ITALY BOOK TOURS: A LIFE BY DESIGN - 5 QUESTIONS TO AUTHOR LUCY APPADOO

1. Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

For A Life By Design (The Italian Family Series), I was inspired by this story through the character, Elena who had a role in Dancing in the Rain (The Italian Family Series). Elena was very creative in the previous story with her sister, Valeria from Dancing in the Rain, so I wanted to have a character that showed her creative skills in fashion. I adore Italian fashion with the most modern trends, so I wanted to be a part of that excitement of creating modern and contemporary fashion. Elena is the part of me that loves to create (as I like to write), and I have a fascination with Italy as I had visited Italy a number of years ago. The plot came to me by knowing Elena’s character and how her feisty character would be able to handle all the intrigue that came her way. Generally, my inspiration for my other stories comes partly from my imagination (when I’m in a meditative space) and partly from past experiences that are similar or embellished.

MEET FLAVIA BRUNETTI, AUTHOR OF ALL THE WAY TO ITALY + GIVEAWAY

   

Hello and welcome to FLY HIGH, Flavia! My first question for you is, where do you get inspiration for your stories? 
     
     A kernel of truth often develops into something more: something will happen to me in my everyday life, and when I go to write it down, it takes on its own shape. For example, one of my favorite short stories in All the Way to Italy came from a walk in the woods during the summer and the sound of katydids. From there came the story What Sings in the Night!

Do you write every day?

I’d love to say yes, but the truth is, everyday life very often gets in the way of writing every day! I find that there are days (especially when traveling, or in a new place) when ideas and thoughts demand to be written down almost constantly, and that’s one of the reasons I carry a notebook around with me everywhere I go. But there are stretches of time when the inspiration is much less present, and I try not to force it—or else it would stop being fun!

In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper? 

This ties in well with the previous question—the truth is, I have a very real obsession with notebooks and pens. I adore picking out new ones, and I always have a notebook with me, and usually also a pen with crazy-colored ink. I jot down random sentences or thoughts that I can then go back and flesh out properly, and that’s usually when a laptop comes in handy!

SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE ECHOES OF LOVE BY HANNAH FIELDING - WIN A PAPERBACK COPY!

 The Book

The Echoes of Love is a touching love story that unfolds at the turn of the new millennium, set in the romantic and mysterious city of Venice and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany. It is a tale of a lost love and betrayal, unbleached passion and learning to love again – and a terrible truth that will change the lives of two strangers forever.

Venetia Aston-Montagu has escaped to Italy’s most captivating city to work in her godmother’s architectural practice, putting a lost love behind her. For the past ten years she has built a fortress around her heart, only to find the walls tumbling down one night of the carnival when she is rescued from masked assailants by an enigmatic stranger, Paolo Barone.

Drawn to the powerfully seductive Paolo, despite warnings of his Don Juan reputation and rumours that he keeps a mistress, Venetia can’t help being caught up in the smouldering passion that ignites between them.

When she finds herself assigned to a project at his magnificent home deep in the Tuscan countryside, Venetia must not only contend with a beautiful young rival, but also come face to face with the dark shadows of Paolo’s past that threaten to come between them.

Can Venetia trust that love will triumph, even over her own demons? Or will Paolo’s carefully guarded, devastating secret tear them apart forever?

DO YOU KNOW HOW ITALY WAS MADE?

A clue? The answer is ... by the dreams,  ideals, passion, courage, sacrifice and  blood. Where have all of them gone now? Not the blood, of course. That's something I can gladly do without. But what about the Italians' dreams, ideals, passion, courage?

Italy turns 150 today. Happy birthday, my beautiful spoilt , offended country. Pity I have to use the past tense to say you WERE great. A great country, esteemed and admired by all. Do we have to go back to the Renaissance for that admiration? Even then, there were divisions and violent clashes. So, what? We still had so much to teach and offer to the rest of the world. We WERE a great country of great men like Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raffaello, Tiziano, Caravaggio (not in the right order, I know)

For those great men, there are  many people loving Italy still nowadays, for its wonderful patrimony of Art and natural Beauty. I'm sure of that, I'm among those many. I deeply love Italy. But it is like loving a brainless, shallow,  beautiful woman. You get bored after the first moment of overwhelming passion.
Sadly,  there are people who say they don't want to join the rest of us in celebrating our country's b-day (they even dream a secession),  most of them living in the North, and  a gloomy minority in the South.