Gabriella West was born in Santa Barbara in 1967. In 1969, her parents moved to Ireland, and she grew up in Ireland, studying English and Italian at Trinity College, Dublin. She graduated and left Ireland in 1988.

She earned an MA degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University in 1995.

Her work has been published in the literary journals "Transfer," "The Literary Review," and "Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly," and anthologies like "Best Women's Erotica 2004" and "Hot Ticket: Tales of Lesbians, Sex, and Travel."

Wolfhound Press published her novel "Time of Grace" in 2002. It's the story of a young English governess who travels to Ireland in 1915 for work and falls in love with an Irish maid who is secretly caught up in plotting for the upcoming Easter Rising in 1916.

"The Leaving" (now available on Smashwords and in the Kindle Store) was her first completed novel.

Read an author interview here!: http://www.1stauthorinterviews.com/2011/06/interview-with-gabriella-west-author-of.html

Gabriella West lives in San Francisco, CA.

Website: http://gabriellawest.net
Twitter: gabriellawest

• GabriellaWest: Have been swimming in words lately. Just finished #proofing a long and very good historical novel set in 1840s Maine called Granite Hearts.
• GabriellaWest: Hi to new followers! @MeetMrKind @GrigoryRyzhakov @paul_steele @LGreencastle @DrNancyIrwin @7WordsThanks @7RAVE1 @CAFarrell @TimHillegonds
• GabriellaWest: RT @GalstanberryFan: ❤ONLY $1❤Donate 2 our #Kickstarter campaign to fund Galstanberry #3—►http://t.co/eJ391qjD
• GabriellaWest: @LitaMartin A nice place to go is the botanic gardens, up in the hills. http://t.co/2xnpKu8g?
• GabriellaWest: RT @RBReich: O shld call for (1) exemptg 1st $20K from payroll tax; (2) rebuildg America (at rock-bottom borrowing costs); (3) new WPA & ...

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http://www.amazon.com/Time-Grace-Gabriella-West/dp/0863278639/

1980s    bisexual threesome    coming of age    coming out    dublin    dysfunctional families    erotic romance    friendship between women    historical erotica    ireland    irish literature    italy by train    lesbian    lesbian encounters    lesbian fiction    lgbt fiction    literature fiction short stories    menage a trois    oral and anal sex    queer fiction    sex with friends    short story    sibling relationships    teen depression    teen questioning sexuality    threesome erotica    travel erotica    travel in italy    venetian republic    venice italy    voyeurism   

Brandy Purdy
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• You Had to Be There: Three Years of Mayhem and Bad Decisions in the Portland Music Scene on June 18, 2011
  
  I liked this book. It was a quick read and the author came across as complex--a bright girl making foolish decisions as she navigates the Portland music scene in the 1980s while holding down a steady job. I think I would have liked to see a little bit more depth in the descriptions of her relationships. For example, there was one abusive relationship that is sort of played for laughs... although it involves an unplanned pregnancy and a broken engagement. Cathcart for sure doesn't make the alternative music scene sound exciting and sexy. But anyone who was involved with this scene, or similar ones, will surely feel nostalgic.
  
• An Expanded Love on July 02, 2011
  
  This book gets four stars because of its originality and daring and because it's a wonderful picture of alternative life in London: pubs, dances, cold flats, buses and all. I loved the way the narrator, Nadia, is so uncomfortable in her own skin at the beginning of the book and could really relate to it. When Nadia is taking her first tentative steps into poly life with her first girlfriend, Christine, An Expanded Love shone. In the end it's a bit of a rambling story with perhaps too many characters, but still a rewarding read.
  
• Scarcity on July 16, 2011
  
  I thought this story was wonderful, showing two damaged women slowly opening up to each other. Kate Genet has a way of writing strong, vivid prose that gets under your skin. The light, the weather, and nature all figure strongly in her work. But then her earthy characters are also forces of nature! This isn't pretty writing, it's stark, sensual and gorgeous. I plan to read more of her work.
  
• Storm of Passion on Aug. 17, 2011
  
  What makes this story special is that it's a love story between two young men, lifelong friends, set in the South. It's a love story, but Dustin Rhodes sometimes veers into erotic territory--there's an explicit sex scene in the middle of the story. I loved the buildup of sexual tension between the two men, especially as Parker realizes he's falling for Jaime. STORM OF PASSION veered between romance and erotica and then at the end, almost into soap opera territory. I actually would have liked a love scene that included full-on anal sex between them, just because I would have liked to experience that from Parker's viewpoint (!), but what I kept thinking as I read the book was how much a gay adolescent would LOVE this. (And maybe that's why the author kept it a little less explicit.) The two men are believably horny and lusty, though. I read through this piece at great speed, and hope to see more from Mr. Rhodes.
  
