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Book Title: VINNY
Author: Andy Siege
Publisher: UpLit Press
Release Date: July 2, 2024
Pairing: MM, MF, MT
Tense/POV: A mix of tenses: first/third/present/past/single
Genres: Sci-Fi/Futuristic/Dystopian
Tropes: Forbidden love, friends to lovers
Themes: Coming out, bisexual awakening, trans awakening
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 40 000 words/180 pages
It is a standalone book in the DIVERGENCY SERIES
and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited
A sci-fi novella about Vincent van Gogh’s queer clone.
Blurb
1888: A young prostitute opens a gift from a painter and discovers van Gogh’s bloody ear.
2042: The inventor of gene-tweaking buys a desiccated ear which he believes holds the key to bottling human genius.
Vinny lives on an isolated island and paints. Scientists watch him, waiting to see if his artistic genius or his latent schizophrenia will manifest first. He’s been cloned to be an artist; he’s surrounded only by things that stimulate his art. Until he discovers rock and roll…
The island is full of secrets. Vinny is hiding a guitar cut out of paper. His surrogate parents are hiding their anger and shame. And in an underground lab lurks a far more dangerous secret, a warped, wrathful angel that longs for freedom.
As these secrets explode into the public eye, Vinny must discover what it means to be true to himself when he’s been born to be someone else.
Excerpt
The painting van Gogh was working on depicted a group of prisoners walking in a circle around an oppressive prison yard. In the center of the painting was a convict that resembled van Gogh himself, and Peyron figured that the artist was expressing his own feelings of claustrophobia inside the asylum. The work was dominated by depressing tones of blue and green with splashes of red on some of the bricks that enclosed the prisoners.
Peyron cleared his throat. “Monsieur van Gogh.”
The artist jumped a little at the noise, but then kept painting. “You almost made me misplace a line, Doc.”
“I apologize. Were you not able to sleep?”
Van Gogh shook his head. “Not before finishing.”
“Does painting help you?”
Van Gogh turned around slowly and smiled. “It does.”
“How does it help?”
The artist scratched his red beard with a paint-speckled hand. “When I don’t paint, I worry about delusional things. But when I paint, I worry about the next drop of color. In this way my mind is occupied with logic when I paint.”
Peyron nodded. “Thank you for putting it so well.”
“Why are you awake, Doc?”
“I dreamed something that upset me.”
Van Gogh took a sip of water from a metal cup, spilling some of it onto his chest. He was wearing an open shirt and the droplets ran down across his belly, dampening the top of his pants. The painter had put on a little weight since coming to the asylum. A sign of increased health. Peyron also noticed himself getting aroused. Not a good sign under these circumstances.
“I, um… I should go back upstairs,” the doc stammered.
“No. Stay.” Van Gogh scratched himself just above his left nipple. “I’m a bit lonely.”
The doc’s eyes lit up. He had been waiting for a sign from the painter and here was a sign. Peyron swallowed hard and then took a step forward. Van Gogh mirrored him and also stepped closer. The doc lifted his right hand and placed it on the painter’s chest. Van Gogh took the hand in his and their fingers entwined. Then the painter pulled Peyron towards him and the men kissed. Peyron could feel van Gogh’s stubble against his own clean-shaven face.
Suddenly the painter pulled away. “No. I… I can’t do this.”
“But… why?”
“I’m not a pervert.”
“Neither am I.”
“Other people, all of them, they don’t understand.”
Peyron remembered the crowd at the dock in Marseille. “I know.” He turned and walked away.
About the Author
Andy Siege born as Andreas Madjid Siege in Kenya in 1985 is an award-winning film director and writer. His debut feature film “Beti and Amare” which he wrote and directed was nominated for multiple high-profile international film awards. He has a BA in Creative Writing and an MA in Political Science. Andy Siege is also neurologically divergent and a member of the LGBTQ community.
Author Link
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