Betty Reynolds

Dreamscapes and Beyond Betty Reynolds

This first time author of a romance novel takes on the provocative challenge of writing about such timely and controversial issues as homosexuality, spousal abuse, impotency, and interracial relations. These, in one way or the other, serve as the backdrop for the events that eventually propel the main character down a path leading to self-destruction. Whether this character is a villain or a victim is up to the reader to judge, but one thing for certain: he is no ordinary man. He is a talented artist of some renown among New York art circles, noted for his exquisite depictions on canvass of bewitching nudes. He also has all of the physical attributes that make him sought after by women, and being highly sexual by nature he is perfectly suited to fulfill their innermost desires as well as his own. His need for perfection drives him in everything he does. His major failing is he cannot tolerate physical flaws in anyone. This is reflected in his dream life when an incident from early childhood periodically returns to haunt him. Yet he never manages to connect these dream episodes with the dramatic occurrences--mostly related to women--that dog his life. His story takes a circuitous route from the time he is returning home to America, after having lived in Paris for almost a year, to the moment he departs the ocean liner determined to put back together the shards of his broken life. Flashbacks account for the intervening years when he was growing up, attending the art academy, working as a model on the continent, and his affairs with the women who dominated his life.