Penelope Przekop

Centerpieces Penelope Przekop

The life of an artist is hard, but being a vampire is even harder ...

Vincent van Gogh fakes his death. 
Ellis Spenser longs to paint. 
Holly Carter conceals a famous lineage. 
Theo van Gogh gains his health, but loses the woman he loves. 
Mimi Calais says she's a vampire. 
Tom Spencer hatches a plan.

Ellis and Tom Spencer oversee the drug safety organization in one of the world's largest and most respected companies, Pratt Pharmaceuticals. Tom's deviant plan for their future begins to splinter when Ellis meets Holly Carter, a lonely Southern woman who has come to New York to pursue art while furthering her pharmaceutical career. Holly lives in a Greenwich Village apartment building owned by Mimi, a mysterious young woman whose claims of being a vampire remind Holly that life goes on. 

As Ellis pursues Holly, the past and present begin to overlap. Dark secrets emerge amidst Mimi's bizarre apartment bookstore, strip clubs, galleries, brownstones, corporate boardrooms, and Starbucks ad nauseam, while this diverse cast of characters struggles to carve out unique identities in a world where middle age is the beginning of the end; corporate puppets and dreaming immigrants rub shoulders in the hallowed burning halls of Ellis Island; and forever takes on new meaning.

Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime. Based on extensive research, CENTERPIECES explores the miraculous explosion of Van Gogh's work shortly after his suicide and the death of his brother, Theo, six months later. Join Vincent in a journey of self-discovery, friendship, betrayal, fantasy, corporate intrigue, and love. Find out what he sacrificed for art.