More Material for Guido

More than ten years after writing Picnics in the Vineyard, Gail Robin Raes went looking for the title of a song buried somewhere in the manuscript.

She found the song.

Then she found something she wasn’t looking for.

Herself.

What began as a simple search sent Gail wandering through books and stories she hadn’t read in years. Familiar characters suddenly sounded different. Forgotten scenes carried new meaning. Conversations she once believed were entirely fictional began to feel surprisingly familiar.

And then there was Guido.

While writing Picnics in the Vineyard, whenever Gail’s husband, Bruno, said something that hurt her feelings, criticized her, or simply annoyed her, she had a favorite response:

“Just more material for Guido.”

Guido was Robyn Rossi’s husband—and he wasn’t particularly likable. At the time, borrowing an occasional comment or frustrating moment for Guido seemed like nothing more than a writer’s joke. Years later, Gail began to wonder whether those moments were more than material. Perhaps her fictional characters had been quietly preserving feelings, memories, and truths she wasn’t yet ready to recognize.

More Material for Guido is not a sequel, a traditional memoir, or a book about how to write. It is a warm, funny, and deeply personal journey through the stories behind the stories—and the unexpected ways our lives find their way onto the page.

Along the way, Gail revisits Robyn Rossi, Bruno the brewery owner, Papa Dragon, dreams that became stories, family memories that became characters, and books whose origins now surprise even their author.

Blending humor, reflection, music, memories, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into a lifetime of storytelling, More Material for Guido explores creativity, relationships, discovery, and what can happen when we return to an old chapter of our lives with new eyes.

Because sometimes the stories we create are telling us something.

We just may not understand it until years later.

Sometimes our stories know us before we know ourselves.