Laura Boon Interviews Jenna Lo Bianco
Laura Boon Interviews Jenna Lo Bianco
Episode notes
Jenna Lo Bianco shares her journey to publishing success with a focus on her contemporary women's fiction series with a romantic edge. After receiving a staggering 160 rejections over four years, Jenna's strategic pivot to fill a niche in the market finally paid off with a three-book deal. She emphasises the importance of perseverance, the support from the writing community, and the strategic approach to understanding market trends.
Transcript
But we have a great interview for you today with Jenna lo Bianco, who has a three book deal. On her series of contemporary women's fiction with a romantic. Edge to it, and this is some really interesting stuff in here about how Jenna kept putting her work out there.
After hundreds, literally of rejections got very dejected about how things weren't working and then deliberately set out to find out. We're a niche might be in the market that she could actually feel, a gap that she could feel through her books and writing. And that has actually paid off for her.
So really interesting to hear about that. Also really interesting to hear about how she has injected some of her own experiences into the writing, particularly with her. Experience of endometriosis. And giving that to her character and using the characterization and the story to. You discuss an issue that is really close to her heart, as well as something that she has experienced in great depth.
There's lots of great stuff in this interview with Jenna and Laura. So do stay tuned for that. I also wanted to let you know about something that I have a new bonus that I've come up with for my Patrion members. And that is the diary of a procrastinator. I have just this week started a new manuscript, which is the third in the Blackwater lake series. I have a very tight deadline in which I have to get that finished. So I have to write fast.
I have to write basically 2000 words a day and try and get the draft finished in six weeks now. As someone who is a professional procrastinator basically, and loves to put off the hard stuff. But as, also as someone who knows that when you sit down to do the writing and trust that your subconscious will actually provide the goods I've had both those things operating at once.
So I thought it would be an interesting exercise to just. Do pretty much what will be a daily or at least five or so times a week. Log, which will be a recording of. What I'm doing to procrastinate on that particular day, but then most importantly, how I overcome that procrastination. And I'll also be throwing in like writing tips as well on things that are working for me, how I'm getting through the plotting. Just anything at all about. The writing process that comes up as I'm doing this. So anybody who is a Patrion family supporter.
So that is $5 a month will receive these recordings. As they come to hand, there might be one every day. There might be one every few days, some weeks they might be, I'm saying an average of about five per week. They're only going to be short, something like up to 10 minutes. And you will receive through the Patrion platform. A link to a video where you'll get to see yours truly. Raw and uncut talking about her writing process and talking about overcoming procrastination and. I know that is something that a lot of us suffer with as authors.
There's very few of us out there, I think who don't. But most importantly, talking about my writing process. So if you haven't signed up for that Patrion platform that does enable me to get the podcast out weekly. It supports the editing. It supports the distribution of the podcast through all the various platforms.
It supports me having an assistant. Fabulous. Any Bucknell who gets all those fantastic real sound who gets the transcripts up? Who does the graphics for the podcast each week and is a fan fantastic support for me. It would be great if you could sign up to the patron program via the link on the website. And you will absolutely receive those bonuses as well as a monthly newsletter that goes out with some writing tips. Reading recommendations, things like that.
But at the moment, the big bonus is going to be this daily diary. Of a procrastinator. Video series. Thank you to everybody who was already. Patrion supporter and thank you to those who are signing up currently. And I hope that you really get a lot out of those videos. And I hope that I get this draft finished on time.
So stay with me for that process. Okay. Without further ado, let's get on with this interview between Jenna and law, Laura. Jenna. Laura, we'll do the introduction for Jenna. And I'm sure that you will enjoy this interview with Jenna about her contemporary fiction series. With an Italian flavor. Take it away, Laura.
Laura: Hi, and welcome to the Rights for Women Podcast. My name is Laura Boone and I'm one of the guest hosts, and today I am delighted to be talking to Jenna Lo Bianco, who is the author of, the Italian Marriage,
so welcome to the show, Jenna. It's lovely to have you on.
Jenna: Thank you for having me. Laura.
