Next up on my reading list, Patry Francis' first novel, The Liar's Diary. I've been keenly aware of Patry's writing since I first published her wonderful short story, "LIVE PURE, LIVE TRUE" at Literary Mama when I was the fiction editor there a few years ago. More recently, I've been more keenly aware of her personal story -- and the community support she's been getting -- as she publishes her first novel (Go Patry!) while, at the same time, fighting a hard medical battle.

Buy her book. Read her wonderful prose. Celebrate this writer's community who rallies around one of our own! Let's put her sales numbers through the roof!

Here's the opening snippet of "LIVE PURE, LIVE TRUE":

It's Thursday, three-thirty in the afternoon, and I'm standing in front of the mirror thinking about the Chinese woman and her husband. Right about now she is getting ready for work. While she applies her thick foundation, I paint my lips the color of dark plums, coat my eyelids in a shadow called Dusk. While she irons her uniform and pulls on the dark panty hose that hide her hard-earned spider veins, I try on some of the lingerie her husband bought for me. The purple push up bra and thong are my favorites; I like the way they deepen my eyes from brown to violet-black to night itself in the changing light.