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URL:
www.francescaprescott.com
ABOUT FRANCESCA
I live in a small village just outside Geneva in
Switzerland with my husband, two teenage children and a giant
Yorkshire Terrier called Tom. Our house is a couple of minutes
walk away from Lake Geneva, with a view of the Alps on one side
and the Jura mountains on the other. I speak English, French and
Italian (my mother is English, my father is Italian and I grew
up in the French speaking part of Switzerland). I attended the
International School of Geneva and then went on to studying
translation at the University of Geneva.
I began writing seriously about ten years ago, when a
friend of mine started a magazine for the Geneva ex-pat
community. I’d always enjoyed writing, so when she asked me to
contribute I jumped at the opportunity. To my surprise, my
published articles received fan-mail, which boosted my
confidence and encouraged me to aim for bigger things. It took a
while for Mucho Caliente!, my first novel to take-off,
but after a couple of false starts and mucho hair tearing, the
story took on a life of its own. And wow! What a rush! Writing
my first book was like living in an exciting, oh-so-romantic
parallel universe. I got wrapped up in my characters, I could
hear them, see them, smell them. I woke up in the morning and
couldn’t wait to spend the day with them. I can vividly remember
the exhilarating and horrifying moment I realized that my story
was finished. What would I do without the characters I had
shared my life with for eighteen months? They were my friends. I
knew them better than I knew myself. I didn’t want to live
without them. How could I let them go?
Sharing Mucho Caliente! with the world is a way
to ensure that my characters live on. I love them all and hope
they will find their way into people’s hearts, becoming as vivid
to my readers as they still are to me.
I am currently working on other projects that occupy my
imagination and my heart. I love writing and am infinitely
grateful to BookStrand for giving me the opportunity to share my
work with the rest of the world.
INTERVIEW
Q: What was the first thing you ever wrote?
A: When I was eight years old I wrote a play in French. It was a
romance about a princess and a dark, handsome gypsy. Of course,
my ulterior motive for writing that play was that I had a crush
on a dark, handsome eight-year old boy in my after-school drama
group. But in typical dark, handsome eight-year old boy fashion,
I might as well have been living in another galaxy. He was far
more interested in tormenting worms with his friends than
indulging female crushes. But I was determined to get his
attention and told my best friend that I would kiss him before
the end of the school year.
I sat down, wrote a play that ended in a kiss, took it
to my drama teacher and had her cast me as the princess, and the
dark, handsome worm tormentor as the gypsy. I got my kiss.
Actually, we had to rehearse a lot, so I got many. Where there’s
a will, there’s a way! Q: “Where there’s a
will, there’s a way.” Is that your motto?
A: Hmmm… Gosh, I suppose it is, in a subconscious, softly
persuasive sort of way! It’s funny to imagine myself as driven
because I’m not a pushy person. I’m quiet and tend to be shy.
But when I know what I want, I go after it. I don’t give up
easily. Ask my husband! Q:
Mucho Caliente! is a
multicultural story and features characters from many parts of
the world. Tell us about that. A: I have
a multicultural background. I went to the International School
of Geneva and so my friends came from all over the world. Geneva
may be a small town, but it hosts many international companies
and organizations. I was thrown into Geneva’s melting pot at the
age of two when my parents moved here. I’m English and Italian,
but have never lived in either country. I’m Swiss because my
husband is Swiss. Even my accent is indefinable. I describe it
as “mid-Atlantic,” some words sound very British, others rather
American. What do I feel? I’m not really sure! Mixed up! Happy!
Lucky! Many of the characters in Mucho Caliente! are a
funky blend of some of my closest friends.
Q: What, even the men?!
A: You bet! Writing is great. You can be naughty while still
being good. Q: What do you do when you’re
not writing? A: I run around like a
headless chicken, trying to fit everything in. I spend at least
two and a half hours a day at the stables. My daughter and I
share a passion for horses and we are lucky enough to own a
beautiful dressage horse called Kwintus who is also the most
lovable and affectionate horse I’ve ever met. He even has a
distinctive heart-shaped white mark on his forehead!
Otherwise, I try to work-out a couple of times a week.
I do Pilates and yoga. We go skiing in the winter, but I’m
definitely a sunny day skier. I enjoy gardening and love to grow
my own vegetables. It’s amazing how much more careful we are
about not wasting things we grow ourselves. And there’s nothing
better than home grown tomatoes. Q: Do you
have any other books planned?
A: I’m toying with a sequel to Mucho
Caliente! I’d like to find out what happens to Gemma and
Emilio. I’d also like to spend more “imaginary” time in
Ibiza. I love that island! We’ll see. My mind throws me
ideas for stories all the time, especially when I go to bed.
I often have a hard time going to sleep because my brain
just won’t shut up. If a truly brilliant idea strikes, I’ll
fumble around in the darkness for my notebook and a pen and
scribble it down without turning on the light because I
don’t want to disturb my husband! And if my mind really
won’t settle down, I’ll crawl out of bed, head to my office
and fire up my computer, dreading what I’ll feel and look
like the next day.
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