Chinese writer Tian Yi was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Oct. 31 for selling her novel “Occupation” because it depicted gay sex.

The news reminds fiction readers of the perils faced in accurately exploring homosexual relationships — a topic still revealing insights about homo sapiens.

In the preface to her novel “Kat’s Nine Lives,” author and Citrus English professor Anna Villeneuve offers the context of gay rights and American politics to her story, which revolves around two weddings and a memorial.

When the character Wendy thinks of Kat, she says she is comforted by her friend’s sexiness.

The characters of “Kat’s Nine Lives” spend most of mortality questioning their nontraditional desires, yet occasionally reinforce orthodox beauty standards.

The genre is lesbian romance. Villeneuve said her fifth novel is intended purely as escapist fantasy.

A fawning reverence for beauty may be the only ugly head reared in the novel’s two enjoyable female leads.

“I get really uncomfortable with the butch-fem pairing,” Villeneuve said.

She said she only understands feminine characters enough to depict their personalities accurately.

Wendy doesn’t permit herself to fall into a relationship, especially with a formerly straight woman. She’s afraid Kat, who once dominated the popular kids in high school, will absorb her affections and use her.

Kat is trying on budding feelings toward a woman, which she sup- pressed during a disappointing marriage.

As in her previous novel, “Return to Paradise,” Villeneuve’s characters drag out courtship to Victorian proportions.

The novel is set in modern Los Angeles but the couple doesn’t seem to have heard of the dating app “HER.”

Villeneuve said she tried to avoid tepid relationships because one of her readers complained her last book was “’not even PG.’”

While the story is eventful enough to keep pages turning, the reader agonizes for Cupid’s shot as the too-shy-to-kiss pair stalk each other in kitchens, backyards and bedrooms.

“One of things, I learned from re- views of ‘Paradise,’ is I am writing romance,” Villeneuve said. “I am not writing something that needs to be thought about on a whole other level.”

Nevertheless, where Villeneuve wins is her insight into relationships.

Her heroine pair rarely fall more than a step behind each other. Their personalities are reflective — often verbalizing each other’s’ thoughts.

Wendy is relieved when Kat laughs at one of her sly jokes. She is quick to comfort Kat who recounts her rocky upbringing.

They prevent each other from falling into emotional distress, without a hand-hold or shoulder rub. And unlike most relationships, they do not draw verbal daggers out of desperation.

The 40-year-olds’ romance is a storybook, and occasionally veers into the unbelievable. They marvel at how only their personalities have matured in the 20 years since high school.

Kat lives in an enchanted mansion, formerly home to gay icon Rock Hudson.

The home is a too-perfect setting to contemplate violence, disease and discrimination generations of the gay community suffered.

Villeneuve’s gay heroes cleverly navigate eyebrow raises and giggles their relationship elicits, which pose a graver danger to their love than any systemic hate.

In honest fashion, the lovers save “l’esprit de l’escalier” for their own delight as they stumble toward an inevitable match.

“She’s pulled in a lot of different directions,” Villeneuve said of her character, Kat.

But readers learn Kat’s latest struggle with a confused sexuality gives her new life, with renewed complications.

Villeneuve will read from her novel at 2:45 p.m. Nov. 29 in CI 237.

“Kat’s Nine Lives” will be on sale at the Owl Bookstore for $16.95 on Nov. 23.