Saturday Book Giveaway: Dancing on Glass

by Christa Allan

I'm excited to be giving away an autographed copy of Dancing on Glass by Pamela Binnings Ewen, which received the 2012 Single Titles Reviewer Choice Award. This is a powerful novel about otherwise successful women who find themselves trapped by relationships with men whose manipulations are woven into their charm. 

As described by the publisher:

In the steamy city of New Orleans in 1974, Amalise Catoir meets Phillip Sharp, a charming, magnetic artist, unlike any man she has known.

A young lawyer herself, raised in a small town and on the brink of a career with a large firm, she is strong and successful, yet sometimes too trusting and whimsical. Ama’s rash decision to marry Phillip proves to be a mistake as he becomes overly possessive, drawing his wife away from family, friends, and her faith.

His insidious, dangerous behavior becomes her dark, inescapable secret. In this lawyer’s unraveling world, can grace survive Ama’s fatal choice? 

I met Pamela several years ago through the Northshore Literary Society, a local group she co-founded that provides social and educational events to promote literacy. Since then, she's truly been a flashlight for me, helping me to navigate the world of authoring and publishing and promoting.

After practicing law for twenty-five years in Houston, she opted for a full time writing career. The sequel to this giveaway novel, Chasing the Wind, released this summer. The Moon in the Mango Tree, her first novel, was also recently honored as winner of the 2012 Eudora Welty Memorial Award given by the National League of American Pen Women in their Biennial Celebration.

Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.

Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.

To win Dancing on Glass by Pamela Binnings Ewen, please leave a comment about your favorite New Orleans memory or one you’d like to create. Be sure to include your email address, and leave your comment before midnight, December 31.

Christa Allan is a soon-to-be retired high school English teacher and the author of Walking on Broken Glass, The Edge of Grace, Love Finds You in New Orleans, and Threads of Hope. She lives in New Orleans where she is working on her next novel between eating beignets and making gumbo.