Tule Author Q&A: Elsa Winckler Talks Interior Inspiration

Elsa Winkler had a chance to talk to us about her new release An Impossible Attraction.

Did you have to research luxurious hotels for this project?
Yes, I did. I loved it. The chances of me ever staying in any place so luxurious are absolutely zero, so this was a project I really enjoyed. Looking at pictures of the luxury money can buy? Almost as good as tying to find the right face for one of the heroes ️

How did you channel your inner designer to get inside Zoe’s head?
Again the internet helped a lot in this regard. I searched websites of hotels, scanned through the interior of the rooms and studied the designs that appealed to me. I have been to the Seychelles once, many years ago and fell in love with the beautiful  islands. Since then boutique hotels have sprung up all over the islands and I found one that I was sure belonged to the Cavallo brothers! Luxurious in an understated, quiet sort of way.

What is Dale’s favorite kind of food? 
Their mom, Rosa is Italian and has her own restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa. So of course he loves pasta and any Italian cooking.

What’s next for the Cavallo brothers?
David and Dana’s story will follow this one. David is the more laid back of all the brothers – that is until he meets Dana, his new sister-in-law’s gorgeous friend.

What are you currently reading?
I have Jane Porter’s Not Christmas Without You on my Kindle, but I before I can finish reading that, I have two of Joanna Trollope’s books to read – City of Friends and An Unsuitable Match. Organizers of a literary festival in Stellenbosch (the lovely student town that is mentioned in An impossible Attraction) invited this British author to South Africa in March as a guest-speaker. I am one of the fortunate authors who will get to meet her – something I’m really looking forward to.

I have been reading love stories for as long as I can remember and when I ‘met’ the classic authors like Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry James The Brontë sisters, etc. during my Honours studies, I was hooked for life. 

I married my college boyfriend and soul mate and after 43 years, 3 interesting and wonderful children and 3 beautiful grandchildren, he still makes me weak in the knees. We are fortunate to live in the picturesque little seaside village of Betty’s Bay, South Africa with the ocean a block away and a beautiful mountain right behind us. And although life so far has not always been an easy ride, it has always been an exiting and interesting one! 

I like the heroines in my stories to be beautiful, feisty, independent and headstrong.  And the heroes must be strong but possess a generous amount of sensitivity. They are of course, also gorgeous!  My stories typically incorporate the family background of the characters to better understand where they come from and who they are when we meet them in the story.