Conquering Venus Finds A Home!

My debut novel, Conquering Venus, will be published later this year as a paperback original by Vanilla Heart Publishing. I signed the contract on Tuesday thinking that it would be at least a year before the book would be available, but the publisher is so excited about Conquering Venus that she wants to rush it out over the summer. In most cases, this would not be possible, but Conquering Venus has been edited to within an inch of its life in the last 10 years as it was passed around to agents and editors. My friend and fabulous graphic designer, Elizabeth Holmes, is already at work on the cover, I'll have new author photos made in the coming weeks, and four incredible fiction writers (and I do mean incredible!) have agreed to blurb my baby. So, what's the novel about?

In the summer of 1995, young American writer Martin Paige agrees to help chaperone a group of high school seniors on their graduation trip to Paris as a favor to his best friend, teacher Diane Jacobs. Diane hopes Europe will act as a catalyst to lift Martin from his grief following the suicide of his lover, Peter. But the trip proves to be more than either of them bargained for, as Martin finds himself falling in love with one of her students, David McLaren, who is unprepared to cope with his burgeoning sexuality. 

Once in Paris, Martin meets a mysterious widow, Irène Laureaux, who is debilitated by agoraphobia and spends her days spying on the hotel guests across from her apartment. Martin and Irène discover they have a logic-defying connection: a small tribal tattoo on their left hands that means “equal but opposite.” This is same tattoo that Martin’s lover and Irène’s husband had inked into their skin. 

All the characters lives are irrevocably changed in a horrifying terrorist attack at a Paris metro station. Liberated by the blast, forced from her own self-imprisonment, Irène learns her husband’s death was not an accident, and dares Martin to acknowledge the role he played in Peter’s suicide. Diane, harboring her own secrets, takes a drastic step to force David out of the closet and admit his feelings for Martin.

  From America to England to France, the globe-hopping story places fictional characters amidst historical events such as the Nazi occupation of Paris, the student/worker riots of 1968 and the terrorist bombings of Paris in 1995. 

Conquering Venus is the first book in a trilogy, and I'm already 200 pages into volume two and working on an outline for volume three. I have so much work to do over the next six months -- and for the next couple of years -- that I'm numb with a mixture of excitement, fear and total disbelief. In February, Conquering Venus will have its own blog, where you'll be able to find out more about the characters, read a longer synopsis, get a sneak peek at the first chapter, see photos from the trip I took to Europe that inspired the story and an interactive map of the locations in the novel. 

I hope everyone will help me celebrate the culmination of what has been a life-long dream. I can now officially call myself a novelist.