Episode 94: Rome’s Last Noble Palace, Cafe Culture and Great Writing Advice with Fiction Author Kimberly Sullivan
Welcome to Episode #94:
Today I have a conversation with fiction writer Kimberly Sullivan and her recent novel Rome’s Last Noble Palace. Kimberly loves to weave a story that includes a contemporary and a historical perspective, in this case dual timelines. It is quite an alchemical process and a wonderful story about two women from different centuries in Rome, with one place in common the Palazzo Brancaccio.
Kimberly and I have beautiful chat about the writing process. Kimberly shares great advice on fiction writing and how she approaches the craft and the creativity of bringing it all together on the page and into book form.
This is a lovely chat about her book Rome’s Last Noble Palace and Kimberly’s writing and traveling adventures in Italy - Enjoy….
Shownotes:
Visit for books, news, blog and travel news: Kimberly Sullivan & Instagram @kimberlyinrome
Kimberly Sullivan’s Books:
Three Coins, Dark Blue Waves, In the Shadow of the Apennines, Drink Wine and Be Beautiful: Short Stories
Listen to our first conversation on the Podcast Series: Drink Wine and Be Beautiful
Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women at Net Galley
Check out: Baedekers Guidebooks
Visit the Castello Brancaccio at San Gregorio da Sassola
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Steven King
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Rome’s Last Noble Palace
by Kimberly Sullivan
Two women. Two different centuries. One attic room
American Isabelle Field has been shipped off to Rome to live with her aunt, Princess Elizabeth Brancaccio. Isabelle’s aunt and mother share a common goal – replicating Elizabeth’s success by marrying Isabelle off to a European nobleman.
But Rome in 1896 is on the cusp of a new century and Isabelle longs for more than a titled husband. She secretly designs costumes for Rome’s burgeoning theatre environment and dreams of opening a fashion atelier. Can she gather the courage to forge a life for herself, even if it means going against expectations?
Over a century later, doctoral candidate Sophie Nouri can’t believe her good fortune when she is selected to intern in Rome’s Near Eastern Art Museum. Even better, the position includes an attic apartment in the spectacular museum property, the Palazzo Brancaccio.
Overseeing a major exhibition is stressful, but tension alone can’t explain the disturbing nighttime presence in the deserted hallways of the grand palace – especially one no one else can sense. Almost as if a spectral being is trying to communicate with Sophie directly. Or warn her.