Terry Matthews-Lombardo
Terry Matthews-Lombardo asked Frances Mayes:

Thank you for sharing your incredible gift of writing with us and allowing some questions! I'm curious as to how long it took you to develop, write, then [ultimately] publish your very first book - in other words, from start to finish?

Frances Mayes Thank you! My first five books were poetry and were written intermittently. When I turned to prose, I found that Under the Tuscan Sun came to me very easily and was written in a year. I was teaching then so wrote mostly on weekends and breaks. Other books have taken 1-2 years, except for Under Magnolia which started a long time ago, was put away, then brought out and revised and added to. A long process!

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