The Revealing of Melissa Senate
Popular and prolific, Melissa Senate (The Mosts YA, The Secret of Joy, the rest in Bibliography) offers her latest novel The Love Goddess’ Cooking School, to be released on October 26, 2010, with the following description:
An Italian cooking class, with special recipes that call for adding wishes and memories to every pot and pan, changes the lives of its new teacher–heartbroken Holly Maguire–and her four students: a twelve-year-old girl; a grieving woman; a serial dater, and a newly separated single father.
And then its topped off with this Advance Praise!
“Tender, charming, and seasoned with a pinch of old-world magic, The Love Goddess’s Cooking School is a warmly rendered story of loss, heartache, and starting over. Melissa Senate has created a delightful cast of characters who learn about life, love, and the mess they’ve made of both while in, and out of, the kitchen.” –Beth Hoffman, bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
“The Love Goddess’ Cooking School by Melissa Senate reads like a recipe for reinvention, filled with hope and seasoned liberally with forgiveness. But the real magic here is Melissa Senate’s writing, which laps rhythmically against your heart like gentle waves along the coast.” –Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs and Seven Year Switch
The Divining Wand has scheduled its presentation/review of The Love Goddess’ Cooking School for Monday, October 18, 2010 but, in the meantime, let’s meet the author through her “official” bio:
Melissa Senate is the author of eight novels, including the bestselling See Jane Date, which was made into an ABC Family TV movie and has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. She’s published short pieces in Everything I’ve Always Wanted to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume, It’s a Wonderful Lie, Flirting with Pride and Prejudice, and American Girls About Town. A former romance and young adult editor from New York, she now lives on the southern coast of Maine with her son.
Impressive? Indeed Melissa is, and she’s also fascinating by revealing:
Q: How would you describe your life in 8 words?
A: Writer. Mother. Mainer. Observer. Reader. Animal lover. Flower-smeller. A-ok.
Q: What is your motto or maxim?
A: Has always been: “Just do it.” Was mine before Nike’s.
Q: How would you describe perfect happiness?
A: On a sunny, warm day, lying on a float in some bugless body of water and reading something wonderful, my son lying on his own little float next to me, reading something that makes him think and laugh and wonder.
Q: What’s your greatest fear?
A: That something bad could happen to my little guy.
Q: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
A: Rome–for the food, the Vatican museum, the architecture, the ruins, the beauty, the language, and yes, those handsome Italian men.
Q: With whom in history do you most identify?
A: I’m still thinking about this one.
Q: Which living person do you most admire?
A: I think J.K. Rowling is pretty darn amazing. That she started writing in a coffee shop as a down-on-her-luck single mother. Look at what her imagination, talent, and perseverance led to.
Q: What are your most overused words or phrases?
A: The copyeditor on my last book started circling the words “actually” and “just” and drawing smiley faces next to them in her amusement of how many there were. When she got really sick of circling them, she started drawing little frowny faces.
Q: If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
A: I’d love to be able to draw. I can’t even draw a stick figure. I took one of those Drawing For Absolute Beginners classes a couple of times, but it didn’t help.
Q: What is your greatest achievement?
A: That I’m an optimist. Still and despite A LOT.
Q: What’s your greatest flaw?
A: My loner tendencies.
Q: What’s your best quality?
A: Generosity.
Q: What do you regret most?
A: That I didn’t recognize how I truly felt about someone until he was quite literally gone.
Q: If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
A: I gotta stick with myself.
Q: What trait is most noticeable about you?
A: I have gobs of thick, long, curly dark hair. I’m easy to spot.
Q: Who is your favorite fictional hero?
A: Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web.
Q: Who is your favorite fictional villain?
A: Was Nellie Olesen in the Little House books?
Q: If you could meet any athlete, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
A: Hmm, although I admire athletes in general for their skill, I’m not really up on any sports. When I lived in New York City, I did recognize Derek Jeter when he was sitting behind my booth in a diner, and I asked if he’d sign my then 2 year old’s soccer ball, and he very kindly did. Maybe because young Max was wearing a Yankees cap. And yes, Jeter is even hotter in person.
Q: What is your biggest pet peeve?
A: Grrr…when people yammer into cell phones.
Q: What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
A: Reading on my loveseat with my cuddly throw and both my cats curled at my feet.
Q: What’s your fantasy profession?
A: Seriously, writing novels is it. No better dream job for a creative introvert.
Q: What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
A: Kindness, generosity, humor.
Q: If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
A: Your basic BLT.
Q: What are your 5 favorite songs?
A: Hold On by Sarah McLachlan; Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye; Romeo & Juliet by Dire Straits; Back Streets by Bruce Springsteen; Photograph by Ringo Starr
Q: What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
A: Anne of Green Gables, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Lovely, creative, and very down-to-earth, stay updated on Melissa by following her on Twitter and becoming a friend/fan on Facebook.
Book Giveaway: The Divining Wand is giving away two copies of Stacey Ballis’s Good Enough to Eat in a random drawing of comments left only on this specific post, Stacey Ballis and Good Enough to Eat. Comments left on other posts during the week will not be eligible. The deadline is tonight at 7:00 p.m. EDT with the winners to be announced here in tomorrow’s post. If you enter, please return tomorrow to see if you’re a winner.
