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For the latest Cordair fiction, visit the author’s website at www.quentcordair.com or the author’s Amazon page at http://tinyurl.com/3jkpssc.
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About the Author
Quent Cordair was born in 1964 in southern Illinois. He was raised “under a church pew,” as the saying went, in a fundamentalist Christian sect, and though his family moved regularly—the grass always being greener—it would nearly always be to a town with a church of their denomination close by. It was an insular community in which the devout were forbidden the enjoyment of movies, pop music, television, school sports, alcohol, jewelry, makeup, skirts shorter than knee length and most other temporal pleasures worth mentioning. It may not be a coincidence that the writer and artist now resides and works in Napa, California—the heart of the wine country—where with his wife, Linda, he enjoys some of the world’s best wine and food, and owns an art gallery brimming with lovely nudes and other sensuous delights. When not painting for the gallery, he writes romantic, adventurous fiction that celebrates a markedly different perspective of life on earth than the one under which he was raised.
While many things in his youth were proscribed, the reading of fiction was not—an oversight, no doubt, by church authorities—for it was amidst the library shelves that the eyes of a young man were opened to a marvelous and exciting world beyond the church’s walls. He immersed himself in boys’ mystery books and was captivated by the stories of Stevenson, Defoe, Wyss, and Doyle. In his mid-teens, he was discovering the dramatic tales of Fleming, Follet, Sienkiewicz and Hugo, and would soon bask in the ingenuity of O. Henry and the genius of Ayn Rand.
At seventeen, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps with the goal of becoming a career fighter pilot, but by the time he was accepted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, he recognized that the only work that could ever truly satisfy him was the creation of the kind of visions that had inspired him through his youth. After completing his four-year enlistment, he launched his writing career.
His first short story was published in 1991 by the Atlantean Press Review. To support himself while writing, he waited tables, took employment as a security guard, stocked groceries and worked the graveyard shift at a mail-processing center. While working a desk job at an auction firm, he began seeking paying work more in line with his artistic proclivities. After teaching himself how to paint, he began taking portrait commissions while working at his easel in a local park and would soon be exhibiting at art fairs.
The Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery was opened in 1996 in Burlingame, California, where the work of other painters and sculptors of like vision were offered in addition to Quent’s own portraiture, figuratives, landscapes and still lifes, which are now collected by an international clientele. Linda assumed management of the business as it continued to grow, with the square footage doubling in 2006. Yet even this space proved to be too small, and in 2008, the Cordairs moved the gallery to a 3600 square-foot location in downtown Napa, where today they offer the finest selection of Romantic Realism in the world. Quent’s present efforts are devoted to his writing: in addition to publishing his short stories, he is completing a novel of grand scope inspired by his life’s journey and passions.
The Cordairs live in Napa with their cats, Lexie and Sadie, and their adopted malamute-mix, Ruby.
Also by Quent Cordair ~
A Prelude to Pleasure
How does a man find the woman of his dreams?
"Before the five-year search there had been fifteen long years of watching and waiting to fall passionately in love the way he had always believed he would, the way he once thought he had. But on his fortieth birthday, he stood alone on a rock above a restless ocean and cried. There was no one with whom to share his world, and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. In business he could do anything, achieve anything, he refused to accept failure—but he couldn't create a woman, and he couldn't fall in love with one who simply wasn't there. Lifting his head, he had angrily wiped away the tears: he had been more than patient with the world, and the world hadn't delivered on its promise. And if he couldn't have what he wanted—he swore he would get the best that could be had. . . ."
A Prelude to Pleasure is the tale of how a man of accomplishment and wealth goes about finding his true love—and what he discovers along the way, with the help of a boy who reminds him of who he once was. The short story by Quent Cordair was first published to acclaim by The Atlantean Press in 1991. 30 pages.
Readers review A Prelude to Pleasure
The protagonist is a good-looking, self-made billionaire who is a business genius with a gorgeous girlfriend. Seems hard to feel sorry for a guy like that, right? Yet Quent Cordair does a nice job depicting his inner struggles, including his life-long personal quest for what's most meaningful in his life. As a reader, one quickly identifies and sympathizes with the hero's plight and roots for him to win in the end.
The characters are nicely drawn and the dramatic tension unfolds according to a clever, inexorable logic: Will the hero ruin his life with a bad decision -- or have the courage to make the right decision.
I'm being necessarily vague on the details, because I want readers to check out the story for themselves.
I read this story during recovery from a painful hip fracture and found it so absorbing that it took my mind off the post-operative pain. So perhaps one way of praising it would be to say, "it's better than Percocet"!
—Paul S. Hsieh
An inspiring, enjoyable quick read! And for the ridiculously low price of admission, you really can't pass it up. I'm looking forward to more from Quent Cordair.
—Bryan Larsen
I originally saw this story in The Atlantean Press Review and I'm so glad to see it's back “in print”! Mr. Cordair paints beautiful pictures with words and really brings a story to life. I highly recommend reading his work and am looking forward to the novel!
—R. Miner
The Seduction of Santi Banesh
The daughter of a third-world diplomat is traveling with her family to New York. Their one-day stopover in San Francisco proves to be a radically life-altering experience.
"Santi Banesh was a sultan's dream of dark olive skin and burnt-umber eyes, deep almond pools that could drown a man. The long loose folds of her traditional wrap tried to hide her body, but her enchanting eyes, slender hands, the rise and fall of her chest and her graceful, sensual walk only made the robe work contrary to its intention, its overt defenses posing a rude challenge to imaginations which proceeded to lay waste to its veiling walls. Imaginations can be thorough beasts: Santi had already been ravaged by hundreds of men, though she was still a virgin and only fifteen.
"And now, just as her body was straining for perfection, it was starving. A third day without food and it was screaming. Everyone had said that after two days the hunger pangs abated, and for most girls they probably did, but her insides had set up a protest which had started about an hour before the first missed meal and had only escalated since. She had always been a healthy eater anyway. Her mother scolded that she would turn into an elephant once she bore children. But Santi's body burned more brightly and hotly than most—it needed the food—and it found this deprivation unforgivable. . . ."
First published in the 1994 summer issue of the Atlantean Press Review.
Readers Review
The Seduction of Santi Banesh
I have read a few stories of Cordair's and this is my favorite. Santi Banesh is strong-willed and independent--my kind of heroine. The 15-year-old girl faces the ultimate culture clash when she comes directly from a third world country to one of the great cities of America. Cordair paints the conflict clearly and the ending is perfect. A great, short read. — Jason Crawford
From the intriguing beginning to the enchanting ending, this short story is a really delightful journey. It captures the joy of those seeing American possibilities for the first time. The ending leaves you smiling ear to ear. — Rachel Miner
I love this story. With imagination and story-telling skill, Quent Cordair weaves an exquisite tale that leaves the reader wanting more. Integrity is very seductive. — Michael Wilkinson
Quent Cordair Fine Art
The Finest Romantic Realism
In Painting & Sculpture
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Author’s Website