Amazon My Last Romance and other passions The Bookstore on MAin St. Parlez-Moi Press Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: Parlez-Moi Press ISBN-10:  0978594053 Type: Fiction Pages: 126 Copyright: September 2006 Eight stories with a common theme---the wonder of finding love---sweep the reader into sensuous worlds where ordinary people discover, or rediscover, love. Foolish love, forbidden love, married love---even murderous love, each story is a seductive jewel populated with characters that seem like someone we could know---or someone we could be. Each of the stories in this collection is an exquisitely rendered portrait of people from a broad range of ages each proving that passion and love are eternal, regardless of life's far-ranging challenges. from "Damian"... The fishing boats are coming in, skimming across the blue waves. You can tell them by the plumes of white gulls that puff out behind each boat awaiting the cleanings the fishermen toss overboard. I lie here on this narrow bed wrapped in late afternoon sunshine and afterglow. Damian is smoking on the porch. Through the open door I can see the rich brown of gnarled arms and the languid wisps of smoke. This is the hottest part of the day and, were it not for the salt-saturated sea-breezes which forever after this summer will fill me with erotic longing, I would not be able to bear being inside. But just now I am too lazy and love-drenched to stir. Damian’s house is little more than a shack by my reckoning, a wood-shingled house near the wharf here in the fishing community tucked next to the commercial docks. Farther down the harbor are the picturesque wharves where the yachts and sailboats of the privileged are moored. They bobble in the lapping waves bearing legends such as “My Folly, St. Petersburg” or “Blues Palace, Marblehead”. But here at the commercial docks there are no such displays of pleasure. Here are working boats—battered, patched and laden with traps, ropes, nets, and other indistinguishable paraphernalia. Here the mountainous piles of lobster traps obscure the view in winter and the overpowering odor of fish fills the summer. This is the third week of August and in less than ten days I will be gone—back to my ivy-covered walls and book-lined apartment. Back to a world where women who have achieved the status of Associate Professor do not spend afternoons lying naked in a fisherman’s cottage waiting for their lovers to finish their cigarettes and return. A voice is calling in a language I do not understand but which I know is Portuguese. Damian calls back and, rising, passes the screen door. He wears only his tight fitting, faded blue jeans, unbuttoned at the waist. Nothing I have ever taught in any of my art history classes—none of the Davids nor Venuses, not the porcelain work of the Ming Dynasty, nor the Etruscan bronzes—can compare in sheer symmetry of perfection to Damian in his tight, faded jeans—unbuttoned at the waist. I shift to the edge of the bed to watch him. He leans over the railing. His broad, calloused hands clutch the rough wood as they, only moments ago, clutched my thighs. He leans forward and the thick glaze of sunlight quivers over the muscles of his back which my hands know better than do my eyes. I hear fragments of the conversation and, though I don’t understand the words, I know the content. I am familiar, if only as a third party, with those intonations. Those jesting tones question why a strong, ambitious, young fisherman is being so lazy these days. Why he returns to the dock hours before his friends do. Why he is being so irresponsible when this is one of the best fishing seasons in years. The laughter which follows answers the questions. Excerpt The day has scarcely started and already it’s past ninety. A thin, watery haze rises from the pavement making me feel like I am driving into a dream.

Peter Anastas, author of
Gorgeous! Very poignant. It is a wonderful thing to be able to immerse a reader in an entire era,
a way of life, a culture in miniature – places, forms of music, habits of speech ... I felt transported,
and that's something good fiction must do for me.

Susan Oleksiw, author of
Kathleen Valentine's stories are as varied as the women of the world, and their great passions are never simple or uncomplicated. Her understanding of the human heart drives these stories, filled with nuance, pitch-perfect voice, surprise, and heartache. These are stories of women who have lived full lives, taking risks and living out the dictates of their passion.

Jane Daniel, publisher of
Kathleen Valentine just may have invented a whole new genre: sensual romance for the baby-boomer generation. It’s so refreshing (and, may we say, encouraging) to read about characters of a certain age who are still desirable and passionate.