GUEST AUTHOR: Phillipa Fioretti

My next guest was born and raised in Sydney and has studied humanities, visual arts and museum studies.

She's also worked as a printmaker and taught drawing and media studies at tertiary institutions before becoming a full time author in late 2006.

After she finished her third manuscript Phillipa Fioretti saw an ad for the Hachette Australia/Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program and applied. She received the acceptance call for the five-day program in the supermarket.

The rest, they say, is history. Phillipa was picked up by with Hachette Australia in January 2009 and offered a two-book contract.

Phillipa, welcome!

Let's learn a little bit more about your latest release... 

Title – THE FRAGMENT OF DREAMS.
Setting – Sydney and Naples, Italy.
Hero – William Isyanov. 
Heroine – Lily Trevennen.
Scene you would never cut – the scene where William discovers she’s in Naples and he had no idea.
Something your heroine would never do or say – Lily would never wear massage sandals or chew gum.
What's one quirky thing about your heroine? Lily loves making jam and wearing beaded clothes and day dreaming. 

What do you think the readers will like about this book? 

The characters and the setting, the mystery and the romance. The book can be read as a stand-alone title but is also the sequel to The Book of Love in which we meet Lily and William and find out how they got together. 

THE FRAGMENT OF DREAMS
Exciting and romantic, THE FRAGMENT OF DREAMS is a tale of how far some people will go for those they love.

Lily and William are back in Sydney, in love and planning a life together, when Lily’s sister Poppy comes to stay. Poppy has discovered a mystery surrounding their father’s death, but her determination to dig deeper into their family’s past unwittingly sets off a series of events that plunge Lily and William into a nightmare of suspicions, accusations and jealousy.

Unexpectedly, William must return to Rome to start a new job, and left behind, Lily’s loyalty and belief in him is tested as the Australian police probe his past. But as the sister’s come closer to uncovering the lies deep within their family, Lily realises that the truth about William, and about their father, can only be found by travelling to one of the world’s most beautiful and menacing cities – Naples.

During the sultry Neapolitan summer, Lily discovers that the past lives on in a family riven by lost loves and broken loyalties, a family divided in a way that makes her struggle back to William more dangerous than she could ever imagine.

What's next for you? 

Another book with new characters – which is possibly more fraught than it sounds. 

About you...
Favorite movie of all time – I don’t have one favourite, but a film I can watch again and again is A Streetcar Named Desire with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando
Favorite fairytale – The one about the girl with seven brothers whom an evil witch turns into swans and she has to knit clothes for them out of some magical herb in order to turn them back into humans
Favorite story to disappear into – Hopefully whatever I’m reading.
Favorite TV program – ABC 4 24 hr news channel. On an extended trip to the US I became addicted to their twenty four hour weather channel; I fear the same thing is happening now with me and ABC 4. 
First book you remember reading – Edward Lear’s Nonsense Alphabet. I remember my father reading it to me and being desperate to get my hands on it and read it myself.
Dog or cat person (or other) – I’m pretty much an all round animal person. Love dogs, cats, rabbits, bison, tigers, all of them really.
Author (living or dead) you'd most like to meet – Patrick White, although I’d find him a bit scary, no doubt.
A romantic retreat for you would be...Anywhere that I don’t have to cook, wash and micro-manage everybody else’s lives, and preferably somewhere where others cook for me, wash everything and allow me oodles of free time to play.

What do you do to unwind or relax? 

I don’t do either of those things unless I am completely removed from my normal habitat. So going on a holiday is the best way for me to relax. 

What era would you like to time travel and visit? And why?

There’s a few eras, but at this point in time, I’d say I’d like to be living in Crete at the height of the ancient Minoan civilization. I’d want to be an independently wealthy female who could do as she pleased but have lovers on the side. That could prove tricky but I’d be willing to give it a go.

I’d like to time travel there because I’d like to immerse in an alien culture and just see existence from a different point of view.

What does love mean to you? 

Another tough question. Love is a really dangerous energy and when focussed in the wrong direction or on the wrong person it can be incredibly painful. Romantic, passionate love is what I’m referring to here. When you get it right it’s all consuming and exciting and powerfully motivating. But few of us can live at that level. I’m not sure I ever want to go there again – because you never get anything done.

Intimacy and companionable love built on friendship is probably more nourishing and durable. And then there is love for one’s children. I’d kill for my two children. That mother love thing is frighteningly powerful and I love watching films or reading books about fierce mothers. Henry Moore, the British sculptor said the only enduring form of human love is between mother and child. I think he had a point.

Phillipa's other book:

You can find out more about Phillipa on her website, her Facebook page or follow her on Twitter.