Holiday Release!

For those new to the Italian Kitchen Mysteries, I’m offering a holiday sampler. The best part? It’s only $0.99! Here’s the book description:

Meet Victoria Rienzi, mystery-author-turned-sleuth, as she returns to the Casa Lido restaurant to research her family history and learn her formidable nonna’s secret recipes. Get to know her quirky family—besides Nonna, there’s her sweet mom and dad, her brother Danny, a cop with a serious demeanor but a heart of gold, and her sassy sister-in-law, Sofia, who serves as her partner in crime solving. (And just for fun, there’s her hunky ex, Tim, sous chef at the restaurant, as well as the enigmatic Cal, a charming woodworker who may be more than he appears.) Make yourself at home in the beach setting of Oceanside Park—take a turn on the boardwalk, dip your toes in the ocean, and stop at the Casa Lido for a great Italian meal.

The sampler includes:
--Excerpts from Murder and Marinara, The Wedding Soup Murder, and Book 3 in the series, the upcoming A Dish Best Served Cold, as well as a special sneak teaser from Book 4, Minestrone Mischief
--A never-before-published short story, “Mystery Man.”
--A dozen recipes from the Casa Lido, the seaside restaurant featured in the books, including antipasto, salads, sauces and pasta dishes, and of course, dolci—desserts!

Author Spotlight: Yours Truly

As a debut author, my budget does yet not allow for a publicist. So in the interest of economy, I have decided to interview myself to impart my latest news:

Yours truly: Well, you've finally gone and done it. What was it like to sign your first book contract?

Rosemary: The font is very, very tiny, so I needed my reading glasses. Then I couldn't decide which pen to use. And the thing is pages long, filled with words like "whereas" and "herein" and "exclusive." They really like "exclusive."

YT: Um, I meant that figuratively.

R: Oh. It was amazing. One might even say momentous.

YT: You've contracted with Penguin's New American Library division to write the first three books in a mystery series. Tell us a bit about it.

R: The mysteries are set at an Italian restaurant at the Jersey shore called the Casa Lido. My main character, Victoria, is a mystery writer who goes back home to research her family history, but instead stumbles into murder, mayhem, and romance. Each book will also feature a family recipe.

YT: Is there a character you're particularly fond of?

R: Vic's Nonna. She runs the restaurant with a steel spine and an iron hand. She's formidable and intimidating, but has a soft spot for her family. (Any resemblance to my own grandmothers is, of course, entirely coincidental.)

YT: For this series, you'll be writing as Rosie Genova. Catchy name. You knew I was born with it, right?

R: I'd heard that, yeah.

YT: So you've been at this writing thing a while. How'd you finally luck out?

R: Hmm. I've always liked this quote from Hemingway: "It is better to be lucky, but I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready." For the last seven years, I've tried hard to be "exact," to hone my skills as a writer.

YT: So besides the sweat of your brow, to what do you attribute this success? I hear you have a fabulous agent.

R: Absolutely. Many thanks to Kimberly Lionetti at Bookends, aka K-Lion, who pushed persuaded me to try my hand at a mystery. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention my awesome critique partners, Loretta Marion and Sarah Pinneo, author of the upcoming  Julia's Child.

YT: Anything else you'd like to add?

R: Yes--why are you wasting time on a self-indulgent blog post? Don't you have a book to write?

YT: Good point.

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Murder Marinara, the first in the Casa Lido mystery series, is slated for publication by  Penguin/NAL in December 2013.

"Mine Own Library"*

This week I will be presenting a workshop, So You Wanna Be a Writer?, at the Kenilworth Library here in New Jersey. I am thrilled to be doing this for a number of reasons. First, I love libraries and librarians, and Kenilworth's librarian, Dale Spindel, is awesome. Dale was the second person (after my mom) to read the nowhere-near-ready-for-public-consumption first draft of my first novel a couple of years ago. She's brought wonderful programs to the library, including The Bard on the Boulevard, which stages Shakespeare plays in the summer. She's managed to snare amazing writers to do workshops and signings, including Jonathan Saffran Foer and Tom Perrotta (who attended my high school!). Dale is also a regular blogger at  Hey,There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room. Beyond that, however, I will always be grateful to the Kenilworth Library. I grew up in Kenilworth, and spent many a summer day browsing the stacks in that place, when it was maybe a third of the size of its current structure. (The white drain pipe marks the approximate end of the original building.) It was the treasures in my little library--Carolyn Keene and Booth Tarkington, Mary Stewart and Daphne DuMaurier, just to name a few--that first fired up my writer's imagination. Quite simply, my story started there, and I'm always happy to go back. P. S. Support your local public library. Fight to keep it open. And thank a librarian near you. photo courtesy of library website *Wm. Shakespeare: "Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me from mine own library. . ." The Tempest

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