My soccer novel about an American girl playing on an Italian boys’ team in Italy was released as an e-book today. Since DEFENDING IRENE originally came out in 2004, a few sections will undoubtedly read more like historical fiction. But so many things hold up. Italian women and girls are making slow but serious headway … More Defending Irene was Released as an E-book Today
My name and heritage might be German, but I’ll be cheering for the Azzurri this Saturday, July 2, at 3:00 Eastern time and noon Pacific time on ESPN 2 when the Italians take on Germany in the Euro quarterfinal match. After all, once upon a time, my American son dreamed of playing for the Italian World … More Italy vs. German: Euro Cup 2016
On my bookshelf, I have all sorts of outdated Rick Steves guidebooks from the days my husband I roamed around Europe with our kids. In one of his books, he recommended that parents have their kids watch movies to help get them excited about different locations before they arrived. I remember picking up the Italian-dubbed … More A Few International Reads
Believe it or not, I’ve missed my little soapbox. Every once in a while I would find myself thinking that it would be nice to pull together a nice little rant on some topic or other. But then I’d think about my stack of undone student assignments. I know how hard it can be to … More Back to Blogging
I’m sure that it’s difficult for World Cup soccer players to hear each other over the vuvuzelas. When the words do make it through that drone, they probably have a difficult time understanding their own teammates. In many matches, they can only guess at what their opponents are saying. Goal appears to be universal even if the O-sound has a slightly different … More Soccer in any Language
Editors warn authors against putting things in their contemporary novels that will “date” the books unless a project is already anchored somehow in time. As I watched the Italians lose their final game of group playof th 2010 World Cup, I wondered whether DEFENDING IRENE had made the jump from contemporary sports fiction to historical sports … More Contemporary Fiction
Every year the Bank Street College of Education Book Committee reviews over 6000 titles. They put 600 of those books into their Best Children’s Books of the Year publication. The Bank Street College of Education recently put out a list of their Outstanding Books for the years 1997 to 2008 on their website. Each of the books on … More Best of the Best
ILBNH, otherwise known as InsertLiteraryBlogNameHere, included DEFENDING IRENE in their list of soccer books to read in preparation for the World Cup. My book certainly shows why Italians are so passionate for the Azurri. Soccer isn’t just the national game of Italy; it’s the national passion. But the bias against girls playing the game runs … More World Cup Fever!
Perhaps one of my favorite writing tricks of all time is to read every single word out loud. I do this for short stories and articles, cover letters and query letters, nonfiction books and novels. Any novelist out there might be thinking that this would take a lot of time. Too much time in fact. … More Reading the Griffin…Out Loud
Kristin Wolden Nitz 