**GIVEAWAY** New Release The Venetian Bargain-Author Interview - Marina Fiorato

It's my pleasure to bring you today an interview with author Marina Fiorato who is here today to talk about her latest historical novel The Venetian Bargain. Her publisher St. Martin's Press has graciously offered one copy of the novel as a giveaway, US ONLY, details below.
Enjoy!

   

• ISBN-13: 9781250042958
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 4/8/2014
• Pages: 416

Overview

Venice, 1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man, more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague—and the Turkish Sultan has his revenge.

St. Martin's Press is sponsoring this giveaway
of one print copy of The Venetian Bargain
US ONLY
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Thanks St. Martin's Press

Hi Marina, Welcome to The Reading Frenzy

Thanks for having me!

Tell my readers a little about your new release The Venetian Bargain.

THE VENETIAN BARGAIN is the story of how three people try to fight the great Plague of Venice in very different ways. There is a young male doctor who uses Western medicine, a young female harem doctor who tries Eastern remedies, and an ageing architect – Andrea Palladio – who hopes that building a magnificent church will persuade God to save the city from the pestilence.

What would be the best thing a reader could tell you after finishing this novel?

That they were fascinated by the contrasts between Eastern and Western Medicine; that they didn’t realize that Venice was besieged by plague and fire and war in the same year, and (my favourite) that they missed the characters!

Marina it seems that writing historical fiction is a natural progression from your studies.
Coming from a relatively “young” in terms of age country the US I’m intrigued about history especially European.
What is it about history that most interests you?

L.P.Hartley said that the past is another country – they do things differently there. But what fascinates me is that we are so similar in many ways to our ancestors – we fear, we love, we nurture our children, we protect our country. I actually try to write history so that it feels current. No one lives as if they are on a timeline – no one thinks they are old-fashioned. The fascinating thing about THE VENETIAN BARGAIN is that some of the developments I’m writing about, be they in medicine, shipbuilding or architecture, were at the cutting edge of technology. My characters think that they are desperately modern, just as we do today. I try to remember that.

Your bio states that you also worked as an actress.
Would we recognize any of your work?

I was in a film called ‘Maybe Baby’ with Dr ‘House’ Hugh Laurie…I was in two Oscar Wilde films, ‘An Ideal Husband’ and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. And more recently I’ve been in four of my husband’s films (he’s a film director)’Devilwood’, ‘Outside Bet’, ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Tuesday’.

And also that you designed tour visuals for rock bands including U2 and The Rolling Stones.
What exactly are tour visuals?

When you go and see a big rock act in a stadium or arena, there are filmed pieces appearing on big LED screens behind the bands. These are custom made, and they’re known as ‘tour visuals’.  We did some exciting ones for The Rolling Stones including the iconic tongue made of fire, and for U2 we did a very touching film for the song ‘One’ in which all the names of the 9/11 victims scrolled across the screen.

Marina you’re half Venetian, what’s the other half?

I’m from the north of England – I was born in Manchester and raised in the Yorkshire Dales, a very beautiful, green part of the country with lots of hills and abbeys and castles. Maybe that’s why I became so interested in history – Yorkshire and Lancashire were the cradles of our civil war and the two great noble houses of York and Lancaster.

Tell us about the day you found out you learned you sold your first book?

I was actually at work at the visuals studios, and my agent was at the Frankfurt Book Fair with my debut novel THE GLASSBLOWER OF MURANO. She was confident she could sell it for around £5000 pounds, with which I would have been delighted. By lunchtime it was in a bidding war between three huge German publishing houses. In the afternoon my agent rang me and said ‘It’s six figures.’ I nearly fell off my chair.

Marina, Thank you so much for chatting with us today. Good Luck with the new novel.
Will you be coming across the pond any time soon for any signing/author events?

Thank you for inviting me! And I’d be delighted to come to the States – I have a big book tour starting in April so you never know!

Connect with Marina Website – Facebook - Twitter

MEET THE AUTHOR:
MARINA FIORATO is half-Venetian and a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she specialized in the study of Shakespeare’s plays as an historical source. She has worked as an illustrator, an actress, and a film reviewer, and designed tour visuals for rock bands including U2 and the Rolling Stones. Her historical fiction includes The Daughter of Siena, The Botticelli Secret, and her debut novel, The Glassblower of Murano, which was an international bestseller. She was married on the Grand Canal in Venice, and now lives in London with her family.

Marina's other novels
    

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