Gabriella West

Biography

Gabriella West was born in Santa Barbara in 1967. In 1969, her parents moved to Dublin, 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.

She has published nine LGBTQ-themed novels: The Leaving, Time of Grace, Elsie Street, The Pull of Yesterday, and A Knight's Tale: Kenilworth. The follow-up, A Knight's Tale: Montargis, was published March 2018. Return to Carlsbad, the last book in the Elsie Street contemporary gay romance trilogy, was released October 2018. The Knight's Return (2022) completes the Knight's Tale series.

Gabriella West lives in San Francisco, CA.

Smashwords Interview

What motivated you to become an indie author?
I was stuck in my writing career. I had a book traditionally published in 2002, but the press declined the next novel I offered them. I had a novel sitting in a folder on my computer that I thought would NEVER get published, but I thought it deserved to because it had gotten so much positive attention years earlier, when I was going through the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State. So I read about Mark Coker and Smashwords in 2011 on SFGate, the online news site for the SF Chronicle. I thought.... hmm.

Something about the way Mark Coker talked about the process made sense to me. So I took the leap and published my novel "The Leaving" in May of 2011. I published it on Kindle a few months later. And then things took off for me when I started publishing shorts on both platforms.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
Starting with Smashwords was a good choice for me. I got a bit sucked in by Amazon's platform when I started making quite a bit of money there (it didn't last, though!). I find that I have to carefully navigate through Amazon's constant changes, some of which don't seem to have indie authors' interests at heart. Smashwords is more like a fair parent, who says "this is what I will do for you" and then delivers.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Gabriella West online

Series

A Knight's Tale
In this LGBT historical romance set in 13th-century England, Will Talbot trains as a squire at Kenilworth Castle, the home of the De Montfort family, and his history becomes enmeshed with theirs during the Second Barons' War and its bitter aftermath. Ultimately, his love for Stephen, whom he first meets as a young clerk at the castle, sustains him through dark times and exile in France.
The Knight's Return
Price: $5.99 USD.
Elsie Street Trilogy
A three-book LGBT romance series exploring the changing relationships and identities of three young men (Aaron, a techie, Dave, a museum guard, and Matt, Dave's old flame who works in finance), set in contemporary San Francisco and Marin County.
Elsie Street
Price: Free!
The Pull of Yesterday
Price: $2.99 USD.
Return to Carlsbad
Price: $3.99 USD.