Laura: I'll do a brief introduction of Jenna from her biography. She's the Italian teacher, a passionate Italian, and also a writer educator, PhD candidate, and advocate for Italian language education in Australia. Nearly 60 publications to her name.
Jenna is trusted to write about all things Italian. She's a fellow of the International Specialized Skills Institute and the Italian or Australian Foundation, and has written and consulted in educational publishing for more than a decade. Jenna may appear to live in Melbourne, but her heart and soul are Rome's most permanent residence.
They're. You're welcome. And her book is actually set in from Tuscany. And it's about a fake marriage. I love the tagline on the book, which is an. Italian inheritance. A fake marriage. It must be a moral,
Jenna: I can't take credit for that. I think that was my publisher, Alex Lloyd who came up with that.
So full credits. Alex, go,
Laura: Alex. 'cause it's perfect. Now I just need to ask you about our hero, Matthew and his surname. How do I pronounce that?
Jenna: Dmo. Okay, so pretend. Pretend that the apostrophe's not there. dmo.
Laura: Okay. That makes it much easier. Yes. So the age, the DMO Family Trust must be the youngest legal age, married male.
And that brought up a question in immediately in my mind as to why the youngest, that's weird. And all I'm going to say to our listeners is that you're gonna have to read the book and get right to the end and find out the answer to that. As I was reading it, it struck me that it was a bit like a billionaire Italian version of the block, except they were only focusing on one couple. So tell me, where did the idea for the Italian marriage come from?
Jenna: The idea was very commercially born, I must say, Laura. There's the story's not a creative or romantic sort of story. I had spent four years trying to, I published my first book traditionally and that manuscript was just, it was in a constant cycle of rejections over four years. I received 160 rejections on that one, and I had received some fabulous advice from one of my writer friends, Sandy Barker, who said, you just need to keep writing.
Just keep writing, because one day if you get the tap on the shoulder, you'll have something else to show rather than just the one book. When I was working out and I'd come to the realization that my first book. May not be the one that publishes first. If I ever got published, I decided to turn a commercial eye to the market and I really started looking at what was happening in the romcom, contemporary romance space and genre.
And I was really interested in what was being wrapped. I was using Twitter at the time. Twitter was really big for the writing community at the time. I've since left Twitter, but as an active member of the writing community, I was querying, I was doing PIT mad through all of that. And I was really interested in watching what was being wrecked by agents at the pit.
Mad, when we used to do the ped, competitions things that we used to do. I was really watching what was getting the attention of agents and particularly small publishers were parti participating in Pitman. And then I started collating. I. A collection of what had been published recently during those few years.
And I was reading Voraciously, like I've always been a voracious reader anyway, but I was reading with a really discerning eye. I am like, okay, so these books have all got these sorts of tropes. What have we not seen for a while? And or what have we not really seen paired together maybe for a while was the filter that I was using to process what I was reading and seeing.
And then I ended up with. A whole bunch of post-it notes basically with these things on it. I had fake marriage inheritance forced proximity, all these sorts of buzzwords. And I'm like, all right, I need to make a plot out of this and I somehow need to set this in Italy. And that's essentially how it all came together.
And ended up becoming the Italian marriage, which is where we get the inheritance and the 15th century, clause. And the idea of these two people not knowing each other, but having to fake it and. Then I wanted to play with the idea of where I was gonna set it as well. And I thought if I might, I wanted to put a renovation challenge in because I just wanted it to be a little different.
And I didn't want I tried to think about what I could do to play with the Italian landscape. And I thought this could be good, because so much can go wrong when you're renovating an old, building. And while that's not really the crux of the story, that's something that happens in the background.
I thought I need to set it in that central part of Italy there. And I looked at Tuscany. I thought Tuscany could be an option, but then I thought, no. So many other great books have been said in Tuscany, and I feel like other authors have done a really good job of capturing that landscape.
And while there are books set in bury, I thought, no I might work in this space to be a little different. And I did so while. The book does start with them in Florence, which is the capital city of the region of Tuscany. They soon end up being transported off to the Umbrian countryside on the border between Tuscany and Umbria.
There just on that little crack that separates the two regions, and that's where the rest of the book takes place. That's the origin.
