Valedictoria Scott and the Secret of Triumphia

By Patricia A. Leslie

Valedictoria, former scullery maid and heiress, is a modern young woman of alternative 1870s England. Having realised her dream of attending a Secretarialist Academy, the former kitchen-maid is now eagerly pursuing the dream job and independent life that should be possible for a smart, ambitious woman. This time, embracing yet another career opportunity, she takes an Executive Assistant position in the world of Haute Couture,in the glamorous City of Parisia! Surely no uncanny adventures await her this time - in such a civilized, cultured place? Of course she'll be working for Geoffe d'Oeuvre, the notorious owner/director of a famous house of fashionable lingerie, known as The Secret of Triumphia. With a big fashion show coming up, there is much to be done. At the same time, there’s no limit to the complications for a young, lonely Anglian woman in a foreign land! Meanwhile, her gentleman friend Sir Anthony, concerned for her safety in a city where she knows no-one, finds out that rushing to her protection, as usual, comes with some mind-altering complications, when he joins a fellow Gentleman Adventurer, on a journey to the secret homeland of an ancient tribal society living in a most unexpected part of Francia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patricia A. Leslie
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005443504

Patricia A. Leslie

Patricia A. Leslie is left-handed, and a Virgo. She loves dogs (and cats are her least favorite animal - which is a departure for a writer of speculative paranormal fiction). Her degree from UC Berkeley is in cultural anthropology. An interesting fact is that her admiration for Ursula K. LeGuin is what finally led her to studying anthropology in her forties (since Ms. LeGuin's work is all very deeply informed by anthropological ideas). And when Patricia did get an opportunity to go to college to study anthro, she in fact got her degree in the very anthro department that was founded and developed by Ms. LeGuin's father, Alfred Kroeber.The Arts have always been close to Patricia's heart. Although her life up through high school provided nearly no opportunities to enjoy the Arts or express herself through them, once she got out of school and away from her parents, the Arts did become central to her life. At various times she has studied and/or participated in: Scottish and English Country Dance, Ladies' Solo Scottish Dance, theatrical costuming, crochet, Balkan folk dance, Hawaiian dance ('Auwane and Kahiko), swing dance, folk siniging, classical style voice training, watercolor painting, sumi-e brush painting, drawing in ink or pastels, and ceramic sculpture. She has performed as an improv actor, directed stage plays, written, adapted, and translated for the stage, written poetry, songs, and parody lyrics, been an opera supernumerary, written and doctored screenplays, made a 20 minute documentary film about Neopaganism, and -- last but most gratifying of all -- in 2009, plunged deeply into writing fiction. She has, to date, written 7 novels, 4 novellas, 3 novelettes, a dozen short stories, and a variety of uncategorizable humor pieces.Other oddities include: still married to the same man after 41 years... she is a Second Degree Reiki initiate... she's a very good dog trainer... in addition to the BA in anthro at Cal, she has a certificate in museum studies, a cert in teaching ESL, has attended training in the use of Bach and North American flower remedies (essences), and has a mail-order MS in metaphysics. She started teaching herself French at about age eight, by means of Berlitz records. She spent her elementary school years in upstate New York, where she delighted in playing with toads, turtles, salamanders, frogs, and garter snakes. During two of those years (age 9-10) her family lived in a house with a poltergeist.

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