Books

The Knight's Return
Series: A Knight's Tale. Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 64,720. Language: English. Published: May 20, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Historical » Medieval
1275. Lady Eleanor's health is failing, and Will knows that he and Stephen must soon accompany young Eleanor back across the sea to her new home in Wales, a risky voyage because Edward I, now king of England, still regards his cousins, the Montforts, as potential enemies. Sadly, the return to England is fraught with dangers for all of them. And even their final return home will not bring peace.
Once You Are Mine
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 54,560. Language: American English. Published: January 5, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » LGBTQ+ » Gay
Summer 2020. 21-year-old Alex Martinez gets out of San Quentin early after serving three years for a nonviolent crime. He's hardened by his time inside and has virtually no money or family, but a long, dusty hike takes him to a tiny West Marin town where he expects to find an old friend. Instead, he meets local bar-owner Terry Black, who offers the young man a place to stay during a time of Covid.
Dorothy Richardson: A Close Reading
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 3,270. Language: English. Published: March 3, 2019 . Categories: Nonfiction » Literary criticism » Women Authors, Essay » Literature
Dorothy M. Richardson (1873-1957) was an English novelist who pioneered the "stream of consciousness" technique in her long novel "Pilgrimage," which was published in 13 volumes over the 1920s and 1930s. Shy and from a humble background, Richardson's work is now overlooked, but in her time she was considered a peer of other famous modernist writers like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
Return to Carlsbad
Series: Elsie Street Trilogy. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 66,050. Language: English. Published: October 23, 2018 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » LGBTQ+ » Bisexual
Three months post-breakup, Aaron is adrift, the only thing sustaining him being his weekly therapy sessions. But Marc's feelings for Aaron have changed, and this unlikely couple must transition to a new and risky adventure: falling in love. By the time Aaron asks Marc to drive him back to his SoCal hometown of Carlsbad, which holds darkly painful memories, the new relationship hangs by a thread
A Knight's Tale: Montargis
Series: A Knight's Tale, Book 2. Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 79,110. Language: English. Published: March 3, 2018 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Historical » Medieval
(2.00 from 1 review)
France, 1266. Will and his lover, Stephen, are safely ensconced at Montargis Abbey, where the widowed Lady Eleanor de Montfort has chosen to live out her days as a nun. It's in many ways an idyllic life, but the reappearance of Simon brings a shadow onto the two young men's relationship. And when a horrific murder in 1271 shatters the calm, Will must journey to Italy to see Simon one last time.
A Knight's Tale: Kenilworth
Series: A Knight's Tale, Book 1. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 76,090. Language: English. Published: October 25, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Historical » Medieval
(4.33 from 3 reviews)
Warwickshire, England, 1260. Will Talbot is leaving home at 14 to spend the next few years in training at nearby Kenilworth Castle, the home of the De Montforts. His adjustment to life at the castle is made easier by his growing love for Stephen, the young chaplain's clerk he shares a chamber with. But Will's life soon becomes more complicated when the household plunges into war with the Crown.
The Pull of Yesterday
Series: Elsie Street Trilogy. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 58,300. Language: English. Published: June 5, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » LGBTQ+ » Bisexual
Dave Madden starts off the new year of 2011 with a haunting dream, which doesn't bode well for his and Aaron's relationship. While Dave clings to the stability he has found with Aaron, thoughts of his old flame Matt Cohen obsess him. A sudden trip back to Boston for a family emergency adds to Dave's angst and shakes his sense of identity further. In this sequel to Elsie Street, all bets are off.
Elsie Street
Series: Elsie Street Trilogy. Price: Free! Words: 42,220. Language: English. Published: December 15, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » LGBTQ+ » Bisexual
(3.00 from 2 reviews)
Dave Madden has just been fired from a bartending job in San Francisco. His long-suffering girlfriend helps him get a job at a nearby fine arts museum as a guard. But what Dave finds there will challenge his whole sense of identity. Despite a fling with a college roommate, he considers himself straight. Yet after his first encounter with Aaron, a young techie, Dave's life will completely change.
Connecting the Dots: My Midlife Journey with Adult AD/HD
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 8,480. Language: English. Published: December 28, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Mental health, Nonfiction » Psychology » ADHD
Most of us have heard of ADHD, so why is it so common for women not to be diagnosed until they are in midlife? Novelist Gabriella West is refreshingly candid about her journey towards a diagnosis of ADHD, which started a few years ago when she encouraged her partner to get a diagnosis. She uncovers a family history of the disorder, looking back at her own mother's life in Ireland in the 1970s.
Time of Grace
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 69,610. Language: English. Published: October 12, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » LGBTQ+ » Lesbian, Fiction » Romance » Historical » 20th Century
Shy young Caroline has come from England to Ireland in 1915 to work as a governess at Thornley Hall. But beautiful housemaid Grace, with her fierce dedication to Ireland's freedom, opens Caroline's eyes to new erotic worlds. As their friendship blossoms into passionate romance, Caroline finds a happiness she's never known. But will Grace's commitment to the upcoming Rising jeopardize their love?
That Lonely, Sinking Feeling: A Memoir of Love, Friendship, and Letting Go
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,270. Language: English. Published: June 15, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Personal memoir, Nonfiction » Relationships & Family » Dysfunctional relationships
San Francisco, mid-1990s. In this poignant short personal memoir, Gabriella West goes back to her twenties to explore a confusing friendship with a married couple that started promisingly, but became a painful and obsessive love. Readers who have found themselves lost in destructive and addictive relationships will find it compelling reading.
The Captain and Claire
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,950. Language: English. Published: March 4, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Erotica » Historical » General, Fiction » Erotica » Lesbian Erotica
New York, 1930. Bubbly young blonde Betsy Parker is left a widow at only 25, after her older banker husband commits suicide in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Her family has sent her off on a voyage to England by ocean liner to recover. Innocent and curious to explore, Betsy attracts the attention of both the ship's captain and an experienced and exotic English artist, Claire.
10 Frightening New Facts About Sugar
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 1,790. Language: English. Published: February 14, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Cooking, Food, Wine, Spirits » Health & Healing / Diabetic & Sugar-Free, Nonfiction » Cooking, Food, Wine, Spirits » Health & Healing / Weight Control
Want to know more about the toxic, destructive effects of sugar on your body? This special report presents the latest, cutting-edge info in 10 bulleted points. We now know that sugar is linked to obesity and diabetes, but there's more: Did you know that sugar has a pro-inflammatory effect on the body's cellular level, which causes aging--and perhaps Alzheimers, down the line?
Toward the Double Rainbow: A Hawaiian Travel Tale
Price: Free! Words: 2,970. Language: English. Published: December 2, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » By region » North America, Nonfiction » LGBTQ+ » Travel
In this compelling short travel memoir, the author and her partner, Selena, travel to Kauai, Hawaii's garden island, in their first trip as a couple, staying at a slightly dodgy women's guesthouse. The couple struggle with anger, misunderstandings, and a ghostly presence in the guesthouse that terrifies Selena. Will their trip to Hawaii end up tearing them apart?
Night Train to Florence
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,240. Language: English. Published: May 9, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Lesbian, Fiction » Literature » Literary
(5.00 from 1 review)
Italy, 1980s. The shy unnamed narrator and her tougher English friend, Liz, are booksmart but inexperienced 18-year-old students on a budget traveling around Northern Italy by train. As they share adventures, wine and conversation, their edgy friendship not surprisingly begins to deepen. But it's on their final nocturnal train trip back to Florence that they take it beyond friendship.
The Doge's Daughter
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,260. Language: English. Published: September 25, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Erotica » Historical/Regency, Fiction » Romance » Erotic
Enter the dark and deceptive world of Venice in the 1600s. Piero is a young boy from a working-class family who is chosen by the priests of the royal court to be castrated and to sing in their choir. Several years pass. Androgynous and girlish, Piero is surprised to be singled out by the adolescent daughter of the Doge (ruler of Venice) for special favors...
The Truth About Jack and Ray
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,940. Language: English. Published: June 8, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » USA, Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay
(5.00 from 1 review)
English professor Jack, an embittered older man in 1990s San Francisco, has a vivid flashback to his turbulent, secret love affair in North Beach in the early 1950s with tormented young artist Ray, who cares only about ambition and his art. An intense, gripping story about a doomed relationship that changes the course of a man's entire life.
The Leaving: A Novel
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 85,520. Language: English. Published: May 30, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Lesbian, Fiction » Literature » Literary
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
Cathy is a conflicted teenager living in 1980s Dublin. She soon discovers that her charming older brother Stevie, who's gay, is falling in love with her classmate Ron, the one boy she likes. Cathy struggles with school, her dysfunctional family, coming to terms with her growing love for her best friend Jeanette, and leaving Ireland. The novel is a realistic look at adolescence and first love.

