Stracciatella Gelato: Melting Time...by Marilyn Baron

June 15, 2020 Jean Grant

Welcome, Marilyn!

What do you write?

I write in a variety of genres, from women’s fiction to historical romantic thrillers and romantic suspense to paranormal/fantasy, and in a variety of formats from short stories and anthologies to full-length novels, including a musical. Stracciatella Gelato: Melting Time, released April 20, 2020, by the Wild Rose Press, is my 26th work of fiction.

Let’s start with an excerpt for fun:

She was running out of time. She would just have a handful of minutes to walk along the Arno River and perhaps walk across the Ponte Vecchio. She loved jewelry and she could spend hours gazing at the shops. There wouldn’t be time to see the David at the Accademia Gallery. She hadn’t thought to reserve a ticket and probably couldn’t get in anyway. It was a good thing Michelangelo’s David was burned onto her brain. She would never forget the magnificent sculpture. By the time she arrived at the river, she realized she had forgotten her cane. Damn, she couldn’t walk without it. But then she had fairly run to the river, without the cane. She scratched her head. How was that even possible? She no longer needed a cane to walk. Her steps were lighter. She felt infinitely lighter, even after that humongous cup of gelato.

She glanced into the mirror of a parked motorcycle and drew back in shock. She could hardly believe her reflection. She was staring back at her twenty-three-year-old face and body, complete with butt-hugging jeans, a form-fitting beige ribbed blouse, and clogs she couldn’t have walked in before she arrived in Florence.

A band of Italian boys surrounded her, shouting, “Ciao, Bella.” What was happening? Was she hallucinating? What was in that gelato anyway? Somehow, that Roma woman or the gelato or a miracle had managed to melt time and transport her back to the Florence of her college days. She recognized the outfit she was wearing from her photo album. Was she having sunstroke? There had to be a rational explanation.

What drew you to writing?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I read Little House on the Prairie. In 4th grade, my teacher read my first story, East West Island, to the class in installments. I wrote the scripts for school assemblies and was editor or feature editor of my school newspapers. I majored in journalism and creative writing in college and have been writing my entire career. I started out working with AT&T in Public Relations and have had my own corporate communications firm for many years. I didn’t get into writing fiction until 2011 when my first short story was published by TWB Press and my first novel by The Wild Rose Press in 2013.

What was your inspiration for Stracciatella Gelato: Melting Time?

Kate Buckthorn, a sixty-something woman in a predictable marriage, takes a day trip to Florence, Italy, to relive the months she spent there as a college art history student. After visiting all the familiar sights, she returns to her favorite gelato shop where she tosses some coins into the plastic cup of a Roma looking for change. And change is what is what she gets, literally.

After enjoying her triple-scoop gelato, she leaves the shop, magically transformed into her twenty-three-year-old self.

Does she stay in Florence and have a fling with a gorgeous Italian hottie, pursuing her painting career in the birthplace of the Renaissance? Or does she return to her unfaithful husband as her younger self? What choice would you make?

My husband and I took a trip to Italy last October. We were based in Rome and took day trips to Florence, the Amalfi Coast and Capri. I wanted to return to Florence to relive some of my fondest memories of when I spent six months there in college. So we took a train and visited the Uffizi Gallery to see my favorite painting, The Birth of Venus, the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio and my favorite gelato shop. While eating gelato, my husband asked, What If you could go back in time and recapture your youth? While I was studying in Florence, I was cursed by a gypsy. In this story, a reverse Roma curse transports the sixty-something heroine back in time to her 23-year-old self. In this case, as in many cases, I find inspiration in my own life for my writing. Every time I travel, I try to set a book in that location.

Any new projects on the horizon?

I’ve recently finished a novel called The Romanov Legacy and I’ve just come up with an idea for a cozy mystery series.

Words of advice for fellow writers in the trenches:

I’ve interviewed many bestselling authors and they all say the same thing. Finish the book. You can always improve a bad manuscript, but you can’t fix a blank page.

Find her book online:

Amazon and The Wild Rose Press

B&N, Kobo, Google & iBooks

CAPTION: Marilyn; and in Florence—in front of her favorite painting, The Birth of Venus, at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and at Vivoli® enjoying her favorite gelato.

Jean M. Grant