Interviews, Guest Posts, and Links

Interviews are a stimulating medium for sharing the latest news. Guest posts, on the other hand, act as a blank canvas on which to vividly reveal the story of a new book. Here are a few links to help you immerse yourself in the experience.

Interviews featured on Romanian National TV, in Romanian newspapers, and on Romanian and international podcasts:

Radio România Cultural: Născut în România by Dana Pitrop. Invitată: Patricia Furstenberg, scriitoare de origine română stabilită în Africa de Sud

Patricia Furstenberg Nascut in Romania Radio Romania Cultural interviu Dana Pitrop

Celebrating International Literacy Day: chatting with talented Magret Botman, Segment Manager Intermediate Phase Twinkl Ltd, about The Role of Storytelling in Literacy.

The Role of Storytelling in Literacy with Patricia Furstenberg on International Literacy Day for Twinkl South Africa
The Role of Storytelling in Literacy with Patricia Furstenberg on International Literacy Day for Twinkl South Africa

Recently I had the pleasure to chat about the unexpected friendships encountered in my children’s books with lovely Ciske Momberg, the Content Executive for Twinkl South Africa.

Romania Insider about my work ~ Chat on ‘Expat Life’ ~ Romanian Libertatea Newspaper ~ Romanian National TV TVR1 ~Story Radio UK ~ #CarteaDeVineri (Book Friday) ~ Romania Appreciation Week in Romania Insider ~ Promoting Romanian Traditions in Romania Insider .

For her books on Romania and her blog #Im4Ro, Patricia Furstenberg was included in Top 100 Romanians from Everywhere Category Art 2023, Top 100 Români de Pretutindeni, by Repatriot, as featured in Newsweek Romania.

For her books on Romania and her blog #Im4Ro, Patricia Furstenberg was included in Top 100 Romanians from Everywhere Category Art 2023, Top 100 Români de Pretutindeni, by Repatriot, as featured in Newsweek Romania.
“I am grateful to Repatriot for their encouragement and recognition.”

Invited to spend time with Author Lisette Brodey at her Writer’s Chateau

… and chatting about a writer’s life, about dogs and research.

Book list: The best short story books to make you dream about traveling on Shepherd website

Author of the Year at the Spillwords Press Awards MMXXIII.

Patricia Furstenberg Author of the Year 2022 Spillwords Press

interview with Gina Rae Mitchell about my book SILENT HEROES, a thoughtful book review. And I’m Author of the Week on her fabulous blog!

Chatting to Robbie Cheadle fromTreasuring Poetry about… poetry, about being a flâneuse, and about dogs!

BOOK TALK #CarteadeVineri meets Patricia Furstenberg LIVE on Facebook Friday 10 February 2023 18:00 UTC

International Author of the Month (February) – The Poet Magazine

Author in the Spotlight on Humanmade,net

Voted Author of the Month on Spillwords Press, October 2022

Interview Q&A with Patricia Furstenberg

Patricia Furstenberg Spillwords Press Author of the Month October

LIVE on Romania’s National TV Station TVR1

So much fun chatting on #CuCapuNZori LIVE Show on TVR1 with Anca and Bogdan. With heartfelt thanks to Mircea Mitrofan:

Guest writing, again, for Books By Women:

Learn How Astonishing Women from Romania’s Past Inspired Me as a Woman Writer while researching my latest historical fiction book Dreamland.

Talking to Andreea Archip from Libertatea Newspaper, Romania

Talking to Andreea Archip from Libertatea Newspaper, Romania, “cu drag”

A chat with Steve Allison from ‘Expat Life”, Radio Guerrilla:

Transylvania’s History in 100-word stories: An interview with the Romanian-born author on Romania Insider

Romania’s Transylvania has sparked the curiosity and interest of people worldwide, be it writers, film directors, historians, or travellers. Patricia Furstenberg, a Romanian-born author living in South Africa, has decided to tell Transylvania’s History from A to Z in a rather different way: a fascinating collection of short stories of exactly 100 words each.” Read the interview here.

An interview with Romania Insider during Romania Appreciation Weeks campaign

As part of Romania Appreciation Weeks campaign I responded to Romania Insider’s invitation to share with the world what Romania means to me. You can read my thoughts here.