Gabriella West's tag cloud

1200s england    1916 rising    1950s america    1980s    20th century english women writers    abuse healing    add adhd    add diagnosis    add in adults    addiction    addictive relationships    adhd    adhd and family    adhd in women    adhd memoir    adolescents    affairs and infidelity    aids    bisexual erotica    bisexual romance    bisexual threesome    bisexuality    breakups and new beginnings    closeted gay relationships    codependency    cognitive behavioural therapy    coming of age    coming out    concerta    conflict and resolution    contemporary    contemporary romance    creativity    dorothy richardson    dsm    dublin    dysfunctional families    dysfunctional relationships    easter rising    eleanor de montfort    elsie street    english history    erotic romance    exiles return    feminism    ff romance    flappers    forbidden love    friendship    friendship between women    friendships gone wrong    gay and lesbian fiction    gay and lesbian romance    gay artists    gay coming of age romance    gay for you    gay history    gay love    gay love and sex    gay relationships    gay romance    gay romance mm    gay sexual love    ghosts    guilty secrets    hawaii    historical 1900s    historical erotica    historical lesbian erotica    historical lesbian romance    interracial mm    ireland    ireland independance    irish literature    italy by train    kauai    kenilworth castle    knights tales    learning disorder    lesbian    lesbian encounters    lesbian historical    lesbian love    lesbian relationships    lgbt    lgbt essays    lgbt fiction    lgbt history    lgbt romance    lgbtq memoir    literature fiction short stories    love triangle    medications for adhd add    medieval france    medieval romance    menage a trois    mff    mixed race    mm    mm romance    mm romance medieval    modernism    multiple partners    non monogamy    nonmonogamy    obsessive love    oral and anal sex    paleo diet    pandemic love story    past trauma    personal growth    prisoners    ritalin    romance 1200s    romance 1920s    romance mm    san francisco    san francisco bay area    second barons war    sex with friends    sexual abuse and healing    short story    sibling relationships    simon de montfort    students    sugar addiction    sugar and cancer    sugar and diabetes    sugar and weight loss    survivors of child sexual abuse    threesome erotica    trauma healing    travel essay    travel in italy    triangle relationships    venetian republic    venice italy    virginia woolf    voyeurism    windsor castle    womens mental health    writers memoir   

