Authorpreneur Dashboard – Lynn Vannucci
Creole Son
Literature & Fiction
In 1872, French painter Edgar Degas is disillusioned by a lackluster career and haunted by the Prussian siege of Paris and the bloodbath of the Commune. Seeking personal and professional rebirth, he journeys to New Orleans, birthplace of his Creole mother. He is horrified to learn he has exchanged one city in crisis for another—post-Civil War New Orleans is a corrupt town occupied by hostile Union troops and suffering under the heavy hand of Reconstruction. He is further shocked to find his family deeply involved in the violent struggle to reclaim political power at all costs. Despite the chaos swirling around him, Degas sketches and paints with fervor and manages to reinvent himself and transition his style from neoclassical into the emerging world of Impressionism. He ultimately became one of the masters of the new movement, but how did New Orleans empower Degas to fulfill this destiny? The answer may be found in the impeccably researched, richly imagined historical novel, Creole Son.
Book Bubbles from Creole Son
Sex, Violence, Impressionism!
Creole Son by Michael Llewellyn was one of the first books I acquired for Water Street Press. I loved how it blended the sultry, mysterious, sexy, Spanish-moss hung side of New Orleans with the gun powder politics and political intrigue of the city in the midst of Reconstruction. But most compelling to me was the book's story - Edgar Degas's brief few months in New Orleans right after the Civil War, the way those few months in the Big Easy turned a talented traditional painter, albeit with a lackluster career, into one of the masters of the emerging Impressionist movement - and how this story was rendered by the author. The author, you see, is an artist himself. As I read this richly imagined fictional account of Degas's sojourn in the American South, the author's passionate descriptions of Degas's transforming technique made me feel as if I were the one wielding the brush.
The Muffia
Literature & Fiction
Madelyn Scott-Crane is a smart, 42-year-old professional mediator and single mom who's having the best sex of her life—after twenty-two months of self-imposed abstinence—inspired by the ladies of her book club, The Muffia, and the Muff’s latest racy read. But on their second date, as Maddie and her mysterious Israeli heartthrob, Udi, come together in orgasmic splendor that may or may not also be actual love, Udi collapses on top of her. Dead. When Udi’s “friends”—who resemble large appliances—arrive to claim his body, the Muffs decide that Udi had secrets, and they need to know what those secrets were. That’s when these well-read women put down their books and set out to expose the truth—whatever the dangerous truth might be. International intrigue combines with literary pursuits, lots of home-cooked food, and a little vibrator shopping. One book club, seven women with seven stories, more than seven fabulous meals and at least seven sex scenes all wrapped up in one smart, sexy novel that’s just this side of scandalous.
Book Bubbles from The Muffia
Put Me On a Beach with The Muffs
As a publisher, I start a lot of manuscripts - but I don't finish most of them. The first line has to grab me by the lapels and not let me go. When I picked up The Muffia by Ann Royal Nicholas I read the first line, then the first paragraph,then the first page - and then I got up from my desk, uncorked a bottle of pinot grigio and curled up in my cushy armchair for the duration. I knew I was going to read this one through right to the end. The only thing that could have been better about my first read of The Muffia was if I had been near sand and surf and the scent of coconut suntan lotion. This is classic beach reading.