Patricia Furstenberg on Romania Insider, Romania Appreciation Weeks campaign

Interviewed by talented writer Mary Schmidt on her website, When Angels Fly.

Un interviu in limba romana pentru Manuela Timofte, pe care o apreciez mult, pentru Masticadores Rumania, and in English for Gobblers Masticadores.

For the release of my latest book, Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for read the opening pages here – I did a few interviews with some amazing bloggers, as well as writing guest posts, their links below.

Silent Heroes by Patricia Furstenberg - interviews guest posts links

A powerful interview with lovely Jen, Books by Jen

Jen is a talented book blogger with a degree in World History, so this interview was that much more exciting. She said:
“It is a rare occasion reading not just a wonderful book but one by such a lovely author… I was so excited as a blogger, an aspiring writer myself, and a happy reader to interview such a wonderful author and person. As an avid reader and writer, I am always curious, as I am sure many people are, as to what draws authors to a certain subject matter. What inspired J.K Rowling to write Harry Potter? What makes Steven King dive into dark and disturbing worlds? What was C.S Lewis thinking when he spun out The Tales of Narnia? Where does that idea come from; where was it formed? What drives a person to write about Afghanistan, military dogs, and an ongoing decade-spanning conflict?” You can read the interview here.

Stacey from Whispering Stories invited me back for an interview on the Next Chapter.

It was an honor to visit her website again. I had a lovely chat with Linda about how my writing evolved, a few writing secrets involving Silent Heroes, and about the future.

For super-supportive Louise at Waggy Tales I wrote a heartfelt post on what inspired me to write Silent Heroes:

As it is cheerfully agreed between dog lovers, without the slightest necessity of scientific proof, there is a deep connection between canines and humans. Just as we can read their facial expressions, they can read our minds, even when we are not in the same room with them, yet plan on returning home – to find them waiting for us. But what about the dog’s extraordinary sense of smell?

An engaging guest post for talented Jen at Jen Med Book Reviews:

Before I even open a book, I run my fingers over its cover. I allow my tactile receptors to decipher its pulpy consistency. Warm to touch, without being in the sun, the feel of paper is earnest...” – read more in Secrets of a Book Cover and I urge you to do it as I have poured my heart into it.

Why We Need Contemporary War Fiction Written by Women

This is a guest post for the incredible website Books by Women.

Silent Heroes by Patricia Furstenberg - interviews guest posts links

I say a lot in this guest post, about women, women writers, and war literature.
“History also showed us that women who took to war were willingly followed by an army of men and women and that they won their battles much to their opponent’s dismay. Is it the fact that women can stand up for themselves in times of political upheaval what worries men or the fact that women could, eventually, bulldoze them? 

With such role models, although nowadays women have changed spear for pen, where has history brought us?” Read my guest post here.

Author Spotlight: Patricia Furstenberg on James J. Cudney’s This Is My Truth Now wbesite.

A Guest Post on Life Lessons I Took from Books for Mark Bierman, talented author and fellow author and blogger.

A great book can rekindle a blissful moment of pure happiness we once experienced, only to discard into a dusty corner of our minds. No book is useless from this point of view, any volume can become a true manna if read at the right time. We learn quicker from books, but books also help us clarify an experience we are currently dealing with. It can happen that a paragraph in a book is so enlightening that we see it as a life experience, allowing us to finally put into words a past even we went through, yet not fully dealt with.” – continue reading on Mark Bierman’s blog.

One of my all time favorite interviews and guest posts I did are for wonderful Linda  Hill, book blogger extraordinaire at Linda’s Book Bag and here are the links:

Staying in with Patricia Furstenberg

Joyful Trouble by Patricia Furstenberg, Cover by The Book Khaleesi
Joyful Trouble by Patricia Furstenberg, Cover by The Book Khaleesi

Yesterday I launched a new Linda’s Book Bag feature called Staying in with… because I wanted to afford authors the opportunity to showcase one of their books to blog readers. You can see the details here.

I’m delighted to be starting that feature with lovely Patricia Furstenberg. Pat has been on the blog before when I reviewed her book Puppy: 12 Months of Rhymes and Smiles here and with a couple of guest posts. One of those was about the importance of reading that you can find here and the other about how we celebrate diversity in children’s fiction blogged here.

