Phillipa Fioretti is about to release her third book, For One Night Only, through the new digital imprint Momentum Books. We were approached to participate in the Blog Tour to celebrate the release on January 21st, 2014. We have had Phillipa on the site previously so this time round we offered a guest post on a topic of her choice and here she is talking a little about her writing. You can also keep an eye out in a couple of weeks for my review of For One Night Only.
I have a background in visual art and archaeology but turned to writing fiction about seven years ago. My children were getting older and I wanted a change so I started to write. I enjoyed it so much I kept going and a couple of years later my third manuscript was picked up by Hachette Australia and published as The Book of Love in 2010. It went on to be translated into five languages. The sequel, The Fragment of Dreams was published in 2011 and my third book, For One Night Only is published this month.
I love to write romantic adventure with a sense of humour and a good dollop of interesting location – and an interesting location to me is Italy. My husband is Italian and so we’ve spent considerable time there with family, eating and generally enjoying Italian life. I also like to bring my other big love into my books, art and antiquities. Italy has a huge art heritage and one of the best police forces in the world for tracking stolen art and antiquities. But that doesn’t stop the endless trade in stolen art. And invariably my heroes and heroines find themselves drawn into this murky world – a world where danger and love are a heady mix.
In my new book, For One Night Only, Ornella, a young Sicilian-Australian actress, is visiting Sicily before going onto Rome for a screen test. She meets a handsome young British archaeologist, Hugh, who is excavating a newly discovered ancient Roman mosaic in the beautiful town of Taormina. Together they go to the island of Stromboli to take the guided hike up the live volcano and afterwards spend a passionate night together, unaware of the harrowing life or death adventure awaiting them as a group of ruthless art looters attempt to steal the priceless mosaic.
I had so much fun writing For One Night Only. It’s a fast paced, sexy and funny thriller and Ornella, the heroine, has been a delight to create. Hugh, the hero, is everything you’d want a rugged and sexy young archaeologist to be, and more. Putting them together has been like a little party on my screen each day. It’s hard to let them go, and part of me can’t. I find myself thinking about what happens to them once the book is over. Needless to say their future is tempestuous.
Part of the pleasure of writing is spending hours in an exotic location far away from your daily life and the setting in this book is definitely exotic. The island of Stromboli, off the north coast of Sicily, is the tip of a live volcano. Guided walks to the summit are offered regularly but they aren’t for the faint hearted. Taormina, a glamorous town in Sicily, is also a fantastic place to spend time. Beloved of artists and writers for centuries, Taormina also hosts an annual film festival and used to have Elizabeth Taylor and Truman Capote as regular visitors. The mix of baroque Sicilian sensibility, fashionable and wealthy tourists, the sea and the cerise bougainvillea, and the live Mt Etna volcano in the background, make a great backdrop for romance and adventure.
More information and purchase links for For One Night Only can be found at Momentum Books: http://momentummoonlight.com/books/for-one-night-only/
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!