Amy Impellizzeri is a reformed corporate litigator turned writer. Her first novel, Lemongrass Hope, was named a Foreward Reviews’ 2014 INDIEFAB Finalist for Romance. She is also the author of a non-fiction book, Lawyer Interrupted, which is due to be published this year (ABA Publishing). Additionally, her articles and essays have appeared on The Huffington Post, The Glass Hammer, ABA’s Law Practice Today, and Yahoo Shine. Amy was kind enough to share the inspiration for her debut novel, what she enjoys most about life as a writer, and her thoughts on destiny. She also gave me a sneak peak at her next fiction project. To learn more about Amy and her work, visit www.amyimpellizzeri.com.
Will you describe your novel, Lemongrass Hope, in a few sentences? What type of reader might enjoy it?
Lemongrass Hope is the story of Kate Monroe Sutton and her complicated relationships with her family, friends, and especially two men: her husband, Rob, and her first love, Ian – both of whom she met on the same fateful night. Through some surprising twists – and a bit of magical realism woven into the story – Kate gets a true second chance to explore roads not taken, and the result is a confirmation of her greatest hopes, and also her greatest fears. It’s a story that – I hope – will have you looking at the “What If’s” in your life in a unique way.
The book has resonated with women who enjoy women’s fiction, and what I call “book club fiction” – that is, stories that are not formulaic, and that surprise you and give you something to talk about long after the book is finished. It has also resonated with young adults who have been swept up in the love story, and then are surprised by the twists. But Lemongrass Hope is not just for women! After all, everyone wonders about second chances, don’t they? Some of my best Amazon reviews and favorite email messages have been from male readers.
What inspired the story?
I started the book at a time when I had just taken (what was supposed to be) a year-long sabbatical from a thirteen-year corporate law career. It was a time in my life when I was having a lot of second thoughts about paths taken and not taken – primarily in my professional life. This “What If” question is as close to a universal thought as I have found – and so I decided to explore it in the context of a unique love story.
How long did it take to complete the book?
Technically years, but not really.
I worked on the book in fits and starts from about 2009 to 2013. I’d leave it and come back to it and every time I’d fall in love with the idea and the characters all over again. Then in the beginning of 2013, I was tired of hearing myself say I was “working on a novel.” I wanted to finish it. I committed to finishing the manuscript that year and set myself on a tight schedule. I also starting workshopping the book that year for peer review/critique, and worked with a wonderful professional editor that year. So, all told, it really took a year of focused work to finally complete the book.
I understand that you left your career as a corporate litigator to write. What’s been the best part of the transition to life as a writer?
I did! Although I didn’t transition immediately to full-time writer, and truth be told, I did not originally leave my corporate law gig to write fiction. When I first left the law, I was writing non-fiction and business articles, and I began working with a wonderful start-up company that helped promote and market women entrepreneurs. I spent over four years on the executive team of that start-up, including as VP, Community & Designer Relations, before stepping down in October 2014 to become a full-time writer.
There are so many “best parts” – working in my never-actually-been-to-yoga pants tops the list for certain. But truly what I love about this life is how connected I feel. When I was a corporate litigator working every day alongside brilliant litigation teams, in a Manhattan office building filled with hundreds of attorneys, I never felt as connected as I do when I receive a note from someone I’ve never met who reads something I’ve written in solitude and lets me know how it affected them – how it resonated with them. It’s a special feeling, and it’s one that more than makes up for the – ahem – fairly dramatic salary adjustment I’ve made in leaving the law!
Lemongrass Hope touches on the theme of destiny. Do you believe there are some events in life that are destined to occur? If so, have you seen destiny at work in your own life?
Well, I’m probably a little like Kate’s dad in Lemongrass Hope who says destiny is “just a fancy word for making the right choice.”
I do believe we have choices and a primary role in shaping our own lives, but I also recognize that some answers keep presenting themselves to us again and again for a reason. And I believe in connections between and among people – especially the kind of powerful, extraordinary connections that transcend time. So, if destiny is the intersection between those extraordinary connections and those answers that keep showing up in our lives – then yes, I certainly do believe in destiny.
My writing career feels like “destiny” in many ways. It was something I said “no” to many years ago – a decision that I do not regret for a moment – and something that I finally circled back to in my 40’s – a decision I also do not regret for a moment.
And of course, my children. That a 17-year old girl from a small town in Pennsylvania who had never really been anywhere else – could somehow cross paths with an Italian boy from Brooklyn, then let him talk her into falling in love with him, and eventually create these three creatures who so clearly were meant to exist … baffles my mind nearly every day!
What genre do you most enjoy reading for pleasure?
I love compelling women’s fiction and also historical fiction. I love everything that Jojo Moyes and Liane Moriarty write. I love can’t-put-the-book-down suspense and mysteries like Gone Girl and Girl on a Train.
Honestly, I love any book that helps me get lost for a little while. Beautiful Ruins is one of my all time favorites in contemporary fiction.
Do you have any other fiction projects in the works that you’d like to discuss?
I do! Thanks for asking. I’m working on my next novel that is – right now – titled “Secrets of Worry Dolls.” It’s about complicated family relationships – which I’m hoping is just as universal an idea as the “What If” idea explored in Lemongrass Hope!
Secrets of Worry Dolls is about sisters, mothers, courageous love, and fear. It will likely incorporate a bit of mysticism and magical realism as well, and it will – like Lemongrass Hope – have an international setting, in addition to the storyline in the United Sates. It will take place partly in Guatemala.
Thanks, Amy!