Alterations - by Kate Maruyama (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Adriana gets a job sewing for Edith Head at Paramount's costume department in the early 1940s. Adriana falls in love with a bit player named Rose and the two move in together. Living with a woman goes unnoticed as most people presume they are only roommates. But as Adriana's career blossoms, society and life start to interfere and Adriana makes decisions that affect three generations of her family. 1998: Adriana's granddaughter Laura has left LA on the heels of a failed relationship and a subsequently failed career in film development. She moves in with her grandmother in Baltimore to find some time and space to think. The problem is she always spent time here with her dearest friend and cousin Becca, who died suddenly in a car crash, leaving her 13-year-old daughter, Lizzie. Adriana, in her eighties and wrestling with the past is now suddenly responsible for Laura and Lizzie. In this compelling literary family drama, three lives twine together in the past and the present to take a closer look at how family, wanted or not, makes up who we are.

About the Author

Kate Maruyama writes, teaches, edits, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles. Her novel Harrowgate was published by 47North and her novella Family Solstice was named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine. Her novella Halloween Beyond: A Gentleman's Suit (Crystal Lake Publishing) and her duo of novellas, Bleak Houses (Raw Dog Screaming Press) are available NOW! Her second horror novel The Collective will be serialized through Writ Large Projects and her non-genre novel Alterations is upcoming from Running Wild Press. Her short work appears in Asimov's, Entropy, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Duende, The Coachella Review, and The Magnolia Review among others and was awarded the Uncharted Magazine Short Story Prize. It has also appeared in numerous anthologies including December Tales, Gathering: A Women Who Submit Anthology, Halloween Carnival Three, and Winter Horror Days. You can read short work on the Writings page. She is a member of the SFWA and the HWA where she serves on the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee, where she helps edit The Seers' Table. She has served as a juror for the Bram Stoker Awards and twice for the Shirley Jackson Awards. She is currently serving on the working board of Women Who Submit.