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Masquerade by Kylie Fornasier || Interview, Review, Giveaway, and Italian Deliciousness

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Oh, do we have a fabulous guest today!

I’m super excited to have author Kylie Fornasier on the blog today because she is so absolutely fabulous and an Australian writer! And her book is gorgeous. Seriously, what more can I ask for?

Also, thanks to Penguin Australia, there’s a giveaway of Masquerade at the end of this post! You too can read this fabulousness!

Interview with the author, Kylie Fornasier!




 As a teacher librarian, Kylie Foransier is in touch with what kids like to read, as well as being passionate about helping them enjoy that reading experience as much as she can. Kylie has won a number of writing awards, and already has a published chapter book and a soon-to-be published picture book with other major publishers. She is a strong believer in practicing what she preaches when it comes to her writing and so runs a writers’ group with the NSW Writer’s Centre and another in Penrith. Kylie lives in western Sydney.

Have you ever been to Venice and do you speak any Italian? 

 
Si, I have been to Venice! I’ve been twice, actually. The first time was on a tour of Europe, so I only got to spend a day there. It was strange because the first trip was not when I fell in love with the city. I fell in love with Venice when I began to write about it and learn its secrets. The second time I travelled there was after I had written Masquerade and had submitted it to Penguin. It was a very unexpected trip – the sort you go on when you go through a big break-up, as cliché as it is. It was an amazing experience to be able to walk in the footsteps of my characters.
 
My grandfather is from Italy – when he migrated to Australia, he boarded the ship in Venice – but sadly I don’t speak Italian. I would love to learn it, though. It’s such a beautiful language. I’ve always been fascinated with languages. I learnt French in high school, but I wouldn’t say I speak it. My mum’s side of the family are Polish. I can understand Polish more than I can speak it, though. For the new book I’m writing, I’m learning a bit of German, which is a lot harder than people say!
 

Ohhh, I want to to Venice SO BADLY. Lucky you! (My mother is half Italian, so it’s totally destiny that I go at some point, right!?) Out of the 7 teens who take turns narrating, whose point-of-view did you enjoy exploring the most?

 
I probably answer this question differently each time I’m asked it! That’s because I loved writing from the point of view of all the characters for different reasons. To me, they are like a box of chocolates. Some days you feel like a strawberry cream-filled chocolate and others days a hazelnut praline. Some days I felt like having fun with glittery Angelique and other days I felt like sharing Anna’s troubled conscience. 
 
Based on what I feel like today, I’d choose Veronica, who was inspired by Beatrice from All Ado About Nothing. I loved exploring all her contradictions. She’s fierce but gentle. She’s extremely witty but often lost for words. She hates gossip and yet she paints people’s secrets. She is very intelligent and yet she ends up makin
g a huge error of judgement. I think Kiera Knightly would play her perfectly!

I loved Veronica’s intelligence too! Do you have a favourite quote from Masquerade you can share with us?

 
Why yes, it’s:

In a city shrouded in secrets, it was only fitting that Orelia’s first view of Venice was shourded in fog.

 

This is the first sentence of Masquerade. As I writer, I think first lines are one of the most important lines in the book. It needs to do so many things. It needs to hook the reader in and set the tone for the rest of the book. Sometimes, the first line just comes to you immediately and sometimes you have to let it bubble away. In Masquerade, it was the first case. I knew when I wrote that line that this was the book.     

 

Your first sentence totally hooked me right in! Can you tell us a little about how you went from finished manuscript to book deal?

 
The short version of the long story is that Masquerade came to the attention of an editor at Penguin through a publishing consultation at Sutherland Shire Writers’ Festival. Basically, a publishing consultation is where you pay a fee to get feedback on a few chapters (usually three) of your manuscript from an editor at a publishing house, which is a fantastic opportunity for writers to a) get valuable feedback, and b) get your manuscript in front of an editor i.e. by-passing the slush pile. 

 At my publishing consultation, the editor expressed that she loved the three chapters I had submitted and requested that I send her the full manuscript as soon as I could. From there, it was just a matter of waiting to see if they accepted it. This is really only part of the story though; there’s a lot more that came before that which I believe really gave me a leg up. Check out the first video on my YouTube Channel to hear the full story and see me be adorably awkward!

