We all know it’s a tough time for authors to put new books out into the world; for small press authors, the challenges are often even steeper. So I’m happy to be able to spotlight new releases from small presses as they come down the pike, like VICTORINE by Drēma Drudge, just released this week by Fleur-de-Lis Press.

Here’s the summary of VICTORINE: “In 1863 Civil War is raging in the United States. Victorine Meurent is posing nude, in Paris, for paintings that will be heralded as the beginning of modern art: Manet’s Olympia and Picnic on the Grass. However, Victorine’s persistent desire is not to be a model but to be a painter herself. In order to live authentically, she finds the strength to flout the expectations of her parents, bourgeois society, and the dominant male artists (whom she knows personally) while never losing her capacity for affection, kindness, and loyalty. Possessing both the incisive mind of a critic and the intuitive and unconventional impulses of an artist, Victorine and her survival instincts are tested in 1870, when the Prussian army lays siege to Paris and rat becomes a culinary delicacy. Drēma Drudge’s powerful first novel Victorine not only gives this determined and gifted artist back to us but also recreates an era of important transition into the modern world.”

The author’s bio: Drēma Drudge suffers from Stendhal’s Syndrome, the condition in which one becomes overwhelmed in the presence of great art. She attended Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction. Her debut novel VICTORINE is now available. For more about her writing, art, and travels, please visit her website, www.dremadrudge.com, and sign up for her newsletter.

Drēma’s #read99women recommendation is THREE WAYS TO DISAPPEAR by Katy Yocom. She says: “Filled with tigers, twins, passion, second chances, and plot twists which lead to an unexpected but satisfying climax, this book mesmerizes.”

Read her full review on Goodreads here.