Laura: I love that story. And I worked in publishing for a very long time for about 30 years, mostly on the sort of marketing and publicity side. But what I would often see as a sort of flaw, if you like, in aspiring authors. Was the lack of research, which is what you've done. If you were in a different industry, you wouldn't expect to get to the top of the tree on your first go without, having done any work. So I guess it's the kind of equivalent of maybe yes, you've got your university degree, but you've also gotta have that first job, which is not so great, which.
It's not that you're not great in the first job, it's just that often the experiences aren't that great and that's the experience you had with your first book and yet you just kept learning. You kept doing the shelf research. As I say, you kept following up doing all the Twitter things.
That's a really wonderful story and a good story for anyone who's listening to take into account that you need to stay connected to the community. Build your knowledge base, find out as much as you can, and then look at the success. And maybe I'm gonna jump forward actually a little bit and ask you a question I was going to ask later, but tell us about the, your publishing journey with this particular book.
Jenna: I ended up shelving book one, that one that didn't go anywhere and I let it be. And I forged ahead with this, with the Italian marriage, I. And I got some feedback from my trusted, writing colleagues and some family and friends that I felt I could trust the manuscript with.
That doesn't mean I took all the feedback on board, but it was really good to hear other people's, takes on what they'd understood, et cetera. And from there, I I decided I was gonna hold onto it for a little while and I didn't send it out on major query. I don't know why. Actually, Laura, I just felt I didn't wanna do a mass disperse into the universe, and I really thought long and hard about who I was gonna query. With this book. It felt different from my first book and I felt like I'd achieved something tighter. Definitely far more commercial than my first book. I didn't think it was any better than my first book.
I just, it just felt different. And then I, there'd been an agency the distance of the MA management that I'd always wanted to query, but I'd always been closed to to, to queries. While I had been watching them for years, other than things like writing conferences and paid pictures and those sorts of events.
But then one day I'd already connected with Jacinta, who's the lead agent. We'd connected over Twitter and eventually on Instagram because we have a shared lovable things Italian. Okay. And I just, one night just went, I need to just grow some confidence and, believe in myself. And I sent her a DM and I said, hi Jacinta.
We're connected. We have this shared love of all things Italian. I have two full length contemporary romance women's fiction titles. Would you be interested? And then I got the reply, yes, please send it through is my email. And then it took a few months, but I eventually heard back and.
Danielle, the her colleague wanted to sign sign the books.
Laura: That's fantastic. And I. You ended up with so you signed with Jacinta's agency and then you ended up getting a three book deal with Pan Macmillan, which was a reward for all your hard work. And so tell us about that moment when Danielle I presume, gave you a call or how did you find out?
Jenna: I was outside hanging clothes out. And under my alfresco I have a washing line and it was bucketing down with rain and I was still at the hanging out clothes and she called me and she goes, we've got a deal. And it's three books. Wow. And I fell off my chair and
I di I like,
I was like, oh my God.
And I just remember crying. I was so relieved.
I had spent four years defending my first book and, defending by, querying and improving and constantly, blogging it basically. And then when she let me know that I was just like, this is what I, this is what I've worked so hard for.
And, taking on feedback and revising and sleepless nights and. So Pam McMillan bought book one. Yes. They bought the Italian marriage or what's now become the Italian marriage, and they bought another one, which was based on a synopsis and a very short sample and that I've already finished. And we're in the sort of editing phase of that, trying to just really polish and bring out the best of that book at the moment.
Laura: Is it also safe in Italy?
Jenna: Yes. So I found very much my niche market and my strength in, in this sort of romcom com contemporary women's fiction space. Dealing with and playing with Australians in Italy or Italian Australians in Italy, or whoever they might be, but bridging these two worlds.
So that's definitely what I've created for myself.
Laura: I think that's playing to your strengths and your passions, and that always strengthens one's writing, just because it's so close to the heart. But returning to the Italian marriage when I first started reading the book for the opening is actually a sort of a nonfiction piece by Stefia who, is a relationship psychologist and she's talking about what you need to strengthen a relationship. And I'm like is this Jenna in disguise or is this a real person? Lemme see if I can find her. And I couldn't find her, so I'm assuming that she's. She's like a character in the book actually, and it comes into the relationship and Sarah and Matthew get to know each other by playing some games and various things.
