Author Archives: Gabriella West

About Gabriella West

Author of LGBT historical fiction and contemporary queer romance. Copyeditor/proofreader.

Review: Moving On—Two Ex-Beatles’ Very Different Lives in the 1970s

Posted on May 17, 2020 by Gabriella West

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Beatles lately. Perhaps it’s because I started off the New Year by reading Mark Lewisohn’s masterful Tune In (2013), the first book in his proposed Beatles’ trilogy. It’s long and exhaustive, but you … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews | Tagged 1970s, Astrid Kirchherr, Beatles, Bermuda, Coming Up, depression, diaries, Double Fantasy, ex-Beatles, Fred Seaman, Future, John and Yoko, John Lennon, Man on the Run, Mark Lewisohn, Murder, Myth, Nowhere Man, paul mccartney, Robert Rosen, Starting Over, Tom Doyle, truth, Wings | Leave a comment

Coronavirus Dispatch #3: It’s Surreal

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Gabriella West

I’m going to keep these short, as none of us have a lot of bandwidth these days. But yes, it’s surreal. We have gone over 20,00 deaths in the U.S. as of today. In a few days, it will be … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Personal | Tagged 2020, California, coronavirus, deaths, Hart Island, Ireland, life after this, Medium, pain, pandemic, Return to Normal, surreal | Leave a comment

It helps to watch New York Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s measured, eloquent press conferences in the mornings. I watch them on CNN; I think MSNBC carries them as well. Here he is today, asked about what he would tell people who … Continue reading →

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Gabriella West | 1 Comment

Coronavirus Dispatch #1

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Gabriella West

Here’s how it started, at least the official story, from a site called CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) that I just happened upon today on the web: “As suspected, a novel coronavirus has been identified in some … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, News, Personal, San Francisco | Tagged alienation, Bay Area, California, capitalism, coronavirus, COVID-19, crisis, death, empathy, fear, friendship, global pandemic, loss, nature, shelter in place, shortage, society, surreal, tests, Trump Administration, uncertainty | 1 Comment

Read an Ebook Week Sale at Smashwords

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Gabriella West

It always creeps up on us! Here are some details about the annual Read an Ebook Week sale at Smashwords.com: “How the Program Works: At one minute past midnight Pacific time on March 1, the special Smashwords Read an Ebook … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Self-publishing, Writing | Tagged 2020, LGBTQ, novels, Read an Ebook Week, sale, Smashwords | Leave a comment

Review: Between Heaven and Hell by David Talbot

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Gabriella West

Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke (Chronicle Prism, 176 pp, $22.95, January 2020) David Talbot—journalist, popular historian, longtime San Francisco resident, and author of Season of the Witch—has written a surprisingly vulnerable, intimate, often funny and engaging … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Health, Reviews, San Francisco, Writing | Tagged Between Heaven and Hell, David Talbot, Health crises, Hollywood, meaning, memoir, mortality, nonfiction, Salon Magazine, San Francisco, Strokes | Leave a comment

A Knight’s Tale: Montargis Gets a BookBub Promo, Starting Today!

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Gabriella West

The follow-up to A Knight’s Tale: Kenilworth is now featured on BookBub and available for 99 cents at all the major ebook retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Google Play)! Writing the book in the winter of 2017 through … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBT, Reviews, Writing | Tagged A Knight's Tale: Montargis, bisexual romance, Bookbub, desire, historical romance, kindle book reviews, LGBT, love, medieval france, promotion | Leave a comment

A Challenging New Year: Downbeat Trends for Indie Publishing

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Gabriella West

And so, 2020 starts out intense right out of the gate! But although our attention is drawn to a possible war brewing with Iran due to an impulsive act of political assassination by the hapless idiot acting as our president, … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Self-publishing, Writing | Tagged 2020 Publishing Predictions, audiobooks, changes, indie authors, Mark Coker, New Year, RITAs, Romance Writers of America, Smashwords, survival | Leave a comment

Happy Holidays…

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Gabriella West

Somehow, it’s mid-December. This year does feel especially Christmas-y, if only because the weather is decidedly wintry… and the sister of a school friend, whom I have not seen since I was twelve, volunteered to send me a Christmas pudding … Continue reading →

Posted in Editing, Personal, Writing | Tagged backlist, breaks, Christmas, Christmas Pudding, Happy Holidays, novels, Smashwords End of Year Sale, writing, Year of the Rat | Leave a comment

Time of Grace Released in Audio Format!

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Gabriella West

I finished writing my lesbian historical novel Time of Grace 20 years ago, which is astonishing to me. Set at the time of the Easter Rising of 1916, it was published by a small press in Ireland, and subsequently released … Continue reading →