Smashwords book reviews by Gabriella West

  • The Blue Ticket on Nov. 06, 2011

    This book was a surprise. I expected an erotic novel, but what I got seemed like so much more than that. Of course the book is filled with explicit male-male sexual encounters, but we are locked inside the head of the likeable young narrator, Harley, who is reluctantly coming home for the summer to help out at his Aunt Bird's farm. The small-town Southern setting is authentic and the boredom of the youthful characters is deeply felt. Harley and his childhood pal Tavor enter into an obsessive sexual affair with increasingly disturbing overtones, as Tavor is closeted and violent when challenged. Then, towards the end, a twist throws the earlier action into doubt. But this steamy novel is one of the best ebooks I've yet read. Totally entertaining, but not mindlessly so, it will draw you into its seductive world.
  • The Loves and Tribulations of Detective Stephen Carlton on Oct. 26, 2014

    "The Loves and Tribulations of Detective Stephen Carlton" is a long novel that deserves a wide readership. A cosmopolitan writer and former academic, an Italian by birth, Rene Natan was new to me, but I soon became wrapped up in Stephen Carlton's story. In Natan's narrative, he is a sympathetic protagonist who tries to do the right thing, a young Canadian working in law enforcement in the 1960s who is really a humanist with a streak of innocence in him. Unfortunately, he has grown up without a father's guidance, and his love life is tumultuous. I loved the character of April and I enjoyed Stephen's growing attraction to this sexually experienced young girl who uses the "F" word (shocking the young Canadian!) but who is really a deeply sweet person. Unfortunately, her dysfunctional past takes its toll, and grief-stricken Stephen is on to his next woman, someone who will give him a real family. But in the last third of the book, the middle-aged Stephen's life becomes a whirlwind of adventure, something that one suspects he always wanted it to be. He is drawn to another bad girl, an outlaw, basically, and must fight to prove her innocence while he is under the thumb of an unsympathetic boss. With aspects of both edgy romance and intense thriller, this novel reads smoothly and takes the reader on an enjoyable "tour" of Stephen Carlton's inner and outer world.
  • Unencumbered Love on April 21, 2016

    A page-turner! Stays true to the gay male experience without skimping on romance or drama.
  • Home Sweet Home on July 02, 2017

    I think this was my first Clare London, and I really enjoyed it. The description of the rocky move was quite funny and there was an excellent sex scene. It was a story that could have used multiple POV to good effect, I think.
  • Deeds of Their Past on July 03, 2018

    Deftly written fantasy novel, but it's not a romance in the classic sense, and I wanted there to be more emotional depth to the characters. They do demonstrate loyalty and love in the face of constant peril, but there is very little sexual tension between them. This becomes wearying by the end. One feels that the author was avoiding writing the sex scene for as long as he could. On the plus side, it was very well edited. I sensed that the author's copy editor made quite a difference and worked hard to beat the prose into shape!
  • Seven Summer Nights on Jan. 17, 2021

    Quite unusual. I didn't love it as much as I thought I would, but the strength for me was in the part that was most realistic and historical, e.g., the description of bombed-out London houses, or when Archie takes off on his motorbike to rescue Rufus at the sinister nursing home set up by his sister's father-in-law. Oddly, the "seven summer nights" of the title were blurry to me. I think Harper Fox's writing has gotten much more out of focus over the years; I prefer her earlier intensity. However, it was a good read!
  • Allegiance: A Dublin Novella on Nov. 10, 2021

    It's great, basically. I think the only thing that bothered me about it was the fact that all the main characters were very much on the periphery of the action. I also didn't like Adam as much as the author seemed to. I wish the relationship had been allowed to build for a little longer, so that I'd have rooted for them a little harder. But Domin's version of Dublin in 1922 was totally believable, and rather exciting. It was incredible to think that my beloved grandmother, born in 1917, was five years old when all of this was going on around the corner! I really liked Gerald and Mary. Not sure the ending was that believable, and it felt rushed to me. I wanted more with these characters. Ultimately, it's not as satisfying a love story as it is a historical novel. But Domin is a definite talent. I'm going to try her Roman series next.