It’s a two-fer! Something we don’t see her often is an author with two back-to-back weeks in the spotlight. That’s probably because most of you don’t have such close release dates. But my buddy Faith Cotter does, and I’m eager to tell you about this one. It’s an essay, a work of non-fiction, and it’s called Paper Dragons.

 

Before I tell you much more about it, let’s pique all our interests — mine included — with the important stuff: What song makes Faith think of her essay?

“Blue,” by Mai Yamane for the Cowboy Bebop OST

You’re gonna carry that weight. The Beatles lyric appears in the bottom of the television screen. Blue has just hit its final note, and the story has ended. John turns to me and says, “Did you like it?”

There are tears in his eyes. It is one of the only times I have seen him cry. Yes, I tell him. I loved it.

Blue marked the end of a show that built its story around exploring how we carry the past and make sense of a chaotic world. In a scene that eloquently speaks to why people create narrative, cartographers race against time and nature to map out rapidly changing land, all in a futile effort to creature structure and logic.

You’re gonna carry that weight. It’s why I wrote Paper Dragons. It’s why John and I share stories, and why he will write someday, too: to make sense of it all. To carry the past as best we can.

 

Wow. Powerful stuff, huh? So… need to know more? I do.

What would you do with time that you didn’t think you’d have? In the wake of an illness that rocked the lives of their family for nearly a decade, Faith and her brother John don’t speak to each other that much anymore. He no longer needs her to help take care of him, and he’s too old for their favorite book, The Velveteen Rabbit. With John staring down the sudden possibility of time, Faith tries to pick up pieces of the past in an attempt to make life whole for both of them again–but she can’t find these relics, pictures of dragons drawn by John’s hands in the early days of his childhood. Paper Dragons examines the kind of grief that is created by lost years, and the stories that break relationships apart–and puts them back together.

 

Sounds like powerful stuff, huh? (And can I repeat myself any more??? Sheesh. But really. What other word would you use?)

Pick up your copy. Since it’s not available at the wider retailers yet, remember that Smashwords can give you any format you need, and the author (in this case, Faith) gets the highest royalties around. Win-win for everyone, so it’s always worth opening an account and keeping your eyes peeled for the periodic promotions.

Smashwords