THE LIAR'S DIARY and Patry Francis

This was one of those things that I came to a little bit late, but I want to make a quick note about it, and what it says about the writing community as a whole.

Patry Francis is the author of the thriller novel The Liar’s Diary, which was published in February 2007. It did well enough that there was a paperback edition, scheduled to come out January 29th, 2008. Of course, for any novelist that is a huge deal. However, in November of 2007, Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Life went from focusing on the book, to focusing on living.

In January of this year, a group of wonderful people got together, and decided that since Patry was trying to live, they in turn would try to help her by promoting her book. The result was over 300 writers, bloggers, agents, readers, editors, publishers, and many other people in one way or another, on January 29th, promoted Patry’s book.

There’s a lot of cut-throat in any business, but I think writers have a special bond, in that we love hearing about other writers, we encourage each other, help each other, and even when we think, Gee, I wish that was me, we are still happy for one another, and say You go!

I have not read this book, or heard of Patry before this, but I went through and read a great deal of her blog after hearing about this, and there is a lot that resonates with me. I’ll finish off with a post I found on her blog, when she first found out her book had sold.