victoria was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure. She was given a second chance at life in 2001 when a co-worker, Paula Dinkins, gifted her with a kidney. It was this experience that provided the inspiration for Winter is Past. When Paula offered to be her donor,Victoria asked herself over and over again, “What if…?” “What if something were to happen to Paula?” “What if something happened to Paula’s children and they needed one of her kidneys?” Paula calmed those fears by saying, “I believe God put me here to help you, and I can’t believe he wouldn’t have someone out there to help them.”

Nursing and Convent Years

Victoria entered a Catholic convent at the age of seventeen and spent twenty-eight years serving as a Registered Nurse in the Order. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing Education and a Master of Arts in Administration. Her work has been primarily in fields that dealt with death and dying: Hospice, AIDS, Long Term Care and Home Health Care. She provided direct patient care and served in administrative positions.

The last two years of her active nursing career,Victoria was a marketing representative and community educator for hospice. For a number of years she served as adjunct faculty at Orvis School of Nursing,University of Nevada,Reno. She was also employed part-time by the University’s Nutrition Department as part of a Federal Grant as the lead editor and co-author of a physician/patient education workbook about lifestyle change and weight management. She has lived in many parts of the United States and spent three years living and working in France.

Victoria is currently a full-time writer. Her second novel, The Sin of His Father, is the story of a young man who learns on his mother’s deathbed that he was conceived in an act of rape. Driven by fear of who he may become, he must then find redemption through forgiveness.

Victoria resides with her husband, David, in Reno, NV, but spends several months of the year in Palm Desert,CA. Her hobbies include painting, knitting, jewelry-making, golf, and spoiling her two dogs Sparky and Zoe.

Victoria C. Slotto, on why she writes:

“Life gives us experiences, teaches us lessons, gifts us with wisdom that is not for us to hoard selfishly. Most people accomplish this through parenting. I have no children, so I write. I give birth to books and poetry.” – Victoria Slotto, 2012