Q&A With Kristin Harmel Pt 1

A few days ago I reviewed the fantastic new book Italian for Beginners. Well, thanks to Hachette, I had the privilege of asking author Kristin Harmel some questions for my blog! Check them out and be sure to pick up her new book once it comes out on the 13th.

Q: Where did you get the inspiration for Italian for Beginners?
A: I had a blast writing my previous novel, THE ART OF FRENCH KISSING, which was set in Paris. I wanted to write another novel set in a foreign locale, and like Paris, Italy has always felt very magical to me. I thought it might be a nice idea to set an emotionally resonant story in a city that is capable of tugging at one’s heartstrings, all by itself.

Q: Your details of Rome are incredibly detailed. Have you been there before? If so, how did your trip there contribute to the book?
A: Yes, I’ve been to Rome a few times. When I write about a foreign destination, I try to base the physical setting on my own experience, because I don’t think you can fully evoke the feeling of a city just by looking at a map or a guidebook. For example, I might be able to look at a map and know which street connects with which avenue, but if I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the air smells like, or what the street feels like, or how humid or dry the weather is. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it sounds like, how the people talk to strangers and to each other, and what the rhythm of life is like. I think each city has its own special way of appealing to the senses, and I did my best to capture Rome’s magic through the senses in ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS.

Q: In the book, Cat is very specific about her favorite place in Rome. What is yours?
A: My friend Kara and I went with an Italian waiter one night to a little hole-in-the-wall Italian bar near the Pantheon. It was just a dive bar that the Italians probably took for granted, but they served up delicious, marinara-draped ravioli for free at the end of the evening – a longstanding tradition – and as we were hustled out the door at 2 a.m., plates of pasta in hand, we emerged into the shadows of the Pantheon. There was something very powerful and moving about the way the modern (the Karaoke blasting from the bar) collided with the ancient (the Pantheon was built in 126 AD), while we ate this delicious pasta. It was one of those experiences that sort of triggered all of our senses, and I loved it. It sounds like a silly place to call my favorite, but I tend to like the hidden gems of everyday life more than I like tourist attractions anyhow!


Q: I loved your characterizations, especially of Karina, the wild Italian. Was she based off someone, or completely original?
A: Nope, she was pretty original. I just wanted to create a character who was wild enough to help Cat break out of her safety zone, but it was also important to me to give her some depth that wasn’t evident at first. I really like the idea of a character with multiple layers to peel back. At first, Karina seems wild, irresponsible and a little crazy, but as Cat gets to know her better, she realizes that all of those behaviors are rooted in some very real, emotional things. Some of the lessons that Cat needed to learn in the novel was that things aren’t always what they appear – and that people’s motivations aren’t always as obvious as we think. Having her realize that about Karina helped open the door to some serious realizations about herself and her past.


Q: Are you at all like Cat (both pre and post Rome)?
A: I think most authors tend to write about main characters who are similar to them in some way. I adore the author Jane Porter, for example, and although all of her main characters are very, very different from each other, I can always see a little bit of Jane in every single one of her main characters (I just finished reading her latest, EASY ON THE EYES, which is why she and her characters are on my mind!). I think that as a novelist, you have to connect with your characters deeply enough to feel their pain and their happiness, and that means that they have to have some elements of you – and vice versa.

That said, I think that with each book I’ve written, I’ve grown more and more comfortable with creating characters who are different from me. So while I identify with Cat in a lot of ways, she’s not nearly as similar to me as Claire (the narrator of my first novel, HOW TO SLEEP WITH A MOVIE STAR) or even Emma (the narrator of THE ART OF FRENCH KISSING).


Q: As awkward as it was, the breakup with Francesco was pretty funny. Please say that wasn’t from personal experience. Where DID you get the idea for that breakup?
A: Ha! No, that’s not from personal experience – at least not directly! Thank goodness! But at the heart of Cat’s breakup with Francesco is the fact that she went into the situation with very unrealistic expectations. She got carried away by a fantasy and bought into it, even though she should have known better, and she should have seen the signs. That actually is a situation that’s very close to my heart, because that’s a mistake I’ve made numerous times. I’m not sure whether it’s a product of being a novelist (and thus completely over analyzing every “character” in my life to puzzle out their motivations), or whether it’s just a shortcoming in me, but I tend to view people too often with rose-colored glasses, and I’ve also had the tendency to jump to conclusions about relationships before I should. That’s what Cat does here, so in that regard, I suppose I was writing from personal experience!

Come back tomorrow for part two of the interview, where Harmel discusses her favorite authors and places to visit.