But so where did the idea of having, it's not before every chapter, but before sort significance moments in their relationship. You have this advice from the marriage counselor, et cetera. Where did that,
yeah,
Jenna: I can't even remember, Laura. It was so many years ago now that I wrote it, but it was initially it wasn't there.
Initially it was just Sarah who was reading this book by this relationship expert and psychologist, and. I had them, that first night where they're in the hotel room in Florence and they're like, okay, we need to make sure our story's straight. We need to learn as much as we can together. And I thought she'd be the sort of girl who would love an eBay bargain.
I just think, 'cause she's so resourceful and down to earth and she's I've got this hard game to, fast track our relationship and our friendship. And it was really cheeky and naughty and it was naughtier than it is in the book. Now. We. Did pair it back a little bit and redistribute some of the sexy cards.
I can call them that because it was like, whoa, this is big sex questions right up in chapter five or six, or whatever it was. But I, that's how I also got to know my characters as well. Because that, the idea of these flashcards is that you are asking big picture questions about life and goals and how you feel about particular things and your strengths and weaknesses, et cetera, which is something in a relationship, in a real life relationship, you learn with time, right?
You don't sit there and necessarily play a game. And then I thought, oh, maybe she can also be reading a book. Maybe the cards come with a book and maybe there could be some link there. And then I was thinking about how I was gonna structure the narrative. As you said that these little excerpts from that book all happen around really big key points or peaks of tension essentially, or shifts in the narrative.
And I thought it might be clever if there could be some sort of foreshadowing of what's going to happen. And I speak in riddles a little bit in those there's some hinting around the idea of building a house or renovating a house. Your relationship house, and then, we find out they have to renovate a house some people might say, oh, that's a little it's a little silly. But I had a lot of fun doing that because it actually helped me recognize the beats in my narrative and attention piece.
It
Laura: was fun. I enjoyed those little asides almost. And there was always a question of will these two get there? Because, they've had such an unusual start to their marriage.
Jenna: I have actually had a few people reach out to me since and they go, where's this book? Where can I buy the book? And I'm like, I dunno. I dearly squat about relationship psychology. I just made it up 'cause it was convenient for my plot, but take the advice.
And then I've had other people reach out and they're like, I'm a psychologist, this is really good advice. I'm like, okay, great. I'm glad that it's holding water for someone.
That's fantastic. The book has an amazing name too. It's called First Date To I Do. And it's part of a series.
Laura: Yeah.
Jenna: She's the Nia er is the author of the First Date to I do series, but this book is The Modern Marriage 1 0 1.
Laura: That's
Jenna: right.
Laura: Yes. Yeah. Everybody's books in line there.
Jenna: Oh, and do you know how stressful it is as an author when you are trying to write about a book within a book? And, I wanna respect all my peers and colleagues, and I'm like googling every kind of relationship book title. 'cause I don't wanna double up. I'm doing, I'm trying to do the respectful thing and I'm like, okay, oh, I came up with a really good one. I'm like, oh, this could work on this level. 'cause it links into that title of my novel and then someone else had it. I'm like, okay, next. Do you know how many times I had to try and come up with titles? But we ended up landing on whatever it was. The modern marriage. Yeah. And we just kept. Super, super simple, but oh yeah, it was a process.
Laura: It's very difficult to find an original title and I wouldn't be at all surprised if in a couple of years I opened up Google and I found a book called Modern Marriage 1 0 1 because it's it's a great title. So is first date to I Do. It's really a fabulous,
that sounds
Jenna: like a reality TV show, I reckon.
Laura: Yes. It's correct. Maybe it could replace another reality TV show currently on that. I really can't stand even when the ads come on. I know lots of people love it. So I won't name it, but Will we'll move on to fake marriage. Why the idea of fake marriage? Was it? It's just such a fun folk.
Jenna: Oh, it is.
