Women's Fiction
Date Published: July 14, 2019
"Simultaneously compelling, intriguing, and effortlessly entertaining read. De Soprontu imparts views on themes of poverty, race, identity, strength, and deliverance, all tightly bound within this intricate psychological opera." KIRKUS REVIEWS
"VICES/VIRTUES is a beautifully written, strikingly moving, look at the interacting lives and diverse backgrounds of women in an unconventional profession" Indie Reader
Cristela had a childhood shrouded in secrets. Ashamed of their circumstances, her mother told lies and encouraged her daughter to do the same. As Cristela grew, she unraveled the lies, but found that deception is a hard habit to break. Now, as an adult, Cristela creates a secret alter ego as the dominatrix Mistress Clara.
By day, Cristela is a good-girl poster child. By night, Mistress Clara masters the hidden erotic realm of an S&M dungeon. With her knack for duplicity things should work smoothly except for one complication – friendship. The quirky array of fellow dominatrices at the dungeon are nothing like the stereotypes she expected. Divided between her affection for the girls at the dungeon and her desire to keep her fetish activities secret, Cristela fears her two worlds are colliding. Can Cristela break her history of deceit? In a world of vices and virtues, salvation isn’t something you find, it’s a path you make.
INTERVIEW
1.
Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.
I
do lots of things, some I really enjoy such as writing and travelling the
world, and others less enjoyable such as washing my children's laundry. Much
like Cristela, the protagonist of VICES/VIRTUES, I was raised welfare poor,
scholarship propelled into an Ivy league education and settled into the
vastness of the middle-class.
2.
Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes?
I
work best underpressure, meaning that without pressure I find ways to evade
work altogether. For this reason, I set a schedule of small daily writing goals
that I need to complete. Perhaps it's paranoid but I'm always fretting,
"What if I die tomorrow? I need to put all my thoughts to paper before I
go." (Are you listening George Martin? Get cracking with those books!)
3.
Tell me about your Book
As
the title implies, each chapter of VICES/VIRTUES focuses on vignettes
highlighting a particular vice or virtue. Cristela, the main character, is a
likeable but lost soul who has been raised by a mother obsessed with keeping
secrets. Even Cristela's identity as "the Puerto Rican girl who
wasn't" is a mystery to unravel. Her upbringing is what attracts Cristela
to the world of professional sado-masochism, since it offers her yet another
secret to maintain. However, the people she meets at her new part time job as a
dominatrix are surprisingly real and relatable. Soon she faces the problem of
rejecting her new-found friends or tearing down the walls between her separate
worlds.
4.
Book Genre
VICES/VIRTUES
is character-driven literature that strives to be moving, insightful and at
times a touch humourous.
5.
Appropriate age for readers
A
couple of salacious scenes make this an 18+ crowd pleaser.
6.
Any message for our readers
This
is DEFINITELY not your average s&m book. Many of the scenes take place in
the staff room which is just like any other office with cliques, backstabbing
and random chit chat - but instead of business casual attire everyone has
lingerie and thigh-high boots.
7. Story
As
a native New Yorker, Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" is one of my
favorite flicks. It's a moving mosaic of characters asian, black, white,
latino, young, old, stable, struggling and all of them, every single one is
capable of both good and evil. That's
the world I envisioned for the characters of VICES/VIRTUES - it's the real world where dichotomies such
as "vice" versus "virtue" don't exist. Every character is
real and in their ambitions, flaws and achievements they remind us of the
beauty and complexity of human existence.
About the Author
Beatrice De Soprontu began writing at the age of four, when she scribbled on the walls with a crayon. Now an adult, she mostly scribbles on her home computer surrounded by her noisy children and their less noisy father. Born and raised in New York City, (which includes: Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, maybe even Staten Island – a.k.a. the real New York and not the tourist trap that is Manhattan), she enthusiastically travels the world on a budget whenever she gets the chance.
Contact Links
Purchase Links
Amazon kindle version of Vices/Virtues
Amazon paperback version of Vices/Virtues
Barnes & Noble epub version of Vices/Virtues
Posts
No comments: