Tell Me About Your Book

"Tell me about your book. I think I'd like to purhchase it. And what is your favorite part of the book? A reader."

Thanks. Go ahead and purchase it right away! Don't let me stop you. Hahaha.

But believe it or not, for many writers this is a rather difficult thing to do--describe their book. I have known writers to spend days trying to come up with a 100-word blurb. For me, it is easier to say what my book is about after I have listened to readers describe how they felt when they were reading it. My readers say that the book is about a man who hits it big and learns that winning is not everything. My readers say that the book is a cautionary tale about how addiction destroys us. My readers say that the book is not really about gambling--but about addictions of all kinds. My readers say that the book is clever and humorous. My readers say that the book is hard to put down because P's voice is so different from anything else that they have read and yet so compelling.

I like what my readers are saying about the book.

When I wrote the book I was kind of in a zone--the protagonist, P, I felt, was speaking through me and I wasn't always prepared for what he was going to say. I wasn't always in control, I felt, until the editing stage. When I started writing the thing, I thought that I was P, but no--P was somebody else. P was himself.

My favorite part of the book . . . the whole book . . . well my favorite scene, maybe, is when P's girlfriend C.L. is caught cheating at blackjack--when she gets arrested, a lot of important things about their relationship come out--I like how that chapter reads. I also love the scene with P's father, the macho, old school gambler. And I love every scene when P is in a casino, his true love.

Thanks for your question,

Preston