As Francesca - Hardcover

On the brink of a promotion, ambitious businesswoman Elaine partakes in erotic encounters on the Internet with the seductive "Inez," but a careless mistake has her guessing who her online lover really is. A first novel. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo. Tour.

tious and hardworking, plays by the rules at the office so well that she's on the brink of an impressive promotion. But in the cyberspace world she visits every night as "Francesca," she plays by a different set of rules. There, her cool mastery gives way to abject obedience, as the mysterious "Inez" seduces her into demeaning--and irresistible--sexual adventures. When a careless mistake destroys the barrier between virtual reality and her corporate life--and suggests a disturbing connection between her nightly degradation and her professional success--Elaine becomes obsessed with finding her real-life paramour. Her speculations about Inez's true identity quickly run wild, and soon all her once-innocent encounters with friends and colleagues are charged with sexual overtones.

In a darkly comic, highly erotic tale for our time, Martha Baer captures the allure of anonymous cyber-sex and the elusiveness of gender definitions and social identity. As Francesca