Amy Fremgen
asked
Frances Mayes:
What inspired you to turn your experiences with renovating an Italian home into a book?. Did you keep a journal, did your agent suggest it, or ? I love the book, have read it several times, and also a couple of times have listened to it on tape while walking. We were in Italy in October/November, including Cortona, and every place is so crowded. Except Sicily which is still pleasant.
Frances Mayes
I do keep notebooks, not journals really, but notebooks of words, impressions, quick ideas, images. The one I kept when I first bought my house did aid in forming Under the Tuscan Sun. I had no agent at that time, since I was a poet. I was planning to write poetry there, but the lines just kept getting longer and longer and finally I was, to my surprise, writing prose.
Cortona is crowded at certain times, especially holidays and over a "ponte" (bridge)--a three day weekend. Often, it's calm and normal and in the winter, almost deserted. Sicily is wonderful. I've been only three times but would like to explore more, especially the interior now.
Cortona is crowded at certain times, especially holidays and over a "ponte" (bridge)--a three day weekend. Often, it's calm and normal and in the winter, almost deserted. Sicily is wonderful. I've been only three times but would like to explore more, especially the interior now.
More Answered Questions
Dorette
asked
Frances Mayes:
In Under Magnolia, (and all your work, really...) the rich sound details ~~ "I imagine fleas and snoring and sweat and couplings.." weave through the narrative as well as the beautiful scents of memory, "an outbreak of quartz, a clutch of blue bachelor's buttons" and I wonder what path in the present enticed you to begin the walk back to Fitzgerald?
Janet Croon
asked
Frances Mayes:
I am so thirlled to be able to ask you a question! I am writing a piece of historical fiction, set in the American Civil War. It is highly based on factual evidence, but parts of it are strictly fiction as they fill in the blank pieces of a very romantic story. I am finding there is a fine line between writing history and writing historical fiction! What kind of advice can you give a new novelist?
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more