Discover a Must‑Read Novel By Debra Bowman

The Author

This is my story to tell, at last! While some of the basic elements have been floating around in my mind for decades, the notion of putting pen to paper – or more accurately, fingers to the keyboard – is relatively recent.  In 2016, an event in my professional life bestowed upon me a springboard into a new reality.     

Even though draped in fantastical trappings, the underlying events in my book are fundamentally real and deeply personal.  Putting them out there for public consumption feels like a giant leap into the scary unknown – a risky venture saturated with a generous dose of vulnerability.  The potential outcomes are many and varied, presenting a host of possible results ranging from pleasant, rewarding, and personally fulfilling to hostile, costly, and personally agonizing.

After much reflection, contemplation, justification, and risk analysis, I decided to share my story because I realize that I am not alone in facing some of life’s hefty challenges.  This book is not intended as a tell-all, but rather as a relatable read for the recreational and avid book lovers as well as an offering of hope and optimism for those who may be facing overwhelming challenges that ostensibly have no answer.

For those in the latter group, I can relate.  Oh, the countless nights that intrusive and troublesome menaces have followed me to bed, only to mess with my sleep patterns or infect my dreams with their paralytic toxins.  For several years, I’d waken each morning to a blaring reminder of matters not yet resolved.

Overcoming the murkiest muck that may be strewn along one’s life path can prove difficult, confusing, exhausting, and frustrating, but managing the way over, under, around, or through it is not insurmountable.  The magical tactic of positive spin can tame the wildest beast.

I’ve learned to peacefully and unemotionally coexist with this collection of memories and can now comfortably share them from a place of acceptance and gratitude.

This is a story about personal growth achieved through a combination of logical and imaginary strategies that may be translatable and thereby helpful in a plethora of different circumstances that are unique to the lives of others.

Through fictional characters, rational analysis, and a spectrum of fantastical apparitions, I convey the conundrum/solution dilemma using three backdrops: home, relationship, and career, none of which are necessarily mutually exclusive.  The basis of each predicament arose from true life experiences, some of which are related verbatim and some of which are embellished for interest, emphasis, and affect.

All references to any specific person, place, or time are either omitted or masked by fictitious descriptors to camouflage their true beings and the actual setting.  If, by chance, the reader over-identifies with any of the villainous characters depicted in this book, perhaps a craftily hidden message of wake-up and shape-up has been delivered and received.

After all, if you want to be written about kindly, you’d be well advised to consider how kindly you treat others.  (Slightly paraphrased, but thank you, Ann Lamotte.)

While my education included a minor in psychology, I am not a psychologist nor am I credentialed to write a self-help book.  This story is simply a literary creation about a fictional character and how she overcame a few bad hands she was dealt.  She endeavors to learn and grow stronger and wiser for having courageously faced and conquered them.

This book is fantasy fiction, it highlights the subtle sublimity of life, and is meant as entertainment.
Enjoy.