Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we managed to connect. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: It goes perfect with the book. It's about time, and
that's what we had to do. We had so much
time to keep planning, keep planning, keep planning. It's like
we've lived out our own web of time here exactly perfect.
Speaker 2: This is a perfect segue.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it for this book to come together. I mean,
you really do cover a lot of ground in the
way of bringing creativity to a level of getting inside
our imaginations. You're the one that wrote it. How did
you plant the seeds to come up with the paragraphs?
Speaker 2: That is such a good question, and thank you for
asking it. So it really is a book that came
together in time. No pun intended it. It was something
that took about a year of ideas in the back
of my head to really come together. And it was
really motivated not just by time, but time in specific places.
It was time. It was time that I've spent and
been new in Rome and Tunis, in Tripoli, in these
incredible ancient cities that have really both been incredible at
handling modernity but also struggled with it. And so from
that was kind of born this question around how do
these cities handle time? And then also if they had
gods attached to them, how would those gods handle time?
And how would that affect humans? And that's really where
the idea came from.
Speaker 3: See that right there in itself says, so time has
a purpose, time has a plan, and then if it
is controlled by the gods, oh my god, now we've
got leadership.
Speaker 2: But do we have leadership? If you know? In the story,
I think we find that there are so many different
factors playing in it, not least of which is the
importance of humans and also the free will and the
way that we prioritize both our time and the people
and places that we love.
Speaker 3: One of the things that you talk about is learning
how to listen without the judgment, and that right there
is I mean, I hope that somebody reads that or
feels it and it truly starts putting the steps forward
of experiencing it.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope so too.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's very much a book about you know,
it's about community, it's about voice, it's about connection, it's
about the right to find your way home and standing
up for each other. So both not judging ourselves and
I think we see that a lot in the main
characters as they're kind of growing, both the gods and
the humans. Really is not just their judgment of each other,
but their judgment of themselves and what's come before them
and how they approach that.
Speaker 3: That's interesting that you bring that up, because I was
just studying that a couple of weeks ago, about the
judgment of self, and that's the reason why people would
rather choose to live in the past and not being
the present, because being in the present is uncertainty and
people don't like uncertainty.
Speaker 2: Right right. And one of my favorite gods of the
book is Tavide. He's the Roman god of the River,
and that's really how we see his storyline play out.
Is you know, is he going to be able to
accept the fact that the city that he loves, Rome,
that he's guarded for so many centuries. Is he going
to be able to be modern with Rome? Is he
going to grow with her? Or is he going to
be so obsessed with the past that he's not able
to move into today and ultimately tomorrow.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you about that, the importance
of cultural cross pollenization. I mean that seems to be
a big issue here as well, because I mean, can
we work with the past as well as the future?
Speaker 2: I hope very much so. I think I think we
see that a lot. And that's really, you know, in
one of the main themes of the book is cultural
cross pollination, each other's stories, the fact that what brings
us together is so much stronger than what could ever
try to tear us apart. But there are moments where
we we live with being uncomfortable. I think we've all
seen that when we're in new places, right you're uncomfortable
and there's a moment where you kind of resist. Do
you resist or do you take what you know and
bring it forward into what you can know and make
a new color from all of the colors that you
already know. Are we going to cross pollinate or are
we going to get left.
Speaker 3: In the past in a really creative way. It's like
you're saying, I understand family traditions, but you need to
go out there and learn new traditions. You can call
it your own for your days, your own.
Speaker 2: Path, Yes, but I think also in respect for the
traditions that you hold dear to your heart, I truly
believe in the travels that I've gotten to have and
the ones that I hope to have in the future,
and all of the different cultures, and also as an
Italian myself, I deeply value tradition, and I do think
that there's a place for bringing what we hold dear
and remembering that and bringing it also with us. And
I do think that our colors add on to each other.
I don't think we have to forget or I hope
we don't have to forget where we come from, but
also in respect of where other people are coming from
to make a new path forward.
Speaker 3: I can still relate with that because I grew up
in the state of Montana, who really loves their western appeal.
But yet as now that I'm in Charlotte, which is
a city of two million plus, it's like, when I
go back to Montana, I don't want to be in
that tradition anymore, because it's because it's like you grow
beyond it, and I don't want that eighteen eighty eight
kind of a vibe.
Speaker 2: Right, of course, And I think it also depends also,
I mean both amazing places, right, I think there are
amazing things that you bring from both of those places
and those different times and you know, when I come
back to Rome is my home city, so it's steeped
in history, and there was a bit of discord at
first when I was I grew up in the US,
and coming back to Rome in the beginning was quite
difficult for me. It was such a culture shock, even
it was supposed to be home, I think primarily because
it was supposed to feel like home. And it took
some time, and I think one of the things that
ended up being the best thing for me was kind
of loving the history of it and realizing that you
don't have to only live in the history of it,
right you can bring today with you. And that's that's
what I love about Rome, is that it's trying to
be into the in the modern and I say that
in terms of the city and in terms of the
culture and the people and how much we can we
can bring with us.
Speaker 3: That's so interesting that you bring that up, because as
a third degree black belt, one of the things that
my asabonym always told us, he says, you will not
not get even your first black belt unless you know
the history of how we got to this moment. And
that's what I love about this is the fact that
we're getting a history lesson, but you're also teaching us
to grow forward.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, and look toward the future and hopefully the
future together.
Speaker 3: Coming up next, we've got more with Flavia Brunetti. Thanks
for coming back to my conversation with author Flabbia Brunetti.