Staying in with Patricia Furstenberg

Happy New Year! I’m delighted to be starting my new feature with you Pat. Which of your books have you brought along to share with me and why have you chosen it?

Happy New Year, Linda, from me and Joyful Trouble, the book based on the true story of a dog enlisted in the Royal Navy. Joyful Trouble is dear to my heart and a book I planned to write, although in the spur of the moment, being my entry in the 2017 Kindle Storyteller competition. It did so well, the friendly Great Dane with a heart of gold made it in the Top Reviewed and is still featured under Literature and Fiction on the Kindle Storyteller’s Amazon page.  Joyful Trouble was a Hot New Release, it reached No.1 in Children’s African Historical Fiction, No.1 in Children’s Dog eBooks, No.1 Best Sellers  in Africa for Young Adults, was Most Gifted in the Young Adults category and the Large Print edition of Joyful Trouble went up to #31 in Amazon UK Spiritual and Historical fiction

Read the rest of this lovely book chat on Linda Hill’s blog, Linda’s Book Bag, here. 

Wonderful Jessie Cahalin from “Books In My Handbag Blog”, @BooksInHandbag, made me feel welcomed and at home during her interview “Some ‘Joyful Trouble’ from South Africa, with puppy love…”

Born in Romania, living in South Africa, Patricia Furstenberg is the author of ‘Joyful Trouble’. ‘Joyful Trouble’ is a children’s book about a dog in World War II.  However, readers have stated that this heart-warming tale appeals to all ages and would make a great film.

The clear blue sky made an appearance on the day that Patricia Furstenberg arrived in the UK.  Patricia arrived in Heathrow after a ten-hour flight from Johannesburg.  Patricia was smiling and was easily recognisable amongst the crowds of people by the notebook she was holding, with papers of various sizes sticking out of it and by her brown handbag which I recognised from my Handbag Gallery. She was not fazed by her long wait for the luggage in the airport and the tiresome queues.   Instead, like a true writer, she was absorbed with her sense of place and the setting.

It took us about four hours to travel to South Wales but we chatted all the way.  Patricia spoke of her family, pets and ambitions.  It felt as if I had known Patricia for a very long time:  communicating by Twitter is great but meeting people face to face is even better.

You can enjoy reading the rest of this interview on Jessie’s blog, here.

Guest Post on the wonderful blog ‘Jen Meds Book Reviews’

The Long Path to Becoming a Writer

Writing is a fascinating endeavor. There is the labor of producing that finished manuscript, but there is something else to it as well, often overlooked. The path which brought an author to writing. For so many of us writing has not been the first career choice.

‘The Queen of Crime’, Agatha Christie, had first volunteered as a nurse during World War I, taking care of injured soldiers and helping medical doctors in an army hospital in Devon. She worked as a volunteer for over 3 000 hours between October and December 1914. It was the next year that she chose to specialize as a pharmacist. This job paid sixteen Pounds per annum, but it brought her a wealth of knowledge. Later, Christie used thirty different poisons in her crime novels! Sophie Hannah, the woman who revived Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in ‘The Monogram Murders’ and ‘Closed Casket’, had a secretarial job fresh out of university.

You can read the remainder of this interesting post here.

Thank you, Jen, I appreciate your support!

Interviewed by wonderful Susan Day, children’s author and marketeer:

Today’s guest children’s author is Patricia Furstenberg. Patricia is a good friend, and a wonderful author. She also loves dogs, and has created many stories about the lives of military dogs.

Her new book, Joyful Trouble, is a charming story about the close relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter, and the adventures of “Joyful Trouble”, a navy dog.

On Grandparents and Grandchildren:

I’ve often watched my parents interact with my children and noticed, with amazement, that special bond between them everyone talks about. It is an invisible string that makes them smile as soon as they lay eyes on each other and it pulls them together in a fun activity filled with laughter and giggles.My mother is the one they would want for pretend games, yet it is my father they prefer for story time. Perhaps because grandfathers, with their solid appearance, are nothing but gentle giants when it comes to their own grandchildren and, admit it, nothing can compare with a grandfather’s ability to mimic someone else’s voice!

I still remember my own grandfather telling my cousin and I a story with Prince Charming which used to pick his nose 🙂

You can read more about this wonderful interview here.

