I am so excited to have Rosie Genova with us today. Rosie is the Author of a yummy new series called Murder and Marinara.Delicious Itailian food , great new friends and a murder, what more can you ask for. It was just released on October 1st and I do hope it is on your list to read!

Welcome Rosie , thank you for being with us today. It is a pleasure to have you here talking about this amazing new book!

Tell us about yourself.

As my bio says, I’m a bookworm from way back. As a kid, I hid behind the library stacks reading all the gothic and romance novels I wasn’t allowed to take out. In the summer, while my friends were out riding bikes, I had my nose in a book. Becoming an English major in college seemed a natural step, and from there I went into the classroom, where I’ve taught literature and journalism for 23 years.

I’m also a Jersey girl through and through, a fan of Sinatra and Springsteen, a lover of sand and sun. I’m fiercely proud of my Italian heritage, and most at home in the kitchen, where I make simple, rustic food (and eat too much of it).

I’m the mom of three sons, and I still live in Jersey with my husband, two of my three boys, and an elderly terrier named Baci.

How did you come up with your heroine Victoria and what is your favorite thing about her?

In some ways, Victoria is a younger version of myself. Like me, she’s a writer who loves the Jersey shore. But she’s also inspired by many of the women I know who grew up in a close-knit families. We want to be independent and carve out our own futures, but we always feel the pull of home. In the series, Victoria is trying to balance her own work—writing—with her sense of responsibility for her family and the restaurant. What I like best about her is her loyalty to those she loves: her parents, her brother and sister-in-law, her grandmother, and the restaurant staff (including the guy who broke her heart eight years before.)

What are you working on next for Victoria and Friends?

In The Wedding Soup Murder, Victoria and the gang help cater a wedding at an upscale country club, presided over by a tough-as-nails club president who’s alienated any number of people at the reception. When her body is found on the beach the next day, it looks like an accident—but Vic thinks otherwise.

If you could have a dinner date with any character from any book who will it be and why?

Though she scares me a just a little, it would have to be Nonna. In many ways she’s based upon my own grandmothers, whom I miss terribly. Sharing a plate of gnocchi with Nonna would be like spending a little time with my own Memas.

What or who inspired you to write? Has it always been a passion? 

 

That’s an easy one—my mom. From the time I was very small, she read to me, but she also told me stories she made up. At bedtime, we’d have running serials about characters who had all sorts of adventures.

As a kid, I wrote stories and poems, and worked on the literary magazine in high school and college. But for most of my life, I called myself a writer without having the dedication and discipline to really sit down and do it. In the 90s, I had an opportunity to write features for a regional parenting magazine, and that’s when I really honed my craft. After a dozen years at home raising my sons, I went back into the classroom. It was only then that I got serious about writing. I finished my first manuscript while I was teaching full time, and I’ve just completed my fourth book.  I think I finally earned the right to call myself a writer.

 over of the book:

Hit whodunit writer Victoria Rienzi is getting back to her roots by working at her family’s Italian restaurant. But now in between plating pasta and pouring vino, she’ll have to find the secret ingredient in a murder....

When Victoria takes a break from penning her popular mystery series and moves back to the Jersey shore, she imagines sun, sand, and scents of fresh basil and simmering marinara sauce at the family restaurant, the Casa Lido. But her nonna’s recipes aren’t the only things getting stirred up in this Italian kitchen.

Their small town is up in arms over plans to film a new reality TV show, and when Victoria serves the show’s pushy producer his last meal, the Casa Lido staff finds itself embroiled in a murder investigation. Victoria wants to find the real killer, but there are as many suspects as tomatoes in her nonna’s garden. Now she’ll have to heat up her sleuthing skills quickly…before someone else gets a plateful of murder.

First in a new series!

RECIPES INCLUDED!

Sounds like a book everyone will enjoy! Thank you for spending some time with us Rosie. it has been wonderful getting to know you and I am looking forward to your next book!