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GIVEAWAY!!! Guest Post by Tracie Banister – author of In Need of Therapy
I am pleased to welcome Tracie Banister, author of In Need of Therapy, to Every Free Chance Book Reviews today. She has written this terrific guest post about setting the scenes for her book. And she is giving away an eBook of In Need of Therapy!!!
THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING
Guest Post by Tracie Banister
As a reader, I love to be transported by a novel. If it’s to a place that I’ve actually visited, I have fun recognizing the sights, sounds, and people in the story. If it’s to a place that I’m not familiar with, I get to imagine what it’s like to be there thanks to the description and details provided by the author. Infusing a book with local color can bring it to life, which is why picking a setting for my novels is one of the first things I do when I sit down to plan out a story.
For my new Chick Lit novel, In Need of Therapy, I started out with the idea of writing a humorous, romantic story about a female psychologist who was just beginning her career. My heroine was going to be well-educated and sophisticated, so I needed her to live and work in a big city. I didn’t see her residing in any of the southern metropolises (too slow-paced and genteel for this particular story’s purposes), nor did I see her battling taxi cabs and street vendors on the way to work every morning in Manhattan. Boston, San Francisco, Chicago . . . none of those great cities seemed right either. Then, it hit me . . . Miami!
I’d actually spent some time in the South Beach section of Miami a few months earlier and I’d been struck by how vibrant, exciting, and full of character that part of town was. The streets running parallel to the beach were lined with pastel-hued, Art Deco buildings that housed all types of businesses, including boutiques, art galleries, hotels, night clubs, and a slew of restaurants offering different exotic cuisines that could be eaten while sitting outside in the glorious sunshine. It was the ideal spot for my heroine to ply her trade! She could have an office in one of the Mediterranean Revival-style buildings on 11th Street, walk a few blocks to the beach and watch the waves roll in on her lunch break, and talk shop with a colleague over triple-decker burgers at Big Pink’s, a popular local eatery.
Once I’d decided to set In Need of Therapy in Miami, it seemed completely natural for me to make my heroine a Latina (a nod to the large Cuban community in South Florida.) And now that I had my beachfront setting, I could populate the book with characters who were swimsuit designers, lifeguards, tapas restaurant owners, and attorneys specializing in estate law (there are a lot of rich, elderly people in Miami!) Finding the perfect setting brought the whole book together for me and now I can’t imagine it ever having taken place anywhere else!Many thanks to Chrissy for letting me drop by Every Free Chance today! I enjoyed talking about the importance of setting with all of you! If you can’t make it to Miami yourself this summer, I invite you to grab yourself a Mojito and pick up a copy of my romance and comedy-filled novel, In Need of Therapy.
About the author: An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O’Hara. Her work was first seen on the stage of her elementary school, where her 4th grade class performed an original holiday play that she penned (Like all good divas-in-the-making, she, also, starred in and tried to direct the production.) Her dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a “real” job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, Tracie decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Her debut novel, the Hollywood-themed Blame It on the Fame, was released in January, 2012. And she’s following that up with the fun summer read, In Need of Therapy.
About the book: Lending a sympathetic ear and dispensing sage words of advice is all part of the job for psychologist Pilar Alvarez, and she’s everything a good therapist should be: warm, compassionate, supportive. She listens, she cares, and she has all the answers, but how’s the woman everyone turns to in their hour of need supposed to cope when her own life starts to fall apart?
While working hard to make a success of her recently-opened practice in trendy South Beach, Pilar must also find time to cater to the demands of her boisterous Cuban family, which includes younger sister Izzy, an unemployed, navel-pierced wild child who can’t stay out of trouble, and their mother, a beauty queen turned drama queen who’s equally obsessed with her fading looks and getting Pilar married before it’s “too late.” Although she’d like to oblige her mother and make a permanent love connection, Pilar’s romantic prospects look grim. Her cheating ex, who swears that he’s reformed, is stalking her. A hunky, but strictly off-limits, patient with bad-boy appeal and intimacy issues is making passes. And the sexy shrink in the suite across the hall has a gold band on his left ring finger.
When a series of personal and professional disasters lead Pilar into the arms of one of her unsuitable suitors, she’s left shaken, confused, and full of self-doubt. With time running out, she must make sense of her feelings and learn to trust herself again so that she can save her business, her family, and most importantly, her heart.
find it here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Goodreads
And now for the awesome GIVEAWAY from Ms. Banister!!! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win an eBook of In Need of Therapy!
6 Comments
by Michelle
Miami is definitely the perfect setting and now I need to go visit the city.
by The Every Free Chance Reader
I’ve never been! But I want to visit someday!
by The Chick Lit Guide
I’m really looking forward to reading this book!! I love that it’s set in Miami and that the main character is Latino. That doesn’t happen every day 🙂 I think Miami is such a bright and vibrant place and makes for the perfect book setting!
-The Chick Lit Guide
by The Every Free Chance Reader
Thanks for stopping by! I’m looking forward to reading it as well. =)
by Savannah Page
I’m so stoked for Tracie and about reading this book. Hmmm, whisk me away from chilly Berlin to sunny (and hot ‘n steamy) Miami via a chick lit read? Uh, yes please!! Don’t think I can wait to win one…but if I do I know plenty of ladies who would love to escape to Miami!
Great post, Tracie!
Hugs -Savannah Page
by The Every Free Chance Reader
Thanks for stopping by Savannah! Good luck!