As an additional perk to VICES/VIRTUES 4.5 star rating, INDIE READER offered to showcase the following interview. Here are some excerpts:
‘”People don’t regret failure so much as they regret the countless possibilities lost to the impotence of trepidation.”
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What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
On the surface, VICES/VIRTUES is about Cristela Davila, a bright young woman who works at a real estate office by day and moonlights at a professional S/M dungeon at night. However, the intertwining stories explore a wide range of topics. American poverty is placed at the forefront as Cristela, inheriting her mother’s welfare shame, goes to great lengths to hide her own status as a welfare recipient. Race is relative, as Justine, the daughter of a Kenyan heiress and Italian nobleman, is deemed as “white” by her Kenyan side of the family. Agency is shown as Daisy, a daughter of the Florida backwoods, devices a clever way to free herself from abuse. By exploring the interacting lives of this diverse group of women via a series of vignettes, VICES/VIRTUES highlights how very universal the seemingly unconventional can be.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
VICES/VIRTUES is the story I’ve always wanted to read. As an Ivy League graduate raised on welfare, I wanted a story that addresses poverty minus the stereotypes. As someone with a diverse Caribbean background, I wanted a story that treats race/ethnicity as more than window dressing. As woman who has felt a disconnect between lust and love, I wanted to see women take ownership of their sexuality. Finally, as a human being, I wanted to show that flawed as we all are, each and every one of us is worthy of sympathy and affection.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
If you would enjoy a thoughtful look at the beautiful morass of human flaws and virtues, sprinkled with some humor and titillation, then VICES/VIRTUES is the book for you.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Cristela, lacks the clarity her name implies. Having lived most of her life pretending, she grows up without a clear scene of self. She reminds me of the narrator in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” which is one of my favorite books. Cristela, like Ellison’s Invisible Man, is a mutable, elusive character. Both characters journey among various strata of society during their efforts at self-discovery.
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What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
When you think you’re wasting your time on creating something no one will ever read, don’t give up on your writing! Even if what you fear comes to pass, and your work goes unnoticed, this is still not the worst outcome. People don’t regret failure so much as they regret the countless possibilities lost due to the impotence of trepidation.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yes! To all publishers please do call! Writing and publishing are two very different skill sets. Of course, a person can be competent at both, but not me. Personally, I am a much better author than publicist.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
There are SO many! As I mentioned, Invisible Man by Ellison, Notes from the Underground by [Fyodor] Dostoevsky, The Bluest Eye by [Toni] Morrison….I could easily keep going. The very last line of Love in the Time of Cholera by [Gabriel Garcia] Marquez always stuck with me with its open-ended poetic beauty. I suppose that’s why for my own novel, I tried to forge a final passage in the same vein.
(Want the full interview? Check out “INDIE READER March 24, 2020” https://indiereader.com/2020/03/ir-approved-author-beatrice-desoprontu-people-dont-regret-failure-so-much-as-they-regret-the-countless-possibilities-lost-due-to-the-impotence-of-trepidation/)
