Matilda "Mat" Anastasia Carvel is a very talented and ambitious portrait-painter, but she's also young and naive. After ditching her dysfunctional Arkansas family and helping herself to a new wardrobe from a Salvation Army dumpster, she runs away to New York City.

Mat soon finds herself engulfed in the chaotic pace of Manhattan. Between sharing a roach-infested basement apartment with two ditzy sisters, a rich bag lady, and a cross-dressing gay couple, she winds up supporting the slackers by painting portraits of customers at Tony's Pizzeria, pampered poodles, and homeless vagabonds.

Mat doesn't mind helping out her new friends, but she's frustrated because she doesn't have time to find "Mr. Right" and rid herself of her virginal status. With advice from a colorful homeless lady who claims to have sex with aliens in Central Park, Mat finds her soul mate.

Manhattan Madness is a hilarious, fast-paced story of unique characters and action that will have you chuckling or even laughing out loud until the very last page.

About the Author:

A.R. Alan is a born storyteller. Even in first grade, she became notorious for scribbling stories on scraps of paper. When she wasn't doing that, she'd have her nose buried in a book, soaking up other peoples' stories. Reading and writing stories became lifelong passions, and she's currently finishing her eleventh novel.

Worldwide travel and a career that brought her in touch with a never-ending stream of interesting personalities and celebrities fanned her already fertile imagination over the years, and validate the vivid, multi-dimensional characters that people her novels.

She is also an avid environmentalist, and played a major role in saving a New Jersey/New York mountain range from developers. It will remain open space forever.

Previously writing under the name of B.B. Carter, she has had many short stories, poems, and five novels published. She has also penned comedic material for Joan Rivers.