It’s Meet the Author Monday! Each week we meet a new author and get to know a little about them, their writing process, publishing experience, and tips for other writers. Today we’re talking to Nancy Barone, author of One Summer In Sicily.
About Nancy Barone:
Nancy Barone is an author of Romcom/ Humorous Women’s Fiction and is represented by the Lorella Belli Literary Agency.
Her very first novel, The Husband Diet, published by Bookouture, reached no. 7 on Amazon’s top 100 bestsellers.
With Aria Fiction, an imprint of Head Of Zeus, she has published her Little Cornish series and her The Husband Diet series.
Her next novel, One Summer In Sicily, will be released on June 8th.
Nancy has a degree in English and French Literature from the University of Pisa, Tuscany. A former Torontonian, Nancy has also lived in Tuscany and England. She now lives in the Sicilian countryside near the sea with her husband and their two dogs.
All her work is available in either paperback or e-book formats.
About One Summer In Sicily:
A new fun and fresh rom-com set in Sicily by Canadian-Italian author Nancy Barone.
In an attempt to resuscitate her twenty-five-year-old marriage, aerophobic Gillian Dobson knocks down a few tranquilizers and takes a dreaded flight to the Sicilian Island of Lipari to surprise her husband, away on a business trip. But her troubles are just about to begin…
For fans of Jennifer Weiner, Kristen Bailey and Sophie Kinsella.
Author Interview with Nancy Barone:
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- Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Hello and thanks for inviting me! Interesting question indeed! I have a series of 5 Cornish books:
- New Hope for the Little Cornish Farmhouse
- No Room at the Little Cornish Inn
- Dreams of a Little Cornish Cottage
- Starting Over at the Little Cornish Beach House
- Snow Falls over Starry Cove
They are all set in these tiny villages all connected along the coast where everyone knows everyone. These books are all standalones but the characters from other books return to help out my new MC.
There is also my The Husband Diet series where my MC Erica Cantelli navigates her dream of a new life in Tuscany while battling to keep the pounds off and her spirits up!
- If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Ah! Glad you asked! In my heart I always knew I was going to be published once I started writing seriously. But believe me, there were times when I was feeling very despondent. I would tell my younger self to submit my work to publishers much much earlier in life, to not take the rejections to heart, but to see them as practice for ‘The Call.’ I would also tell myself to not waste time, but to write a certain amount of words per day. And to experiment with a few genres until I found the one(s) that best express(es) my emotions. And to meet as many authors as I can. They are an amazing source of info and encouragement! Also, read extensively in the genre that I am interested in.
- Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
Yes, I read every single review. Most readers are very supportive with their 4 or 5 stars and have so many kind words of praise and encouragement. I appreciate it when they make references to their favourite parts or to aspects of my main characters, or something that made them laugh or sob. I like to hear how my lovely readers feel when reading my books.
And like almost every author, I also see the bad reviews. I don’t mind them all that much, because the intelligent, courteous reviews provide constructive feedback.
What I find sad is when people write offensive reviews just for the sake of it. Sometimes you can tell that they haven’t actually understood the story and give me less stars as a consequence. In The Husband Diet, my MC, Erica Cantelli, is a hotel manager who’s had enough of her chef and wants to fire him because he is always drunk despite her many warnings and has now failed to show up on the most important event of the year, letting her and the entire hotel down for the umpteenth time. The reviewer didn’t understand that and thought my MC was a bully.
Also, I once had a reviewer go to the trouble to calculate the height and weight of my curvy heroine, only to give me less stars because she wasn’t as big as the reader had hoped. Those reviews, in all honesty, I don’t take seriously.
- What is your favorite childhood book?
Oh my goodness, where do I start? Anything written by Judy Blume! Going back, Freaky Friday, A Wrinkle in Time, The Secret World of Og, Charlotte’s Web. I was an avid reader!
- What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
My wip looks like a rainbow puzzle! This is because I never start from the beginning. I always start from the most important scene and then build the rest of the book around it. Then I fill in the pieces as they come to me. When I jot down a scene but want it to come later, I highlight it in purple. If I need to put something earlier, I’ll highlight it in green. The love scenes are of course in red font, while something I’m not sure of will be in orange font. A fact that still needs to be checked will be highlighted in yellow.
Thanks so much for having me!
To learn more about Nancy Barone, here’s where you can find her:
Facebook: Author Nancy Barone
Instagram: @AuthorNancyBarone
Twitter: @NancyNBW
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