A Life Singular love story book marketing by Lorraine Pestell
"A Life Singular" is a six-part serial by Lorraine
Pestell, a British Australian currently living in Melbourne, Victoria.
She is a longstanding sufferer of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with
all its associated symptoms, and is hoping that her books will broaden
the understanding of mental illness through the universal appeal of a
love story set in the sparkling world of celebrity.
Part
One, released in June 2013, tells the story of a successful
showbusiness star and philanthropist who has risen above childhood abuse
and his own mental scars to enjoy great fame and fortune. When the love
of his life is murdered by a rogue gunman, he decides to write his
autobiography. Part One starts the journey back through his spectacular
life.
Lorraine
seeks to attract readers from all age-groups and walks of life. Her
goals for the serial are: first, to inspire fellow sufferers of mental
illness to triumph over their symptoms; and second, to encourage
non-sufferers to tolerate, support and even love us in our efforts to
life a 'normal' life.
A
recent review illustrates this perfectly: “There is a so much
happening in what is a beautiful story about life and love. Even more
appealing than your typical love story is how the author has embedded
into the storyline some of the more difficult social questions that we
often avoid, making it more intellectual than your typical love story.”
The
original story running through all six "A Life Singular" books has been
under development for over 35 years, with most of the hard graft in the
last 5 years. Part Two was released in December 2013, with the aim of
producing the remaining parts at six-monthly intervals. By releasing the
final part at the end of 2015, the story will end in contemporary
times.
Each
part is inspired by a classic European novel, Part One's being "La
Rabouilleuse" ("The Black Sheep") by Honoré de Balzac. Growing up in
London, with the diversity of Europe on her doorstep, Lorraine brings
her love of languages and cultures into her writing, and hence when
titling the serial, opted to put the adjective after the noun, as in
most Latin-based languages. The books are about a life. Everyone has a
life. It's the type of life which makes it significant. A Life
Singular: one, unique, extraordinary.
Many
of the author’s own experiences served to shape this novel, having
struggled to persevere through depression and suicidal tendencies. One
of her greatest pleasures while writing was to set particular scenes in
some of the places she has lived, especially showcasing Melbourne,
Australia, for its diverse population and multitude of arts, music and
sporting communities.
The
whole serial spans a period of almost fifty years, which has resulted
in an interesting exercise in retrospection in terms of technology,
particularly for Lorraine, who is an IT professional by day. “A Life
Singular - Part One” is set in 1996, when mobile telephones were
becoming popular, text messaging was in its infancy and DVDs were in the
process of replacing video cassettes. The phenomenon of cameras in
‘phones was only just beginning to impact celebrities, who up until that
point had been able to limit their exposure to the paparazzi.