Sonia Amundsen looks like a Nordic goddess on the outside, but her heart, soul, and stomach are all Italian. She is also a successful professional who is about to celebrate her 30th birthday. Although friends have been setting her up on blind dates for two years, she never goes out on a second date with any of them because she is still looking for that perfect guy. The problem is that she has very specific criteria as to who Mr. Right is. Sonia is beginning to think that such a man is not out there until.... Set in the late 1980s, Sonia is surrounded by an extended Italian family, a caring, but over-bearing mother, warring aunts who use family funerals to stage full-blow tragedies, and a close friend, whose main goals in life are to get pregnant and to help Sonia find true love. The Second Date explores friendship and love in the heart of the Italian-American community where food is second importance only to love.
From the time I read Pride & Prejudice in high school a long time ago, I have been tinkering with the plot line. What if Elizabeth and Darcy were based on real people? What was Georgiana really like? What if Anne De Bourgh actually had a personality? In 2007, I decided to try my hand at writing a novel, and the result is "Pemberley Remembered," which I self-published. I was very fortunate in that Sourcebooks Publishing, which specializes in Austen sequels, liked my book and bought the publishing rights to it. It will be out in December with a new cover and title, "Searching for Pemberley." This new book contains all of the original characters from "Pemberley Remembered," but it also continues the story of Maggie Joyce.
Having grown up in North Jersey (Elmwood Park), I had a lot of Italian friends, and they were a lot more interesting than my Irish relations. I loved their food, their enthusiasm, their culture, etc. So I recently wrote a story about love in the Italian-American community entitled "The Second Date," which is now available on Amazon.
I graduated from Elmwood Park High School in northern New Jersey. After marrying my wonderful husband, Paul, we moved to Texas and raised two beautiful daughters. After retiring from a career as a legal secretary in Dallas, I had a second career as a special education assistant in the Howard County, Maryland and Peoria, Arizona School Districts. I enjoyed both careers, but I'm really enjoying being an author more than anything I have ever done.
