1--What is the title of your latest release?
Love You a Latke
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Fake dating meets grumpy/sunshine during the holiday season!
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The book takes place in small-town Vermont and in NYC. I knew first that I wanted part of it to take place in NYC, where I live—the holiday season here is truly magical, and I wanted to showcase everything I love about it—and I needed somewhere within driving distance but that had a minuscule Jewish population, so I settled on Vermont.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Sure! We'd have fun going on a Hanukkah food tour and eating all the doughnuts.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Pragmatic, guarded, prickly.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
All the different ways to eat a latke! I did a deep dive into Hanukkah food, because the protagonists eat a ton of it and most of my latke experience has been limited to the standard sour cream or applesauce. The things people are doing to latkes these days are amazing and I want to eat all of them.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I'm done, because if I edit as I go then I never make it to the end. I usually keep a running list of notes I want to address and then go back when I finish.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Hot, fresh, crispy-but-still-soft-in-the-middle French fries. Or potato chips, kettle-cooked. Basically anything you can do with a potato.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
Ever since I had a baby, I write wherever and whenever I can squeeze it in, whether it's the couch, the kitchen table, or the floor.
10--Who is an author you admire?
V.E. Schwab. I really admire her persistence and her versatility.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Is it too cheesy to say my own?
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
Love You a Latke is my third book with my publisher, Berkley, after a two-book deal. I was waiting on tenterhooks to see if Berkley would want to buy my next rom-com after publishing my first two, but I also didn't want to raise my expectations too high and find myself disappointed. So when my agent called to say they'd made an offer on Love You a Latke, I was absolutely thrilled.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read pretty widely across genres! Obviously I love rom-coms, but I also love thrillers, mysteries, fantasies, and historical fiction. I'm also perennially trying to read more nonfiction.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I honestly don't watch a ton of movies, but I'll always have a soft spot for Mean Girls and The Princess Bride.
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn! I hate the heat, so when the air starts getting crisp, I celebrate.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Honestly, I'm not a birthday person. I usually have a nice dinner with my family and try not to think too much about my impending mortality.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I'm really enjoying the new season of Only Murders in the Building! If you're enjoying it too, definitely check out the Expectant Detectives series from Kat Ailes—it's a funny, delightful cozy mystery series about a new mom and her friends who get thrown into solving murders and dealing with babies at the same time.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I can't pick a favorite! But when it's my turn to pick the lunch special for the day, I do usually gravitate towards Japanese or Thai food.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I have a toddler—what is this thing called "free time"? When I do have a few precious free minutes, I usually try to read or sleep.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I have my debut cozy mystery/rom-com hybrid coming out next March under the name Bellamy Rose! It's called Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder and it's a riches-to-rags story about a hotel heiress who loses everything when her terrible grandmother is murdered and must solve the crime with the help of her hot new roommate, Gabe, if she wants her trust fund and former lifestyle back. However, is it really worth gaining it all back if it means losing Gabe?
Love comes home for the challah-days in this sparkling romance.
Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby's been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes.
Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There's one other: Seth.
As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.
Romance Holiday | Romance Comedy [Berkley, On Sale: October 8, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593815830 / eISBN: 9780593815847]
Amanda Elliot is the author of several young adult and middle grade books as Amanda Panitch. Sadie on a Plate is her first adult novel. She lives in New York City, where she owns way too many cookbooks for her tiny kitchen.
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