• Remnant on Aug. 21, 2011
  
  Remnant is not the type of book I usually read--I'm not much for the paranormal, though I remember reading "The Shining" with rapt attention when I was a kid. Remnant is a powerful novel, though, and Kate Genet is an unusual new talent. The book starts with Cass, a young New Zealander on summer vacation from university, visiting her Maori boyfriend's family. She has a sensual, warm relationship with her lover--this part of the book is fun to read. Then the mood abruptly shifts and Cass finds herself completely alone one morning as she wakes up from sleeping outside under the stars. She tries to convince herself that her lover's family have had an emergency but soon realizes that no human being is around anywhere. As she says, "I was suddenly convinced I was the only person left in the world." Cass finds a horse (an engaging presence in the book) and ventures back towards the city. In chapter after chapter, she realizes that the familiar world of civilization around her is disappearing. The early chapters gave me goosebumps, and I enjoyed the descriptions of the exotic New Zealand "bush," although the fear and emotional isolation Cass endures for most of this novel is gruelling and traumatic. I was never sure what was going to happen next, but when Cass finally meets another person, a young woman, and they then quickly develop a deep friendship and chemistry, Remnant became gripping for me, and I raced through the final chapters. There is one more ordeal that the two women must go through, and although it's built up throughout the book, it is still eerie and unexpected. Despite Remnant's paranormal elements, this is an earthy book, filled with realistic dialogue and believable situations; it doesn't romanticize nature, as the natural world is seen as both beautiful and potentially deadly. My only quibble is that the chapters where Cass faces adversity alone could have been shortened a bit. But I loved the book, and am very glad I stumbled upon Ms. Genet's work at Smashwords, otherwise I would never have had the chance to read it!
  
• Orange Moon on Nov. 27, 2011
  
  Kate Genet is a New Zealand novelist, yet this taut, beautifully written story has universal appeal. As the story opens, Alice is a battered and numb young woman, worn down by routine physical and psychological abuse from her husband Richard, overwhelmed by stress, pain and fear. An encounter with a "crazy lady" on the bus on the way home from a shopping trip brings up dark memories for Alice. The fascinating thing about this novel is that it's both the suspenseful story of a woman escaping an intimate abuser, and a woman coming to terms with her past memories of teenage sexuality, paranormal and violent events, some of which she may have been more responsible for than she thinks. Alice makes the fateful choice to "leave" her marriage but stay in her much-loved house, cleverly hidden from Richard (she thinks). This sets up an almost unbearable tension in the novel. While a final confrontation with Richard seems both ugly and inevitable, a healing and beautiful relationship also develops for Alice. In both of the novels I've read by Genet ("Remnant" being the other), the love scenes between women are fresh and real, shimmering with possibility... But I found "Orange Moon" to be more to my taste than "Remnant." Readers of paranormal books will love the ghostly element, the mystery. I personally found the scenes of domestic abuse far more creepy and compelling. I loved watching a woman coming to terms with her own strength. This book is a contemporary feminist classic that reminded me of long-forgotten books from the 1970s like Lois Gould's "Sea Change." You won't be able to put it down.
  
• Silent Light on Feb. 04, 2012
  
  I should have written a review just after I finished this book. It's a perfect book for the Kindle or any other ereader--suspenseful, scary, dark, fast-paced. I was particularly struck by the image of the lights bouncing around the lake in the dark, and the two women's fear, and their determination to get to the bottom of this mystery. Quite a few eerie and even nasty moments ensue, and the women's relationship is, as always with Kate Genet's books, so beautifully and realistically drawn. I loved it as a depiction of two women who just wouldn't stop digging to find the truth, no matter what the cost. And I absolutely love the cover.
  
• Sweet Charlotte on Feb. 21, 2012
  
  I loved "Sweet Charlotte." It is the most fully fleshed-out of all her Michaela and Trisha books. "Silent Light" was a novella, and "Shadows Fall" felt claustrophobic, but this third book is fully grounded in the New Zealand community where Trisha and younger sister Caro are now living with Michaela. What struck me as I read was how well Genet has developed Michaela and Trisha's yin-yang relationship, with Trisha being the explosive, emotional one and Michaela thinking problems through using logic. Since they are plunged as usual into a deadly mystery which they must solve themselves, Trisha's sensitivity and Michaela's daring are both needed here. And without rubbing it in too much, Genet's fresh voice breaks new ground in lesbian mystery fiction AND lesbian romance. Hope there's more, as Genet is getting more polished with each book!