And. Book one that I had written which we can talk about because it will be publishing soon, which is called Love and Jerome. Yeah. That does not have any of this sort of playing with the tropes. Yeah. Quite to the same degree as the Italian marriage. It's very two very different sets of tropes.
But when I had done the initial look at the market, work out what's publishing, et cetera, and I had all those cards out the fake marriage was one that came up and. It's not that I had particularly read widely within the trope. I just thought that it would piece together well. The fake relationship is one thing, but I needed the stakes to be higher.
I just felt like the stakes needed to be higher, and I thought that by then pairing it with the inheritance clause to justify the fake marriage like he needs to be. This the youngest. Married male. I just thought, okay, this can work. And I just thought it, yeah, it sounds a bit, I don't know, convoluted, but it's fun.
This is escapism, we don't need to take it, it doesn't need to be taken as verbatim, but that's what I wanted to play with. And then I just thought so much goes along with the idea of marriage. Like marriage. You've accepted that person. It's not just a relationship. You're not just dating. You've accepted that person for better, for worse.
And I just knew that I was gonna have to put ma, Matthew and Sarah through the ringer. And I thought, okay, if it's marriage, like how are they gonna deal with that? And that's where, why I landed on fake marriage.
Laura: Okay. I was a sucker for it straightaway because I love fake marriage because it just does have that closeness, which maybe, you can avoid if you're just fake dating.
And yeah, it's, it was really fun. I love that. Then Sarah has endometriosis. And then I discovered as, do you and you talk about
Jenna: being
Laura: an endo warrior. Yeah. I have a cousin and a dear friend who both have endometriosis at least two friends. And so it is something we don't talk about for life, but that impacts many women.
And is, a very, aside from being a physically debilitating and painful condition, which is pretty much ongoing until you hit menopause, at which stage, maybe one of the benefits is that finally you can let go of the endometriosis. But it's also something that's very scary for women who haven't had a family who maybe aren't sure if they will be able to have a family.
Perhaps you can talk a little bit for me about how having that chronic condition informs both your life and Sarah's as a character.
Jenna: Yeah. Look, as I was developing Sarah's character, I only had a few chapters down. I think I had three chapters. I was still getting to know the book, what I was gonna do with it.
Trying to get to know Matthew and Sarah and essentially their motivations. I had to work out what her big obstacle was gonna be and I couldn't land on something that felt organically natural. And I remember I was drafting one day and I was sitting down at my kitchen table and I had a heat pack and I was having a terrible time with a period, and I had awful pain and I thought.
Just write what you know and maybe Sarah's challenge or her obstacle or what she needs to live well in spite of, could be her endometriosis. And essentially that sort of was born from that moment. And I thought, okay, why would she go on this journey? Why would you accept 12 months away with someone?
Okay, maybe you need a break. Maybe you need the cash, maybe you need time away. And then I put a backstory in with an ex-partner about issues around fertility and what that could mean for him and what he would have to sacrifice. And yeah, it was pretty confronting to have to put together. I'm glad I did because I've had a lot of people come to me since and say.
Thank God, because look, there are endometriosis warriors in other books. I'm not saying that at all, but people are saying, thank you for giving us another one because we need more. And people feel that they can identify and see themselves on the page. And that means so much to me. I wanted to have conversations in their dialogue between Sarah and Matthew around things like, sex and painful sex and scars and laparoscopies things going good, things not going good and bloating and all of those things. Because that's the reality. Is it Hollywood? No. Is it sexy rom-com banter? No, but I think it's a reality in a lot of people really connected with it, Laura. And that made that really validate, really validated for me why I made that choice.
Now we, as an editorial team, when we were putting together the back end of the book and we were in the last final stages, I actually stopped for two weeks and I went and had a hysterectomy at 36. Wow. Yeah, I had my uterus out and my cervix out, and I had my tubes taken out because I couldn't, I could not continue to deal with my painful periods.
They were debilitating like two, three weeks long and then I'd ovulate and I'd have another week of pain. And it was like this for years. So I really, I was at that kind of junction of irony where it's is this art imitating life or life imitating art? And that was in August. My Pam McMillan team were amazing and so supportive and they really helped me through that.
