Oops I kid I just realized you already talked about Brother. Maybe Passaggio?? Or you can do both if you have more to say about Brother lol
Hi Niri! I love talking WIPS, so I can do both!
Brother is probably the oldest of my WIPs; it started as a dream I had when I was 16. I'd dreamt I was standing on a beach of black sand and red water. Years later, I did one of those ancestry tests and discovered that I have family in southern Iran; when I looked the region up, I was astounded: it was the same place from my dream. Some research showed that the language spoken in my dream was also real, too (Old Persian). So I knew that this dream (and the others that were set in this place) needed to be told as a book.
Here is the beach I saw in the dream. It's Hormuz Island. Very interesting place ❤️
Passaggio is a historical romance set in 1590s Venice, and features a love triangle between an opera singer, the composer Monteverdi, and the head of the Venetian secret service. There's lots of court intrigue, corporate espionage, an assassination during a masquerade, poisonings: fun times.
Here's a bit about Filippo, the resident Secret Service agent, Shakespeare fan, and coffee fanatic.
His bodyguard was staring at him. “What?” Filippo asked.
Marcello’s mouth twitched in amusement, eyes trained on Filippo’s cheek. “Are you certain you want only one detail watching Grimani’s trade ships to the mainland, signor? It could stretch the men thin.”
“What? How did you—” his bodyguard fetched a silver letter tray from the desk and held it up like a mirror. Filippo’s eyes went wide: there on his cheek was a smudgy imprint of his report from where he’d slept on the damp ink.
“Gesu Christe,” he grumbled, scrubbing with a handkerchief; much to his dismay, it didn’t budge. Marcello stifled a laugh.
“Wash it well with a pumice stone, signor; it’ll come off. Eventually.”
Scrubbing his face raw with a stone; what a ‘wonderful’ way to start his day. Filippo bit back the expletive. “Have Silvana make me coffee, Mar,” he sighed wearily at the stairs. “Extra strong.”
“We’re out of coffee, signor; the merchant’s shipment is late. He sent his apologies yesterday while you were out on inspection.”
Filippo di Pasquale was a man of many talents: too bad attracting bad luck seemed to be one of them. He wondered what else could go awry as he dragged himself upstairs to prepare for what he hoped would be a very uneventful day at the palace.