Meet The Author: Nancy Barone

Wendy reviews books set in Italy. For more articles like this one, subscribe to her Substack channel Italy Writers and get in touch via Sunflower Publishing. Privacy policy.

“Within eight months I went from stumbling over Italian verbs to writing essays without a single spelling mistake.”
Nancy Barone on adapting to Sicily at twelve

Early Disruption and the Shaping of a Voice

Nancy Barone describes her childhood move from Canada to Sicily with a single word: seismic. At twelve, she was convinced her parents had uprooted her life without warning. Her mother longed for her own family after years abroad, and Sicily promised warmth, familiarity and a slower pace. For a child caught mid-stride between worlds, the adjustment was fierce.

The Sicilian classroom arrived like a storm. She understood Italian, but only in the loose way children pick up a language at home. Studying Achilles and Italian anthologies in a demanding system was something else entirely. She pushed through it, guided by pride and a stubborn determination to catch up. By spring she could write fluently, and that early struggle marked her outlook for years.

Her mother’s large Sicilian family filled the house with constant noise and food and conversation. Relatives arrived in clusters, twenty at a time, easing the transition. At school she looked different from her classmates yet remembers no cruelty or suspicion. Instead, she found a circle of friends she still treasures. Sicily became home, even if it took its time settling into her bones.

“I believed in Erica before anyone else did. She was vulnerable and sharp and impossible to ignore.”
On creating her breakthrough character

Initial Steps into Storytelling

Nancy’s interest in writing began long before she reached Sicily. At junior high in Canada, her teacher, Miss Ford, set aside an hour each week for creative writing. Nancy thrived. She wrote school plays, festive sketches and short pieces whenever they were needed. It was the first time an adult said, clearly and without fuss, that she had talent.

That encouragement carried her through to university. At Pisa she studied English and French literature, reading writers whose sentences left a mark: Woolf, Dickens, Shakespeare, Apollinaire, Baudelaire. She carried a notebook filled with lines she wanted to remember. The desire to blend humour with a thread of emotional depth grew from those years.

Classroom as a Second Home

After graduating, she trained as a teacher. Publishing felt remote, so a stable role in education offered a practical path. She later secured a position within the Italian state school system through the concorso, a notoriously demanding national exam. She placed forty-third out of nine thousand candidates and still recalls the shock of seeing her score among the successful names.

Today she teaches English to students aged eleven to fourteen in a small fishing village near her home. She credits teaching with sharpening her awareness of how different minds work. It has provided stories, patience, discipline and an unexpected form of self-knowledge.

“My husband filmed the moment I opened the acceptance email. My face said everything.”
On her first publishing offer

A Novella Opens the Door

Nancy’s first published work began almost by accident. A publisher announced a call for 35,000-word novellas. She wrote a paranormal romance centred on two immortals bound to one another through a strange, fated cycle of death and rebirth. She submitted it, then returned to her daily routine.

Her husband found the acceptance email first. He marked it unread and waited for her to come home. When she saw it herself, he filmed the moment. It was a turning point she had not dared to imagine.

Matera and the Surprise Pitch

Another defining moment occurred at the Women’s Fiction Festival in Matera. During a panel, a speaker asked for a volunteer to pitch a novel idea in thirty seconds. He pointed at Nancy. Walking to the stage, she felt blank with panic. Then, in the few seconds before speaking, an idea surfaced. A woman reinventing her life. A collapsing marriage. A move to Tuscany. A job that gave her structure when everything else was slipping.

The room responded. Many women nodded as she spoke. That spontaneous pitch became the seed of The Husband Diet and the birth of Erica Canelli.

Creating Erica’s World

Much of Erica’s universe came from Nancy’s own experiences. After university she had worked in a Sicilian hotel, long before she became an author or teacher. The unpredictable guests and backstage dramas supplied ample inspiration. Erica had to be good at her job, even when her personal life faltered. Nancy enjoyed writing her because the character shifted in unexpected directions, creating scenes that made her laugh even as she typed them.

Rejection, Persistence and the Midnight Query

Her search for a publisher stretched across a list of one hundred submissions. Ninety-nine went unanswered. On New Year’s Day, after midnight, she sent one final query with her strongest chapter attached. She expected nothing. A week later she received an email saying the writing had made the publisher laugh and cry in the same chapter. It became her first full-length publishing contract.

The novel grew into a trilogy. Readers responded to Erica’s honesty and resilience. Nancy learned to handle reviews with more equilibrium, reading what was useful and leaving the rest behind.

“Landing at Gatwick feels like stepping into my own living room.”
Her connection to England

Cornwall, Change and a New Series

Nancy’s Little Cornish series grew from her fascination with the Poldark landscapes. After watching the adaptation, she visited Cornwall, travelling across the coastline and small towns with a notebook in hand. The region’s raw beauty and sense of drama made an immediate impression. It introduced a new backdrop to her writing, distinct from the heat and colour of Sicily.

She feels an unusual closeness to England. Her husband is from Blackheath, and she visits several times each year. The culture, countryside and rhythm of the UK have shaped her imagination almost as much as Italy.

Genre, Voice and the Direction of Her Work

Nancy is known for romcoms and contemporary women’s fiction, and she embraces both. Her books often explore women at turning points in their lives, carrying humour alongside moments of emotional honesty. Recently her writing has leaned further into women’s fiction, examining relationships, friendships and the realities of midlife.

She credits writers such as Judy Blume, Jennifer Weiner, Holly Martin and Freya North for shaping her early reading. Childhood favourites including Freaky Friday and Charlotte’s Web still hold a place in her memory.

Life, Work and the Creative Rhythm

Her husband remains her strongest supporter. When she enters her writing routine, he takes over cooking, housework and everything else that would pull her away from the page. She is currently editing her next novel, a story that moves between a wellness clinic in the Alps and Sicily. It is scheduled for release in July.

She may write full-time eventually, although she continues to teach for now. Writing forms part of her life, but she does not chase attention. The few times readers have recognised her in bookshops still feel surreal, though she treasures those moments.

Her upcoming novel explores transformation, memory and the ways two lives can reflect across time. It continues her interest in characters who rebuild themselves with a mix of humour, grace and grit.

Nancy Barone writes with instinct, discipline and a perspective shaped by two continents. Her stories draw from real struggles and small triumphs. She writes with curiosity, grounded in lived experience and sharpened by years of teaching and reading. Her work has grown steadily, one book at a time, guided by a voice that feels both warm and unwavering.