And what was such a crucial time because that's, surgery had been set in place for so long that the book essentially worked around that. But I'm glad that I did it. I'm glad that I did it, and I'm glad that she's an endo warrior now.
Laura: It is really important to raise awareness of issues like this. And I think especially women's health issues, which even now in 2024, are often not talked about in public as much as they should be.
And it's, you've done it in a beautiful way because it's a thank you. It's a lovely book and everyone always has that. Very dark moment, which is a counterbalance to all the lights. And obviously other things happened to Sarah and Matthew as a couple. But I, I think for, certainly for women readers that moment in Sarah's life that will really resonate with him one way or the other that you don't have to have endometriosis to understand that.
But it is just really good to remind people of what can go wrong, and I think certainly what I saw in Sarah as a character and what I definitely see in you as a person is a great deal of resilience.
Jenna: Thank you. That's lovely to hear. And one thing that I wanted to really do I didn't want the endometriosis pages to be really dark and I wanted them to have sweet moments, but I also just wanted to show that Sarah was this amazingly strong woman who would just get on with life.
And I didn't want her to be the endometriosis girl in the book. Yes. She's an amazing person who just happens to have endometriosis and gets on with it in spite of it.
Laura: That's right. She's not defined by it at all. And in fact, it's quite late in the book when it becomes really a talking point between
Jenna: Yeah. Her
Laura: Matthew, when they have a big enough relationship to be vulnerable. Yes, correct. Yeah. That brings me to another question I'm interested in. I would say most romcoms are written in, first person from the female perspective only. And you have written from both Matthew and Sarah's point of view, which I love.
'cause I always like to get insight into the male character and it's really third person omniscient, which. I admire it as well because it's quite a hard thing to pull off correctly. Today, I think in a world where as artists in film and on the page and various other mediums, we get really right up close and personal which lends itself to a sort of a a one person perspective or a third person perspective, but again.
Really focusing on one person. So it was an interesting choice and I'd like to know what sent you down that road,
Jenna: because that's simply my natural narrative voice. Oh, there you go. Okay. And another example of, do what works for you. Follow what? Yeah.
And I've got another manuscript at the moment that's sitting at about 10,000 words, and I've. Started that in first person, like type POV, and I'm not convinced yet. And then I went back and wrote the same thing in my usual, yes. Yeah. And I was like, okay, this works too. So eventually when I have to do something with that, I'll be asking the people that need to give me the professional opinion. What do you think? Which is working? I write, I'll read any POVI don't mind. I don't have a preferred, I will always connect with a character and a character voice more than how it's been written, if that makes sense. It does for me. And I, and when I wrote Love in Rome I've written it in the same way.
And it comes very naturally. I like the idea of being able to show moments from other characters without being in a first person point of view. And then just having that, dramatic irony of knowing what's coming and, I like all of those things. But yeah, that's just what's working for me at the moment.
There's no other reason, unfortunately. But yeah, just do it. Come natural.
It's just interesting to hear. Yeah. You know how it all came together. I know you've written a lot of things in the past and I thought perhaps the Italian marriage was your first book, but it turns out to be your second.
Laura: But what compared to your nonfiction or the most fun things about writing novels and the hardest things about writing a novel?
Jenna: Oh, great question. I guess escapism. Yeah, because I also write I'm finishing a PhD at the moment as well, which could not be further from writing a novel in the creative sense.
It's very different. It's very clinical, it's very calculated. Every word you put on that page needs to be checked. And it's very, it's very process based. When I write my fiction, I just lose myself. I just I get in that state of flow. People talk about flow and it's almost like the present.
Sense of my brain turns off. And I slip into this kind of other state. It's a really odd, creative kind of process, but I lose who I am and I find I'm there in this other space with these people and the words just flow and I can, I write really fast. In book three, the one that we are still editing at the moment.
That one, I had a 7,000 word day. Like I was just there and it was just coming and I was just, I was so exhausted by the end. Oh my God. But like mentally and emotionally draining sort of work because you're just on and you're having, your mind is creating everything that you're seeing and then you're.
