Today, I’m featuring fellow author, Kate Zarrelli, whose
novel, Tuscan Enchantment, was released via Devine Destinies on March 15, 2019!
VJ: Hello Kate,
welcome to my blog! Congrats on the new release!
What was your
inspiration for writing Tuscan Enchantment?
Kate: Thank you for inviting me! The inspiration came from
the area of northern Tuscany called the Lunigiana, the foothills of the Apuan
Alps, bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. A people older than the Etruscans have left
us traces of their presence in the form of menhirs, and more recently, this
area was the scene of some of the worst massacres in modern history, during
WWII. The most important noble family of the area, the Malaspina, built many
castles and villas here. The explorer Alessandro Malaspina is the original of
Gianluca Quattromani, whose archive is the reason for my heroine to go to the
area – where she falls in love with his descendant.
VJ: How long did it
take you to write this story?
Kate: I don’t think I can remember. I wrote the first
version of the story more than 20 years ago, but it was a very rookie
production and I didn’t manage to publish then, unsurprisingly. My husband
found the disk last year, got it converted without telling me, and I had
another look…I thought the story really had potential though it needed some
rewriting. And the DD editors are fantastic
in helping polish and perfect.
VJ: You’ve written
stories in other genres. Can you tell us about them?
Kate: Under my own name Katherine Mezzacappa, I’ve published
traditional, heart-warming stories in a magazine called Ireland’s Own, published in Wexford (I also publish some
non-fiction with them on Irish matters). That was the magazine that gave the
late, great Maeve Binchy her fiction break. I’ve also published historical
literary erotica with Erotic Review
Magazine in London (this is an e-zine so these can be found on-line, free,
as can other historical stories in Copperfield
Review and Henshaw Press). I have
also tried my hand with some paranormal fiction, published by Severance
Publications. As Katie Hutton, I have a two-book deal (first book due out June
2020) with Bonnier Zaffre for historical fiction.
VJ: You currently
live in Italy. How does living in such an amazing nation influence your work?
Kate: Oddly enough, it does and it doesn’t. Because I write
a lot of historical fiction, sometimes being in a place means I get too tangled
up with what that place feels like now. But I am revising a historical novel
set in Florence (a couple of hours from here) and Venice (a good bit further)
where access to museums and historic buildings has been crucial.
VJ: Can we readers
expect to see more from you at Devine Destinies?
Kate: I’m working on The
Casanova Papers. This will be a contemporary novel set in Venice, in which
a couple studying the life of Casanova relive his exploits, but only with each
other – by wearing masks. Casanova was a great lover, but pretty rubbish at
relationships, and died alone, in a chair, far from home. My couple never want
to lose the excitement of that first encounter, but don’t want anyone else…
Thank you so much for
dropping by. It’s been a lot of fun!
Excerpt from Tuscan
Enchantment:
She caught sight of him, lithe as an eel, gliding along
under the surface of the water and she felt herself flame with longing for him.
From what she could see as he sped through the water he was wearing just a pair
of white trunks, which offset his bronzed flesh. Then he flipped over onto his
back and she saw with surprise and shock not unmixed with pleasure that he was
wearing nothing at all. Instinct made her look away just as he realised she was
there. He turned over again and swam with an easy stroke towards her.
"Antonia! I didn't mean to startle you. It's just a
habit I've got into up here on my own."
He stood in the water at the side of the pool, the lower
half of his body concealed, the water dripping from his raven black hair and
running in rivulets down his chest.
"I thought you'd be ages yet - women so often
are," he said.
"Not this one!" she retorted, wishing he had not
reminded her of his experience of other women, bust she did not have it in her
heart to be angry for long. He did seem sincere in his explanation, and after
all, she was a guest here.
"Please avert your eyes, and I'll make myself
decent," he instructed her.
Antonia half wanted to say it's too late now and
throw caution to the winds, but instead she did as she was told. She heard the
slap of his wet feet along the side of the pool as he went to get his trunks
from over a chair, and then his voice calling, "All right, it's safe to
look now. The lion is muzzled!"
He approached her, smiling, and once more Antonia felt as
overwhelmed by his beauty as she had been when they had first met. Now she
could observe him more closely than ever, the broadness of his muscular
shoulders, the taut hardness of his stomach, the strong sinews of his muscled,
hairy legs. His hard work under Alessio's guidance had honed his body until it
was even more desirable than she had remembered it in the moonlight. Yet there
was something naturally proportioned about his muscles--he looked that good
because he worked hard, not because he worked out.
"Antonia," he exclaimed, shattering her thoughts,
"you're looking at me as if you've never seen a man before!"
"Well, that is, I haven't...well not exactly... I don't
mean..." she stuttered in embarrassment, aware she had gone very red.
Lorenzo looked at her with a serious expression now, as
understanding slowly dawned on him. Then to her surprise it was his turn to
flush gently, and when he spoke it was with a voice low and trembling with
emotion and desire.
"Ah, Antonia, what a rare prize you are!" Then he
turned abruptly away from her and slid back into the water.
"Well, aren't you coming in, then?" he asked, his
head bobbing up again, sleek and gleaming as an otter's.
About the Author:
Kate Zarrelli is the Devine Destinies pen name of Katherine
Mezzacappa. Kate is Irish but now lives in Carrara in Northern Tuscany,
between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea, with her Italian husband and two
teenage sons. She writes historical, erotic, feel-good and paranormal
fiction, set all over Europe, and in her spare time volunteers with a used book
charity of which she is a founder member. You can follow Kate on Facebook
at Kate Zarrelli books or on Twitter @katmezzacappa.
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