Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli is an Italian science fiction and thriller author.
She has lived in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) since
1993, earning a degree in biology and working as a writer, scientific
and literary translator, and freelance web copywriter. In the past she
also worked as researcher, tutor and professor’s assistant in the field
of ecology at “Dipartimento di Biologia Animale ed Ecologia” of the
University of Cagliari.
As a cinema addict, she started by writing screenplays and fan fictions inspired by the movies.
Between 2012-2013 she wrote and published a hard science fiction series set on Mars and titled “Deserto rosso”.
The whole “Deserto rosso” series, which includes four books, was also
published as omnibus in December 2013 (ebook and paperback) and hit No. 1 on the Italian Kindle Store in November 2014.
"Deserto rosso" was published in English, with the title "Red Desert", between 2014 and 2015.
The first book of the series is "Red Desert - Point of No Return"; the second is "Red Desert - People of Mars"; the third is "Red Desert - Invisible Enemy"; and the final book is "Red Desert - Back Home".
She also authored three crime thrillers in the Detective Eric Shaw
trilogy - “Il mentore” (2014), “Sindrome” (2016), and “Oltre il limite”
(2017) -, an action thriller titled “Affinità d’intenti” (2015), five more science fiction novels - “L’isola di Gaia” (2014), “Per
caso” (2015), “Ophir. Codice vivente” (2016), “Sirius. In caduta libera” (2018), and “Nave stellare Aurora” (2020) - and a non-fiction book titled “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” (2020).
“Il mentore” was originally published in English by AmazonCrossing with the title “The Mentor” on 1 November 2015. In October 2015 it reached No. 1 on the Kindle Store in the USA, UK, and Australia. A new edition of “The Mentor” was published on 30 November 2022; its sequels, “Syndrome” and “Beyond the Limit”, followed in 2023.
“Affinità d’intenti” was published in English as “Kindred Intentions” in 2016.
All her books have been Amazon and Kobo bestsellers in Italy.
She is podcaster and blogger at FantaScientifiCast, an Italian Representative at Mars Initiative, and a member of the International Thriller Writers organization.
She's often a guest both in Italy and abroad during book fairs, including Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino (Turin Book Fair) and Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair) and Più Libri Più Liberi
(Rome Book Fair), local publishing events, university conventions as
well as classes (University of Insubria), where she gives speeches or
conducts workshops about self-publishing and genre fiction writing.
As a science fiction and Star Wars fan, she is known in the Italian online community by her nickname, Anakina.