Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: The Measure of Life by Judith Works @GoddessFish

THE MEASURE OF LIFE

Judith Works

GENRE: Women's Fiction

BLURB:

A story of love and loss, lies and truth, begins in Rome when Nicole shares a cappuccino and cornetto with her Italian tutor. The meeting sets off a chain of events that upends the course of her life. While Rome also brings deep friendships and immersion into a sumptuous food scene there is no escape from acknowledging the consequences of her actions. In search of forgiveness and healing, she moves to an island near her childhood home in Seattle only to find the way to reunite the remnants of her family and discover her true path is to return to Rome and face the past.

Purchase THE MEASURE OF LIFE on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, Itunes, and Books a Million

Excerpt:

I read about a new concept called blogging. Intrigued, I studied the process to launch my own blog. After a lot of false starts, I managed to post about the day I bought bread in the bakery Maggie recommended and ended up meeting the old man. I titled it FIAT PANIS (Let There be Bread):

Once upon a time I met an old man out of a fairy tale. He was tiny and perched in a gigantic carved chair where he presided over a treasure trove of books and antiques. And it was the same day I first savored the goodness of real Roman bread. The kind of bread that’s crispy brown on the outside and chewy inside. The kind baked in a wood-fired oven wafting a mouth-watering aroma out the door to compel you to follow the scent back to the bakery where fresh loaves await. I squeezed through the crowd toward the clerk to make my selection while imagining ancient Romans clustered at the baker’s stall—the baker pulling the rounds of whole wheat spiced with poppy and fennel seeds from the hot oven while his wife handed them to house slaves who gossiped about their owners, and matrons who gossiped about the neighbors as they handed over a few coins.

I included colorful photos of the bakery and a loaf of fresh bread on my kitchen table along with frescoes of loaves from the ruins of Pompeii.

Interview with Judith Works

What is your favorite part of the book?

I have two favorites – the serious one where Nicole, the protagonist, falls into a doomed romance with Alessandro, her Italian tutor, and the fun one where I describe all the delicious Italian food she learns to cook and blogs about (and add my own recipe at the end).

Does your book have a lesson? Moral?

I would hope readers would draw the conclusion that it is possible to set goals and overcome mistakes and setbacks to reach them even if it takes longer than wished. In this story, Nicole has several goals: to overcome the status of “trailing spouse” so common in expat communities, to start a career when the time is right, and to bring together her fractured family.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

The characters are an amalgam of expats I knew and those out of my head. In my memoir of Rome, Coins in the Fountain, I write about lightly-disguised real people with name changed but The Measure of Life required a more expansive cast of characters, some of whom were up to no good, because it was set in a world different from the life I led. But both books describe real-life settings.

Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?

My favorite, and of many readers, is the old count stranded in the antique/junk shop. He supports Nicole in her emotional life at a critical stage and at the same time gives her an intellectual outlet as they discuss life and history.

What character in your book are you least likely to get along with?

I would not get along with Martin, Nicole’s much older husband, who has become so distant to his family after their first year of marriage. He is a troubled man but unable to deal with his problems. I would hope that I would be able to follow Nicole’s path in detouring around his faults that affect the family to reach my own goals like she did.

What would the main character in your book have to say about you?

Nicole would say that she and I have both experienced expat life and the difficulty of adjusting even though our families and careers took different paths to different outcomes. I’d like to have a coffee with her to talk about it.

Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

The memoir, Coins in the Fountain, stands alone because it is about my life in Rome. The Measure of Life, set in Rome and the Pacific Northwest, is also stand-alone because it is a story with characters who struggle against issues I have not experienced. My novel in progress is set in the Pacific Northwest and is centered around a different character with a different problem so, it too, is a stand-alone.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

After I earned a law degree in midlife, I had the chance to leave the Forest Service in Oregon and run away to the Circus (Maximus). In reality my husband and I moved to Rome where I worked for the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization for four years as a legal advisor to the director of human resources. I could see the Circus that had hosted chariot races during the Roman Empire from my office window.

My husband and I reluctantly returned to the US after four years. But we pined for the land of pasta, vino, art, and sunny piazzas. Then the gods smiled and offered a chance to return to Rome with the UN World Food Program. Six more years or food and frolic in the Eternal City passed much too quickly. The indelible experiences living in Italy and working for the UN were the genesis of my memoir Coins in the Fountain.

Connect with Judith Works

Website ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Threads ~ BlueSky

 

Giveaway:

$20 Amazon/BN GC

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.