One of the things that listeners need to understand is
that this is a book for all readers, YA to
middle aged and beyond. And the reason why is because
you say time changes by way of how the human evolves,
and that to me is a very important message.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that you brought that up. Thank you,
Thank you for bringing that up. It's very, very true.
It's a book that I originally the story came about,
I wanted it to be middle grade, so I wanted
it to be a children's book. It ended up really
developing into a young adult book. But like you said,
it really applies itself to two older generations, to new generations,
and it's really I mean, I speak as the author,
of course, but I'm super happy that you agree. I
also think it's a book that applies to Also, I
love that it's it's also for adventurers. It has so
much armchair travel and you know, it's also for people
who haven't been to these places yet but who are
also interested in My favorite part of read of writing
it actually was even going in even deeper into the
histories of Tunisia, of Libya, of Rome. And of course
those are histories that you can never really learn everything,
but so much of it was just about finding those
little bits and pieces that I got from living there,
and hopefully people will go and experience those places and
build on that even more for themselves if they haven't
been yet.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like a historian or do you feel
like it's like, Okay, I'm here and I have witnessed this.
Now I want to put it in a book form
to where I can get people to you know, it's
like Greek mythology. I mean, you're creating this environment where
you're creating characters where all readers can say, I can
get into this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really hope. So it really truly was a
mix of Some of it is traditional mythology taken from
both Greek and Roman. Some of it is like a
brand new panteon, yes, and mixed with it's mixed with
the real histories, and that's kind of what I love
about the genre. Of you know, grounded fantasy is that
you're taking the real, but you're also building on it
and mixing in the fantastical. And so the mythologies, some
of them are you know, you find it also in
some of the gods. They're taken from from other gods,
from gods that the Romans had, that the Greek population had.
But then there are some that are that are gods
that are tied to their places, like David is the
river god of Rome. Nafusa is a real mountain, a
string of mountains in Libya. So it's it's all got
a little bit of of of everything.
Speaker 3: I like to think as you went into each town
in village, it's personality. How how were you able to
capture it so easily? Or was it easy?
Speaker 2: Oh h, it wasn't easy. I think I wouldn't do
it justice to say that that it was easy to
I've lived in two of the three places. I've lived
in Rome, Roman my home city. I've lived in Tunisia.
I've spent a lot of time in Tripoli. They are
all places that I have fallen in love with. But
like I was saying before, there are those moments you
have to get to know a place. You know, there's
no way around the awkward phase, right, you have to
be okay with being embarrassed. There's a whole series of things.
I really feel like I had the opportunity to steep
in those places. But then at the same time, it's
never enough, right. There's an old saying in Italian that
in Rome, a lifetime is not enough, and I think
that's also true of Tunisia and Libyan, all of these places.
So I don't want to say that I know all
of the layers by any means, because I'm also outside
of Rome. I'm a guest, right, so there are so
many other things that I don't know. But I think
that we can all.
Speaker 3: Discover a lifetime is not enough. But yet right away
I'm thinking, well, it's because we've all lived this life before.
We're coming back. We're just going to continue the story.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 3: One of the things that you bring up that really
come is very warm to my heart, kindness art and language.
I mean, we all step into different, multiple levels, but
I mean a kindness art that seems like I would
love to see that on a T shirt or on
a poster, you know, because people need to understand that
kindness is an art.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And I when I when I was writing it,
I wanted the three great portals to be those three things, kindness, art,
and language. And I remember that in the beginning. One
of a friend of mine who's reading it said, oh,
but I don't know that kindness has a place there
with art and language, And I said, well, I think
that kindness is what makes the world go round. Kindness
and love, and that's that's that mixes into into our language,
it mixes into our art. So exactly like you said,
I mean, that's a form of art. So for me,
those those were the three great portals that we really
had to tackle for this phase of the story.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, now, so then let's let's think of what
modern day times here. Are you going to turn this
into a binge watch on Netflix or Hulu? Or are
you going to try to get this into animation? What
happens next?
Speaker 2: So I hope so very much. In terms of the
literary side, so it is it can stand alone. But
I don't think we're done with this story yet, so
I'm working on a sequel. But then at the same time,
my publisher, Blue House Literary, is a piece of Blue
House Media, and they want to make something visual with it.
One of the things that they developed for a launch
that I did here in Rome a couple of weeks ago,
actually is this beautiful visual of what the Great Portals
might look like and the music that went with it,
and that just like exploded a bunch of different ideas
for us. So we're definitely looking at how to turn
this into something else, because I think it really lends
itself to any kind of visual or to music or
to I love your idea of like a Netflix show.
I mean, I think there are so many different ways
that we could take this.
Speaker 3: Is it on audible because I'm such a big audible thing.
And the reason why is because I would love to
hear the interpretation of another voice reading the paragraphs to
me so I can envision it. Because you know how
we are as readers. We hear our voices in our head,
but it's your words.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, So it's not an audible yet, but
we are working on that.
Speaker 1: I love it. Where can people go to find out
more about you and give you some love?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's such a sweet question, Thank you.
So I'm super easily locatable. I'm on substack. I'm at
Flavianroome dot substack dot com. I'm also on Instagram. I'm
Which Way to Roam on Instagram and then of course
you can find out more about the book at webethtimebook
dot com.
Speaker 3: You got to come back to the show anytime in
the future. The door is always going to be open
for you.
Speaker 2: No Ero, thank you so much. It's been such an
honor to get to chat with you today.
Speaker 3: Well, it's been fun this little journey of you know,
locating each other. I mean, it's like looking for the
diamond in the rough and it's like, can we finally
get to talk?
Speaker 1: And that, to me is part of our story now
I love it.
Speaker 2: I love he to the next part of our story.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much. Eral you too,