Yeah, just trying to get it all down. But I it's the escapism and the freedom and the way it's so free and it, whatever happens, like future Jenna will fix it. Yeah. And I've got a team of people that will help me fix it, but the flow is really delicious and it's not what I get from my academic work.
Which is I enjoy, but it's very different.
Laura: Yes. And okay. And so what do you find hard about it? Anything or
Jenna: look. Finding time and space to write for me is very difficult. I have two small children, so I tend to work very early in the morning or late at night. So that's hard on your body and your mind when you're doing this crazy hours, and then you have to be perky and turned on during the day.
But and turned
Laura: on the page because if you're. It's gotta be sassy. Dialogue's gotta be witty, that's what you write.
Jenna: Yeah. You need to, and especially when you're dealing with the big document. My, my books are 90, around the 95, 90 6,000 word mark. So they're a bit longer.
And then some of the other commercial women's fiction in that rom-com space. So it's about just sustaining energy and then remembering what came before. And I write non-linear as well. Okay. So I would start with a scene, and then I usually always write the opening scene. And then the next scene I write is my final scene, and then I have to work out what to fill in.
Interesting. Yeah. And I'm like how am I gonna get these characters from A to B or A to Z? And then like, where's the alphabet in the middle? Like, how am I gonna correct. So I guess yeah, just sustaining that and me having a multitask at the moment and move between left and right hemisphere, I would say.
Yeah,
Laura: left and right hemisphere, what did you say? 2-year-old and 3-year-old,
Jenna: I got a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, and I got my three still in kinder and my five year old's in grade one. A lot of taxing still and pickups and mitigating those sorts of things and
Laura: yes.
Jenna: Yeah. It's a busy life.
Laura: It is. Women writers are incredible. Now tell me what's next. So you mentioned love in Rome. Is that what's coming out next?
Jenna: Love and Rome is coming out next. I can't say too much about it yet, but I will give you the tagline. You did say you like the tagline for marriage, which was an inherit. I did.
An inheritance of fake marriage must be a mortar. At the moment, the tagline on the front is fate has plans for Stella. Ciao. She just doesn't know it yet. And then the kind of cute byline is a story of Rome sex, wine and pasta.
Laura: Oh, I like it. I like, but that's lovely.
Jenna: It's very different from the Italian marriage. It's really super sassy. The cast is younger. They're all around the late twenties, early thirties, mark. They're still trying to find themselves, whereas everyone in the Italian marriage has found themselves and now they just find themselves together.
Yeah. Everyone love in Rome is young and. Trying to navigate life and, trials and tribulations at the heart and Rome is very much a character in this book. There is a really strong sense of place, so it's been really great to see that project now come from absolute failure, which is what it was, and now it's been reborn and reshaped and it's really fun and vivacious and so colorful and I'm really excited for people to see that one.
Laura: That's wonderful and it's again, a good message for other writers to remember that really all you need for your book in traditional publishing is one Campion who really believes. And if you haven't found that person, it doesn't mean there's a problem with the book. It just means that you haven't made a marriage for that book that's going to work.
That's right.
For everybody who's listening out there. Jenna's books are available in print and ebook from wherever you choose to get them. And audiobook as well. And audiobook. Oh, wonderful. Yes. Okay. That's very exciting. I love a good audiobook as well. And if people are looking to find out more about you, Jenna, or to follow you, where can they find you?
Jenna: Instagram is where I live and they can follow me at the Italian teacher. There's only one of me.
Laura: That's good. Always good if there's only one of you. Congratulations on the publication of the Italian marriage. It looks like it's going very well. I look forward to reading the next one.
And I know you've recently, I had some surgery due to unfortunate kitchen accident, shall we say. Yes.
Jenna: Very unfortunate.
Laura: And I hope your recovery with that goes really well. Thank you. And we'll chat soon.
Jenna: Thank you, Laura. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
Pamela: Thanks for listening to Rights for Women. I hope you've enjoyed my chat with this week's guest. If you did, I'd love it if you could add a quick rating or review wherever you get your podcasts so others can more easily find the episodes. Don't forget to check out the back list on the Rights for Women website, so much.