Hey awesome readers. You guys ready for some feels and inspiration? Check out this book by our very awesome guest reviewer, and author Andrea Lechner-Becker.
“Don’t wait until you know when your life will end to begin living it. Do it now.”
Blurb:
Almost 40% of Americans will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Small town Willow rarely found herself on the right side of the odds. And so, at thirty, her six-months-to-live terminal diagnosis seemed almost fateful. Now, she has two months to reconcile decades of tragedy, from a toxic marriage to growing up with her Vietnam veteran father, all while navigating a transition from Wyoming’s wide-open high desert to Portland’s hipster oddities.
Refreshingly honest and intimate, Willow’s reflective and poetic diary entries countdown her last sixty days as she shares her history in lost love, denied dreams and a surprisingly uplifting lesson for the living. With heart and soul, this debut novel explores the taboo topic of life on the threshold of death’s door.
See a great review of Sixty Days Left here.
Andrea Lechner-Becker
Author Q&A
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Trying to perfect shit. Just get it in the hands of an editor. This person is a professional who will tell you what’s what. Stop fixitating and just hand over the manuscript. Then shut up and wait.
Tell us about your writing style, how is it different from other writers?
I’m fairly idealistic as a personality and so my writing can be like that too. I like flowery verbiage. I like alliteration, I like prose that feels poetic, although I don’t think I’m the best at it. I’m also sarcastic. So, I think that combination is me as a person and my writing style in general.
Who are your books mostly dedicated to?
Sixty Days is dedicated to all the women with cancer who share their stories openly, honestly and frankly, with more humor than I can imagine having in such a situation. I love them and they inspire me.
Do your novels carry a message?
For Sixty Day specifically, I hope readers think about their own mortality and what types of things they can TODAY to really enjoy the life they have. It’s also why I started the Sixty Days Club, which provides members a daily act of gratitude to participate in, which is completely free. Www.andrealechnerbecker.com/sixty-day-club
On the subject of physician-assisted suicide:
Willow makes a point in the book to please not call it that and I stand behind her on the principle. From what I understand, terminally ill people do not like the term suicide, because there’s an insinuation that the person who commits the act does not want to live. There are a lot of semantics that could go into the definition, but the term makes the terminally ill community, who struggle with a disease ending their life way before it should be and if they don’t like it, I don’t like it.
