Psychological Romance
Date Published: November 24, 2018
Publisher: Foolishness Press
Christmas in Prague is the story of Joseph, a divorced American twenty-something living as an expat in Prague. He's obsessed with Karina, a Czech waitress-turned-supermodel. She's freshly back from a trip to Italy with her English teacher, and she's ready to give Joseph the attention for which he's been longing. Will his Christmas wish come true?
Interview with Author Rick Pryll
Can you tell us a little bit
about the characters in “Christmas in Prague”?
Meet Joseph, the main character. He’s tall, he’s dark, he’s athletic. A
twenty-something freshly divorced American expat living in Prague. He was
self-centered in Part I of “The Chimera of Prague”, narcissistic even. (Can you
say “toxic bachelor?”) In Part II though, in the very first chapter, he gets a
wake up call. He’s still handsome, he’s still stuck in his own head. Will he be
able to get out of his own way this time?
Whoa! In sashays Karina. She’s Czech, she’s tall and
thin. Exotic. Sable hair and a long thin nose that makes her look royal. At the
beginning of Part I, she was a clumsy waitress at the Terminal Bar; in this
book, she’s on the cover of Czech Elle, and her modelling career is set to take
off. She’s just back from a trip to Italy with her English teacher. She’s ready
to see where this thing with Joseph can go. Is it too late?
Then there’s Elijah, Joseph’s Canadian rube roommate.
He has this innocent charm and rugged handsomeness. Think golden retriever.
Unlike Joseph, Elijah is unembarrassed by being labelled a tourist in Prague;
he is free to explore and ask questions about the Czech culture, cuisine and
history.
Ljuba is Karina’s friend. She’s a thin, red headed young
woman with emerald snake eyes. A pixie who’s very confident with her body.
Maybe too confident. She’s been Karina’s for years and has seen, up close and
personal, her heartbreak. She likes Joseph as a match for Karina and has been
trying to get them together since Part I.
Can you tell us a little bit
about your next books or what you have planned for the future?
Part II of “The Chimera of Prague” is set to come out in April of 2019.
In this book, change is in the air. Joseph has a new apartment -- will this be
where his Karina fantasy finally comes true? Maybe, but first, he gets a kick
in the stomach in Chapter One, and it makes him re-think everything.
Like his obsession with
Karina. Sure, her modelling career is taking off, and her face is plastered all
over the city, but does that mean Joseph has to give her a shot, just because
now she’s ready, just because now she’s back from her “platonic” trip to Italy
with her English teacher?
Fans of the first book
will be happy to hear that Dani, Joseph’s first love, is featured in eight more
vignettes that take us back to simpler time in Joseph’s life.
After that who knows? I
have a Middle Grade book I have been shopping around, I have a book of 70 poems
that I would like to finish, and there is always more to the Joseph story --
maybe a sequel?
How long would you say it takes
you to write a book?
My goal each day is to write 2,000 words. “The Chimera of Prague” is
right around 90,000 words. So the technical answer is that I can write a novel
in 45 writing days. With all the editing and rewrites, I probably add another
50% to the count, which is another 23 days. Let’s call it an even 70 writing
days.
Editing a book to polish
it up and bring out the magic, that can take longer. Part I of The Chimera of
Prague sat on a shelf for 15 years -- it was a good first draft but it was
missing something. Then in May of 2017 I got inspired and by November it was published.
What is your favorite childhood
book?
I am embarrassed to admit it, but here goes. The Shy Little Kitten. Not
kidding, or shall I say not “kitten” -- ha! It was one of those Little Golden
books and I really loved cats -- still do. My brother had the The Poky Little
Puppy, which just happens to be the best selling children’s book of all time; I
identified as the shy little kitten (Myers-Briggs INFP all the way, baby!) and
my brother, who was a picky eater, as the poky little puppy.
If you could spend the day with
one of the characters from “Christmas in Prague” who would it be? Please tell
us why you chose this particular character, where you would go and what you
would do.
I would have to choose Naked Pete. He’s just such an X factor, you know?
You never know what is going to happen when you are hanging with Naked Pete. I
would travel back in time to late 90’s Prague, and Pete and I would meet at the
Chapeau Rouge at 7:30pm. We’d have a few drinks, have a few laughs, see who
else was out, then around 11:30 pm we’d head over to Roxy Dance Club to see
which DJs were playing. It would be a night to remember.
What was the hardest scene from
Christmas in Prague to write?
The main scene at the Christmas Market in Old Town Square. It is such a
beautiful place with so much sensory overload going on -- I was afraid I would
miss something, or not hit the right notes. In the end I had to go back and
make a few tweaks to get the feeling right, but overall I think I captured at
least some of that exotic, romantic, old Europe feeling.
What made you want to become a
writer?
The first time I can remember thinking about what it would be like to
be a writer was watching “The World According to Garp.” I must have been 15 or
16 years old. When his wife tells him that while his book is not selling, all
the reviewers loved it; I could imagine even then that particular problem being
a good problem to have. Then in college I saw “Henry and June” and I thought
that sitting with your lover exchanging pages after a writing session would be
about the best thing there could ever be.
Just
for fun
(a
Favorite song: “Three Libras”
by A Perfect Circle
(b
Favorite book: Jonathan
Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
(c
Favorite movie: Apocalypse
Now
(d
Favorite tv show: The West
Wing
(e
Favorite Food: Hovězí guláš s
houskovým knedlíkem -- that is, beef goulash with bread dumplings
(f
Favorite drink: Gambrinus, a
Czech-style Pilsener beer
(g
Favorite website: Atlas
Obscura
Thanks
so much for visiting with us today!
About the Author
Rick Pryll is an award-winning author and poet. His book, "The Chimera of Prague" was selected as the winner of the 2018 New York Book Festival for Romance. A graduate of MIT, Rick wrote a novella as the thesis for his Mechanical Engineering degree. Having grown up in Western New York State, Rick and his wife, ArtPop Charlotte 2018 artist Holly Spruck, live in Charlotte. They have two children, two cats and a dog.
First published to the web in 1994, his hyperfiction short story “LIES” has garnered praise from the Wall Street Journal, SHIFT magazine, and several other publications in print and online. It is cited in more than seven books, has been translated into Spanish and Chinese.
From 1996 to 2002 Rick lived in Prague, in the Czech Republic. While there he published two books including Displaced (Foolishness Press, 1998) and Wallow (Foolishness Press, 1999). His stories and poems have been featured on the pages of THINK and OPTIMISM.
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2 comments:
thanks for hosting
I love the cover art!
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