Thank you, Susan, for this great opportunity.

How To Organize a Great Blog Tour for Your Book

Interview for Enthralled Magazine.

The Writing Life of: Patricia Furstenberg, an interview with Whispring Stories.

Interviewed by lovely Samantha from ‘Nightmare Poet’

“I would like to say thank you to Mrs. Furstenberg for allowing me to interview her and giving me the opportunity to read and review her short story Joyful Trouble, I had fun reading it.” Read the rest of this wonderful interview here.

Thank you, Samantha, it was a lovely experience!

Interviewed by David P Perlmutter, bestselling author and marketeer:

” What should my followers know about you? – I come from the country that bestowed the world with Eugene Ionesco and Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade and Mircea Cartarescu. I grew up in Eastern-European Romania during the communist ruling, a time when there was severe censorship on the written word. But it was a good era too, a time when men would open the door for a woman and they would kiss her hand in greeting, taking off their hats. At least my father used to. I grew-up considering writers to be really heroic people. Back then writers could easily place themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time with their work. smile But as a job, writing would have hardly put food on the table. That’s why I studied Medicine; I have a degree in Dentistry. A few years after graduating I met my future husband and decided to move to sunny South Africa, for love. Family life soon proved beneficial because, in order to nurture my children, I had to find a way of nurturing myself, in my own way. And this is why I began writing again. I’ve always been a bookworm and writing has become second nature to me. Whenever I look back I remember having this feeling of well-being whenever I would put pen on paper. Reading Agatha Christie’s “An Autobiography” is what kindled my desire to take up writing seriously and later on winning two chapters of the “Write Your Own Christie” Competition in 2014.” You can read the rest of this fun interview here.

Thank you, David, it’s been a fun experience!

Guest Post on ‘Pocket Nannies UK’

Raising a Reader

“On Monday we featured a book by Patricia Furstenberg. Joyful Trouble is her latest book and we recommend it wholeheartedly. Patricia was kind enough to offer to write us a post about getting children into reading and bringing them up to really enjoy it.

“Raising a child who enjoys reading books might be easier said than done, at times, but, in the long run, it’s all worth it. I often think of my childhood and the feeling of excitement and wonder I felt when standing in front of my parent’s many bookshelves. So much to read, so much to look forward to! How old will I be when I’ll finish reading all these books? Those were the times, believe it or not, when technology meant a TV with a remote! My children were born in and live in the age of technology and it is a new challenge, for us as parents, to make sure that the love of reading is not being transformed in a tradition of the past, but rather remains a treasured pastime…”

Thank you, Siobhan, Sophie and Sarah, for inviting me to your website!

Guest Post on ‘Swirl and Thread’

Change of Address ~ I now live in a Book

“Have you ever wanted to live in a book? To just be able to jump into the pages and experience what it would really be like to live in a particular time, place or era? Well today, author of children’s novel Joyful Trouble, Patricia Furstenberg does just that in this fantastic and extremely imaginative post entitled ‘Change of Address ~ I Now Live In a Book’. I do hope you enjoy this post as much as I did when I first read it…

“You know that sinking feeling when you’ve just finished a book whose every page you loved, perhaps even read it for the third time? You cradle it to your chest and you almost want to cry, feeling lost and out of place in the reality of everyday life. Any passionate reader, I like to believe, has at least one book he would wish to step into, live inside its world, at least for a short while. Here are mine…” Read about my other four favorite books here.

Thank you, Mairead, for this wonderful opportunity. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this piece for your blog.

Guest Post on ‘Linda’s Book Bag’:

The Importance of Reading

“I truly believe reading is a joy all children need in their lives and am delighted that Patricia Furstenberg, author of the children’s book Joyful Trouble, agrees and has written all about that topic for Linda’s Book Bag today. Joyful Trouble was published on 16th April 2017 and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.”

Why Is Reading So Important For Our Children?

As a parent I would certainly want my children to grow up to be successful human beings. To have a good family life filled with love and understanding, friends to laugh and count on and a job they are happy to face every day…” Read the rest of this interesting post here.

Thank you, Linda, it’s been an honor to be invited to your blog.

Do come back for new interviews and guest posts, will surely post their links here.