Watching Lillianna leave behind a career that had brought a lot of unhappiness into her life, making the journey to a new country, and then creating a new life for herself, in many ways reminded me of my own love of travel. It was also a reminder of how a shift in direction is sometimes exactly what we all need in order to feel inspired and excited again about our own journeys.

Robert Babirad – 12 June 2022

The Back Flap

This book is about a successful New York City attorney, Lillianna who is settled in her life and career and seems to have it all.  She is suddenly forced to travel across the world to Budapest with no set date of return or lose her job.  Lillianna is assigned to a special project in the firm’s Budapest Office where she is responsible for completing a brief that will be submitted to the European Court of Justice.   The project requires a special degree of familiarity with Budapest in order to be effectively completed.  An accidental meeting leads her to a handsome young local professor who agrees to help with the research components of the brief.  As the two enjoy and learn about Budapest’s rich culture and history together, their feelings toward each other begin to grow.  A relationship gradually develops, only to be jeopardized when Lillianna is suddenly dropped from the project and expected to return to the New York office.  Will Lillianna embrace the new life she has developed in Budapest or return to the comfortable, but routine life that she has planned and built in New York?

About the book

When did you start writing the book?

I started writing the book over the course of a summer last year.

How long did it take you to write it?

It took me about two months to write the book once I had all of the main ideas developed and researched.

Where did you get the idea from?

The idea came from a number of experiences and places in my own life.  Budapest was a city where I had spent a significant amount of time and had both an interest and familiarity with it.  It therefore emerged as the primary setting around which I wanted the story to be based.  New York City and the surrounding area was where I grew up, so I chose that as the natural setting for the law office of the protagonist.  My own experiences in the New York legal field provided me with the material for the law firm and the varying situations that my protagonist finds herself in.  Additionally, I have been interested for a long time in European Union Law and ended up going to London for my Masters in it.  This background provided me with the material for Lillianna’s assignment and the amicus brief that she is assigned to complete.  My personal interest in history, experiences and background in both New York City and Budapest, my time in the New York legal arena, and then my studies, writing, and work in the wide and intricate field of European Union Law all came together in the creating of this story.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

It was challenging to make sure that everything fit together correctly.  For example, I had to fill in certain plot holes later on to explain how the protagonist and the love interest had met at an earlier time.  However, that also required that I explain why when they did meet many years later, and in a different city, they didn’t recognize each other. There were challenges within the plot like that specifically that I realized had to be taken care of before the story could be completed.

What came easily?

Writing about the places in Budapest and New York City came relatively easy to me.  It was also fairly easy to write about the experiences in the New York City legal field that my protagonist encounters, because of my own time within that world.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

My characters are entirely fictitious in this story.  They employ bits and pieces in their characteristics of people who I have known and met.  However, in this novel each of my characters is really their own person and not based upon anyone specifically.  I would say though that the lawyers in my story are the strongest characters that are most based on certain archetypes that I have encountered on my own journeys.

Do you have a target reader for this book?

I wouldn’t say that I have a target reader specifically for this book.  I think it would appeal to anyone interested in travel and specifically Budapest.  Readers who like romance and history would also be individuals who I think would enjoy this novel.  I think lawyers who have long thought about escaping from the legal profession or anyone who has envisioned a new and different life for themselves, might also enjoy reading about my protagonist.  Hopefully, the story might even give them inspiration of their own to make changes that they’ve always thought about in their own lives, but haven’t yet acted upon.

How was writing this book different from what you’d experienced writing previous books?

This book is significantly different from my writing of previous books.  It brings in a lot of history and research about the various places that the characters travel to throughout the story.  It also draws upon European Union Law, which is something that I haven’t done in previous books.  This book combines romance, history, law, and a strong sense of place, which was a unique amalgamation of very different and unique areas being blended together into something new.  As a result, it was definitely something that I hadn’t tried writing previously.

What new things did you learn about writing, publishing, and/or yourself while writing and preparing this book for publication?

I learned a lot more about the intricacies of plot development while writing this book.  Additionally, the journey of my protagonist in many ways inspired me to get out there again and engage in another journey myself.  Watching Lillianna leave behind a career that had brought a lot of unhappiness into her life, making the journey to a new country, and then creating a new life for herself, in many ways reminded me of my own love of travel.  It was also a reminder of how a shift in direction is sometimes exactly what we all need in order to feel inspired and excited again about our own journeys.

End of Interview;

To find out more about Robert Babirad, read his bio on the Touchpoint Press website. You can also follow his Facebook page.

Get your copy of Love in Budapest from Amazon US or Amazon UK.