Left Coast Writers®: Victoria Lilienthal – The T Room

When her charismatic mentor, Ernesto, publicly chooses her as his professional partner, all indications are that Vera’s bodywork career is about to ignite. There is just one glitch — no, make that two.

Vera — single mother of savvy, smart teenage India and her scruffy mutt, Francisco — is fucking Ernesto. As for her new promotion . . . Ernesto took it from his wife, Jean, in order to give it to her.

As Vera becomes increasingly embroiled in Ernesto and Jean’s dark shenanigans, she quickly realizes that what seemed like an exciting opportunity is more like a deal with the Devil.

Confronted with the consequences of her own yearning for male validation, it takes India, a glamorous and aristocratic client named Grace, and the mysterious goddess White Tara, Tibetan Goddess of compassion, to teach Vera the virtues of a sustainable path to self-authority.

A fast-paced, humorous tale, The T Room is sure to prove irresistible to every adventurous woman familiar with that Saturday-morning-bookstore trajectory that starts with Self-Help, diverts into Romance, and lands heartfirst in Spirituality.

Since childhood, Victoria Lilienthal has been captivated by symbols, rituals and myths. She studied Intellectual History at University of Colorado at Boulder and is a certified sound healer, a practice that uses sound to relax the mind and body. It is with an appreciation for the silly, the sexy and the sacred that Victoria draws upon her studies, and her mentorship with cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien as inspiration for her first novel, The T Room. She lives in Northern California along with her husband and their senior citizen dachshund, Luigi.