Book excerpt: The Beautiful, Winged Madness is a state both inspired and mad where one discovers sublime truths and terrifying illusions. It is the domain of Guy, a poet and a painter, and Anna, a performance artist who often wears personas--metaphorical costumes. In present-day Los Angeles, the two artists confront love and pain, beauty and terror, visions and madness, death and rebirth, and the raptures of flesh and spirit in a unique story that takes the reader on an extraordinary odyssey.