Michele Jaffe: Kitty Kitty

Hi gorgeous Harperteenlettes!

So I’ve been informed that in this space I’m not supposed to just talk about This and That and Candy, but rather my book, KITTY KITTY. So: KITTY KITTY is the sequel to BAD KITTY and it’s set in Venice, Italy. The first question everyone asks me—I mean apart from How do I stop acting like the Queen of the Giggling Loons when talking to my crush (see www.michelejaffe.com/blogspot) or Do your really wear sparkly shoes all the time? (A: Yes! Except in the shower)—is Why did you set your book in Venice?

KITTY KITTY takes place in Venice because it is a city crammed with Mystery and its best friend Wonder and I wanted a place that would be a real challenge for my heroine Jas’s hair due to the humidity making it massivo and also, I just love it there because it is the bOnKeRsEsT place on the planet.

For one thing: there are no cars.

For another: they serve ice cream with lit sparklers in it.

Yes.

Also there is a restaurant with 142 kinds of pizza.

But the best thing about Venice, and Italy in general, is that every month there’s a special national holiday. And every holiday has a special cookie or fried treat. Honestly, if that is not the most brilliant idea in the world, I do not understand the definitions of ’most’ and ’world.’

Take San Martino day. For some reason this day involves all children under seven putting on clown make up and wandering through the streets banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons which, if you are trying to write a book and were up all night and they are ranging around beneath your window, is, um, special (to pick a random example). But it also involves these cookies about the size of my face, in the shape of a knight on horseback onto which magic elves then glue CHOCOLATE CANDIES. Still wrapped up! So first you get to eat the candies, and then you get to eat the cookie! And then you get to fall into a sugar coma! Until the next morning when you get to do it again!

(Yes, they are really magic elves. No, I cannot tell you how I know. They swore me to secrecy when I visited them in their...oh no I already said too much!!!)

But my all time 100% favorite thing is during Carnivale, which takes place in the month before Easter (i.e. now), when the frittelle arrive. There’s no real way to describe frittelle except to say that "fritto" means fried so the literal translation of their name is "tiny fried object filled with unspeakable deliciousness." They are sweet and can come studded with raisins or filled with cream or drizzled with chocolate or dusted with cinnamon or just dipped in sugar. You can get them pretty much anywhere this time of year and somehow they are always hot out of the frying pan and they kind of melt in your mouth and...

What? This was supposed, finally, to be about my book? Oh. Well, there are no frittelle in my book because I decided that would be cruel. But I will talk about my book next time I blog, I swear. In the meantime, I’m looking for a place to set Bad Kitty 3 so leave me a comment about what the MOST delicious thing you’ve ever eaten is and where it was.

Be supergelatotastic!

Airkisses,
Michele

Michele Jaffe
Author of Bad Kitty, and the forthcoming Kitty Kitty

www.michelejaffe.com
www.myspace.com/michele_jaffe<