I’m happy to welcome author Judith Works. Today, Judith shares interesting facts about her creative journey and new release, The Measure of Life.

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

I lived in Rome for ten years and after returning to the States wrote a memoir about the experience, titled Coins in the Fountain. But I wasn’t done writing about people in the expat community, some of whom didn’t live very happy lives. This interested me and I wanted to examine a life different from my own experience, and so The Measure of Life began a long gestation as a story began to take shape about a woman who struggles with disappointments and eventually finds happiness.

What is the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part is shepherding a book to publication and holding a copy in my hands when it’s published. The worst is the struggle to write an interesting story that will actually result in publication.

Describe your writing space.

My writing space is my office. After living abroad and traveled extensively, the room is filled with memoires of places I’ve visited along with a bookcase holding books on the art and history of Italy. My desk holds dictionaries, a thesaurus, style manuals, and a new desktop computer along with the printer. Hanging above is a large replica of a map of 17th Century Rome with small paintings of Italy surrounding it.

Which authors have inspired you?

Frances Mayes, who writes so beautifully about Italy, comes easily to mind. Other authors whose books I enjoy are Colm Tóibín, Hillary Mantel, and Tan Twan Eng all of whom are geniuses at setting, plot, and character.

What is your favorite quote?

“Rome is a city of echoes, the city of illusions, the city of yearning.”
Giotto 1266 -1387

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

To bring peace to the world.

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

I love to travel and have visited over one hundred countries on every continent except Antarctica. Italy is my favorite, but France and Japan are a close second. Some of the less traveled places such as Togo, Zanzibar, and Bali could easily draw me back. My most recent adventures have been to Alaska and Hawaii. When my suitcase is in resting mode, I volunteer for literary events such as a local writing conference.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

As the joke goes about how musicians get to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice. The same goes for writers: write, write, and write. But don’t forget to read, especially in your genre.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a novel about a woman who inherits an old house and finds she has a family she never knew existed.

Blurb

A story of love and loss, lies and truth, begins in Rome when Nicole shares a cappuccino and cornetto with her Italian tutor. The meeting sets off a chain of events that upends the course of her life. While Rome also brings deep friendships and immersion into a sumptuous food scene there is no escape from acknowledging the consequences of her actions. In search of forgiveness and healing, she moves to an island near her childhood home in Seattle only to find the way to reunite the remnants of her family and discover her true path is to return to Rome and face the past.

Excerpt

I read about a new concept called blogging. Intrigued, I studied the process to launch my own blog. After a lot of false starts, I managed to post about the day I bought bread in the bakery Maggie recommended and ended up meeting the old man. I titled it FIAT PANIS (Let There be Bread):

Once upon a time I met an old man out of a fairy tale. He was tiny and perched in a gigantic carved chair where he presided over a treasure trove of books and antiques. And it was the same day I first savored the goodness of real Roman bread. The kind of bread that’s crispy brown on the outside and chewy inside. The kind baked in a wood-fired oven wafting a mouth-watering aroma out the door to compel you to follow the scent back to the bakery where fresh loaves await. I squeezed through the crowd toward the clerk to make my selection while imagining ancient Romans clustered at the baker’s stall—the baker pulling the rounds of whole wheat spiced with poppy and fennel seeds from the hot oven while his wife handed them to house slaves who gossiped about their owners, and matrons who gossiped about the neighbors as they handed over a few coins.

I included colorful photos of the bakery and a loaf of fresh bread on my kitchen table along with frescoes of loaves from the ruins of Pompeii.

Buy Links

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Author Bio and Links

After I earned a law degree in midlife, I had the chance to leave the Forest Service in Oregon and run away to the Circus (Maximus). In reality my husband and I moved to Rome where I worked for the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization for four years as a legal advisor to the director of human resources. I could see the Circus that had hosted chariot races during the Roman Empire from my office window.

My husband and I reluctantly returned to the US after four years. But we pined for the land of pasta, vino, art, and sunny piazzas. Then the gods smiled and offered a chance to return to Rome with the UN World Food Program. Six more years or food and frolic in the Eternal City passed much too quickly. The indelible experiences living in Italy and working for the UN were the genesis of my memoir Coins in the Fountain.

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Giveaway

Judith Light will be awarding a $20 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.

Follow Judith on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

I couldn’t put this book down and stayed up two nights in a row to finish it. Ms. Works is an expert storyteller with a keen eye for detail and a gift for creating a strong sense of place. She takes us on a transformative journey from sun-drenched Rome to the rain-soaked shores of Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. I immediately connected with Nicole, the protagonist, as she navigated the complexities of an unhappy marriage, an extramarital affair, and parenting three children.

If you enjoyed reading A Year in Tuscany, you will love this sweeping romantic saga.