Choices — Phyll Ashworth

In a prologue which takes place on Monday, July 4, a chartered plane leaves Los Angeles for Hawaii and goes down in the Pacific. The crew and everyone on board-artists heading for an art show in Honolulu-are lost. The balance of the book-the five days preceding July 4-reveal the lives of artists who might board the ill-fated flight. The characters include a young artist and her former sweetheart; a promoter who has killed his wife; a Western cowboy artist; a young woman who's pregnant with her lover's child; a mixed-race couple; a woman who has a one-night stand with a man who likes to inflict pain; a couple whose teenage son has been making designer drugs; and a promoter who is attacked outside a San Francisco gay ball attended by her bisexual lover. Who will choose to board the plane, and who won't?