Kimberly Sullivan's Blog, page 16

Art, architecture and sport in Tuscany’s Grosseto

We had a great weekend at the end of July in the Tuscan town of Grosseto. It was my first time there, but I enjoyed the old town (even because, on a  Saturday at around 2 pm, the hottest hour of the day), we had it almost to ourselves… Grosseto is a small city of…

Hammering my latest dual timeline manuscript into shape

Super excited to be preparing my fifth book, and fourth novel, for publication this autumn. I’ve already had useful feedback from beta readers, and now I have my manuscript back from my editor. I’ll be incorporating these changes before getting it off to my proofreader. I will then review once more before working with my…

Soaking in the atmosphere in Prague’s cafés

Prague, like so many of Central European cities, has a vibrant café culture. If you’re visiting the Czech capital, you definitely need to set aside some time to visit the storied art deco cafés. A café in which I used to spend a lot of time is Prague’s spectacular Obecní dům. Back then, it was…

(More) Real life locations of my stories … in Bosnia

I had fun taking photos of my newest short story collection, Drink Wine and Be Beautiful, in some of the locations I write about in my book. You can find some of those Roman and Abruzzo locations and corresponding passages of my stories here. Because thoughts of travel are never far from my mind when…

Traces of the past in the Roman countryside

One of the (many) things I love about Italy are the brushes with the past no matter where you go. We came upon the remnants of this Ancient Roman aqueduct in the fields between Tivoli and Castel Madama. Even though you see these all the time, it never fails to put me in a good…

Real life locations of my short stories

I love anything associated with travel, so it’s not a surprise that a strong sense of place is important to me as a reader and writer. My latest short story collection, “Drink Wine and Be Beautiful”, is largely set in Italy. I thought I would share some of the locations that play a role in…

Weekend bliss in the mountains of Abruzzo

I always love trips out to the mountains, but this year, I was having a tough time managing a weekend mountain escape. But the first weekend of July, I did manage to hop out for a short visit in Italy’s Apennine mountains, and it was glorious. I often go out to Italy’s Abruzzo region, to…

My June 2023 reads

Another great month of reading. I travelled from an isolated home in a rural corner of Ireland where a killer may or may not be on the loose, to a small Connecticut town where  a recent widow is trying to kickstart her life, and her failing bookstore, as she tries to reclaim her life and…

One night in Tolentino, Marche

It wouldn’t be summer for me without a healthy does of Track Tourism… Yes, it’s true I’m driving my son all over the Italian peninssula for his track races. But it’s Italy, so I’m always discovering new (beautiful) places. The latest discovery for me was the inland town in Italy’s Marche region – Tolentino. Almost…

Stop the Trigger Warning madness

Call me old fashioned, but I grew up in the sticks and stones generation. Words are not violence. And people who lived before us did not buy into whatever PC language laws were invented by the mob five seconds ago. But this whole censorship-friendly environment is really getting out of hand. Roald Dahl stories had…