Jule Selbo

This is a short post, I am out shoveling the highway.  Community service in lieu of jail time.

Seriously, more snow?

I want to share a great connection for anyone intending to spend time in FLORENCE ITALY. (I recommend it.)

Backstory:  Moons ago, I spent 4 years (one full semester a year, so let’s say almost 5 months a year for 4 years (or was it 5 years?) as a professor in Florence, teaching screenwriting and film history for my California University in its Study Abroad Program.

While there, I met a group of ex-pat writers (mostly Brits, Aussies, and Americans, there were 8 or 10 of us) and we would meet (as writer groups do) to discuss and/or read what we were working on. Not a bad thing to do in Florence, especially when a glass of Prosecco or Chianti and a plate of pasta were also part of the night. The group is still going and has grown to become a mainstay in the literary “firmament” of the city.

The Florence Literary Society. They meet at the British Embassy (Consulate), a historic (well everything is in Florence is) building that is situated on the Arno River, not far from the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo (the pictures above, they are central to the historic part of Florence.

There is a solid number of writers who have made Florence their home and love to share work, talk about the craft, meet other writers (from anywhere) and bring in speakers etc etc. Add to that the near-constant change of participants as writers (travelers) come and go and it’s an exciting way to spend an evening or workshop afternoon.

Lori Hetherington — one of the founding members of our group way back when – is now president of Florence Literary Society. She’s an enthusiastic bringer-together of writers.  And she wants to open the group’s doors to our band of merry writers – the Maine Crime Writers.

Florence Literary Society

If you open the link, Lori is the third from the left,  the blond with the “I make things happen” smile on her face. Some of the others pictured I have spent workshop/writing group time with –

I was in Florence last month (instead of the 5 months a year, I try to do a bit more than a month every year, renting the same small apartment up the narrow stairs that the University used to rent for me, right in the heart of Florence and just keep my writing routine in place (lots of coffee shops to work at in Florence (ha!) and I never want to leave. Lori and another of the writers, Deirdre Pirro, and I got together. Lori (American ex-pat from Ohio) writes fiction and historical fiction (check her out on Amazon), but her “day job” is as a translator of books (Italian to English). Deirdre (Australian, went on a cruise when she was 22, the cruise ship’s Italian captain fell in love with her and chased her around the decks and they married and Florence became her home forty years ago) writes essays and short stories (mostly historical, check her out on Amazon)  and has a wicked sense of humor. They are so much fun to talk writing with and are at the heart of the Florence Literary Society.

The number of events (which includes speakers, readings and workshops) are extensive and Lori is opening the door to all of us  to take advantage of them when anyone is there!  There are mystery writers in the group, basically any genre is welcome.

So if you or any writer you know are heading that way  – get in touch with me and I will get you in touch! (Or you can email Lori through the Literary Society website.)

And Lori wants to know what WE are up to here too, she wants to share workshop ideas (very interested in Crime Wave set up) and more.  So we have a FLORENCE CONNECTION now!

Maybe we should do a Mystery Writers Conference in Florence????!!

PS: This is the book I wrote in Florence, back in 2018, my first novel.  It’s a romance/mystery/historical fiction about a young woman (Lynn). Her mother has recently died, and on her deathbed,  asked Lynn to “Find Me in Florence.” Lynn had always felt her mom has something in her past that had been kept secret.  The mom had been a Mud Angel in 1966 during the great flood – the waters of the Arno River nearly took over the city (including museums, libraries etc etc) and people came from all over the world to help, they were given knee-high rubber boots and were tasked to dig into the mud and muck and save Botticellis, Michelangelos, Cellini’s and more paintings, sculptures…) anyway, something happened to Lynn’s mom during that experience and Lynn goes to Florence to search for the truth….