Since there are a lot of masks in Masquerade, have you thought about what kind of mask you’d wear to Carnevale? (Can we beg a picture if you have one?!)

Best. Question. Ever. Yes, like all the time! One of my dreams is to visit Venice again during Carnevale and attend the Il Ballo del Doge (the Doge’s Ball). The mask I would wear is one that I bought on my second trip to Venice. I found it in a gorgeous little mask shop – all masks are handmade there – in some alley I’ll probably never find again, much like most shops in Venice. Usually, I’m so indecisive when it comes to choosing things but when I walked into this shop I picked this mask out straight away. Its fits perfectly and being gold would match any dress! Angelique would approve, I think.

 

I LOVE YOUR MASK SO MUCH. (I need a mask in my life, I think.) Are there any more glorious writing projects we might see in the future?!

Absolutely, thanks for asking! At the moment, I’m writing a contemporary young adult novel. It’s about a girl called Piper and a boy called West who fall in love in the most unlikely way. Sorry for the vague description! I should be able to reveal more on this soon. I’m having a wonderful time writing it. The sequel to Masquerade, titled Confessions, is still very much on the cards too.

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Squee! A sequel! And your contemporary already sounds adorable (I want to read it!). Thank you so much for coming, Kylie!

Grazie mille for this moment in the spotlight that is this fabulous blog, Cait! 

Here Are My Glorious Thoughts Upon The Book

It’s the Carnevale of 1750 and Venice’s ballrooms, theatres, palazzos and squares are filled with delicious gossip, devilish fun and dangerous games. In this glittering masked world, everyone has a secret…
Set in an age of decadence made famous by Casanova, Masquerade uncovers the secrets of seven teens, from the highest aristocrat to the lowest servant – their dreams, desires, loves, loyalties … and betrayals.
All the world’s a stage. Let the show begin.

I liked this book! I liked it a lot!

I feel surprised because historical fiction romances? Not my thing. (I need guns blazing, okay?) But Masquerade won me over.


Masquerade is a historical drama set in 1750 in Venice.You know what this means, right? MASKS AND CARNEVALE. I’ve always been mildly fascinated by Italy because a) I’m part Italian and b) they have freakishly good food. And the whole mask thing? That sounds fabulous to me. (I’m shy. Hiding = my favourite.) And Venice?! Oh the book so did it justice. 

 Truman Capote describes Venice like this: “Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” And the book GOT that. It completely did! I felt very swept up in the secrets and mysteries and intrigue of the era. There’s a darker side, too, of course. Sexism. Superstition. Class wars.

 (If you haven’t checked out the author’s pinterest yet, go GO do so. It’s amazing.)

There are 7 points-of-view. Yeah, it’s a lot. It’s not my favourite for there to be so many. But they were handled brilliantly. All seven of our narrators are total drama queens. THEY ARE. But then it’s Venice, so do we expect less? My favourite was Orelia. She was nice but fierce. 

 With so many narrators, there are a lot of stories going on…but basically none of them ended like I predicted. YAY! A lot of surprises happened at the end.

With the lavish, gorgeous setting and tightly written description, I was sold! Where is the sequel? I need more!

“text-align: center;”>Giveaway!

A huge thank you to Penguin for offering a copy of Masquerade for a fabulous winner!
– book will be sent by the publisher
– Australian only!
– You must say “Italian Deliciousness” 5 times fast. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

peoples, i have the most important and serious question for you today: what kind of mask would YOU want to wear? link me to a picture in the comment sections! go! go! i do want to be Batman, really, but I also like this mask a lot. and also, anyone planning to read Masquerade or have already read it?! thoughts?

Cait has the Phantom of the Opera song “Masquerade” going through her head right now thanks to this book. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…because Cait used to be very obsessed with the music from that musical and played it incessantly on the piano. Good times. Currently she’s listening to BZRK and drawing squiggly lines in notebooks and still writing for NaNoWriMo. 

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