Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Help a Sister Out -- Blogging for Patry

by Marcus Sakey

Today marks the trade paperback release of my friend and Killer Year classmate Patry Francis's spectacular novel THE LIAR'S DIARY. It's a beautiful piece of work: nuanced, tense, and unpredictable, with some stunning twists and a wonderful feel for the ways we mislead others and ourself.

That's the reason to buy it.

The reason I suggest it here is that, as many of you probably know, Patry was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She's spent the last months in and out of the hospital. Her life has been shaken like a snowglobe. She's had to face the demons all of us dread.

And yet she has handled it with honesty, humor, and hope (check out her blog to see what I mean.) Rather than letting herself succumb to every dark thing, she's fought to find the beauty in each day. It's an amazing thing to watch grace unfurl.

Of course, that means that her focus has been where it should be--on real life. Not on promoting her novel, not on networking and schmoozing and doing interviews. Which gives us a wonderful opportunity to help her bear the load.

Think about jumping over to BookSense or Amazon and buying a copy. Do it because you can help out someone extraordinary. But also do it for yourself--you won't be disappointed.

If you are, hell, drop me a line. I'll buy your copy back.

All our best, Patry. There's a lot of love aimed your direction.