Victoria Avilan

Nominated for Lambda, Golden Crown and Rainbow Awards 2015.Can one memory haunt and influence your entire life? Excerpt from chapter 28: "Shelli had been shy at first, then demanding, directing. Rona had become freshly fascinated with her own hands, at how well they played that newness, that softness, that warmth. Her hands knew the correct fingering and positioning without instructions. That act of love came naturally. She was playing the violin, the cello, the entire orchestra, in legato, legatissimo and molto vibrato. At last, down on her knees, she'd put her mouth on that versatile new instrument. Until the gasp came. The gasp hadn't been hers, hadn't been Shelli's. Suddenly her boy-lover towered over them." This book almost reads itself, so sure-footed is the pacing, the ease of being drawn in despite some unease about what is written; I admire the way the author does not intrude on her characters (and thus her readers) with the pointed finger of too much message forcibly delivered. A reader's ease and ability to identify with each main character is to have witnessed Avilan's magic literary show. As a reader, one leans into this character or that one, or all of them, as readily as one turns the pages. One of the hallmarks of a well-designed and well-written story, for me, is whether the characters stay with me long after the book is done. Do they ever! Read this book at your own peril and your own pleasure because it will make you feel. And you will remember the people from A Small Country About to Vanish." By Historical Romance author T. T. Thomas.

A Small Country about to Vanish

The Art of Peeling an Orange, set in sizzling, contemporary West Hollywood, is the art of glorifying and eroticizing the dual pains of love and lust. It is a gender-bending, risque take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The story's powerful structure, colorful characters, and magical themes echo the ancient story of the lovers in the Underworld. What do you do when your lover has eloped with another woman on the eve of your wedding? The other woman is a famous beauty named Anna Garibaldi, and you are heartbroken. To add insult to injury, the one who has abandoned you dies unexpectedly. Where do you go from there for solace, for justice? If you are Carly Rosen, a portrait artist with huge imagination, you use your art to charm your way into the life and inner circle of the alluring Anna Garibaldi, whose seductive and secretive underworld is nothing you could have expected! You are doomed and you are blessed, and you don't know which you prefer. Excerpt from Chapter 46: She stepped into that huge hollowness, imperial and fearless in her bare feet, a beautiful, wild creature in its natural habitat. This basement was as familiar to her as the insides of her mind. She reached out, aware of everything in its place, and pulled on the edge of one ghostly sheet. The sheet slid off, sending clouds of dust into the already dusty air. "Welcome to the Land of the Dead," she announced. Dead, dead, dead...answered the echo."

Victoria Avilan

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