Because Sometimes You Need a Story (and a giveaway!)

I keep forgetting to eat breakfast because it’s not on the to-do list and there have been crises at work and crises at home and I have only gotten to run three miles this week and it looks like the rain is trying to make up for the drought all over the country today.

Sometimes I need a good story.

Sometimes I need to curl up with a warm beverage and Lucy Mae and just forget all the craziness of the world for a while. It’s good therapy. Really.

My friend Laura wrote just such a story. Her story makes me think hard about who I am—about who I want to be. Here’s what I wrote about it over at Amazon:

She's been challenged to write a novel by a twitter friend and she just might do it. Maybe. But she has to find that darn tea basket first.

Laura, the complicated main character of The Novelist, never leaves her house (unless you count her porch or her soiree into cyberspace) but she takes the reader into "the great unknown" (as she quotes James Scott Bell from his book Plot & Structure). A copywriter who also writes poetry, Laura is completely daunted by the task of novel writing. The reader is treated to her internal process which delightfully weaves together her troubled upbringing, a broken romance, her love of tea, and poetry...beautiful poetry.

Such a clever book that highlights some of the tried and true rules of writing fiction and then breaks them all. Wonderfully. Plus there is all that delicious name-dropping of poets and other writers.

If you've read L.L. Barkat before, you'll recognize her deep and smart writing but might be surprised by her storytelling. But if you've read her poetry, you won't be surprised by the sensuality in this compelling story.

A lovely portrait that does justice to the complexities of life and the human spirit.

Have you read it? The Novelist: A Novella? You really should. And because it has been such good therapy for me, I’d like to make it easier for you. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this lovely story. For more than one chance, tweet or Facebook this giveaway and you’ll be entered another time for each. Leave your comment by Monday and I’ll announce the winner on my Playdates with God post.

Because sometimes you just need a good story.