The Good Father Blog Tour

"The Good Father" is a book by Diane Chamberlain about a young father trying to find his way with a little girl to care for. I just started reading the book, and I love it so far. I was captured in the first chapter and have had a hard time putting it down. It won't take any time to finish this great novel.

Here is more about the book:

"Diane Chamberlain's characters are so realistic that you feel you know them in person, and when you get to the end of the book, you miss them."

--New York Times Bestselling Author Tatiana de Rosnay

THE GOOD FATHER

Diane Chamberlain

A beloved daughter. A devastating choice.

And now there’s no going back.

Four years ago, nineteen-year-old Travis Brown had to make a life changing decision. While his friends were out partying and meeting girls, Travis was at home raising his newborn daughter on his own – changing diapers and working to keep food on the table.  But he’s never regretted his decision. Bella is the light of his life – the reason behind every move he makes – and so far, she is fed.  Cared for.  Safe.

But when Travis loses his construction job and his home, the security he’s worked so hard to create for Bella begins to crumble…

Bestselling author of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, The Midwife’s Confession, and The Lies We Told, Diane Chamberlain, returns with her latest and most gripping novel to date,THE GOOD FATHER (Harlequin MIRA; April 24, 2012; $14.95 U.S./$17.95 CAN.), showing the great lengths a father will go to provide for his little girl.

Just when Travis is at a loss for solutions, a job in Raleigh opens up with the power to change their situation.  It has to.  But upon arriving in Raleigh, there is no job, only an offer to participate in a onetime criminal act that promises quick money and no repercussions.

With nowhere else to turn, Travis must make another choice for his daughter’s sake.  Even if it means he might lose her. 

THE GOOD FATHER

By Diane Chamberlain

MIRA; April 24, 2012

368 pages; $14.95 U.S./$17.95 CAN.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-1346-5

And now for a little Q & A with author of "The Good Father" Diane Chamberlain:

Q&A:

1.      How did you come up with the character, Travis Brown?

The character of Travis was inspired by a young father who would bring his little girl into the coffee shop where I write each morning. I saw the tenderness and love with which he treated his little girl and was touched by it. At the same time, with the economy in terrible shape, I wondered if he was out of work, since he always came in on weekdays as though he had no place else to be. How would a single dad support his precious little girl if he didn’t have a job? I could imagine his desperation leading him to make a terrible decision that he would never be able to undo.

2.      If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in the book?

I don’t think so. If someone told me I had to change something, I might draw the ending out a little longer. I tend to write very “tight”—my greatest fear is boring my reader, so I don’t add a lot of extraneous detail. But I know that, when a reader has fallen in love with my characters, they don’t want me to end their story too soon or too abruptly. That’s why I added an epilogue to The Good Father, showing how the characters fared after their story ends. So if I had to change something, I might draw that epilogue out a little longer to give my readers a little more time to say good bye.

3.      How much, and what kinds of research went into creating this novel?

I do a great deal of research as I write a book. I’ve probably Googled at least one small item per every page of the novel. But some things require more intensive research. Although I was a stepmom to three teenaged girls, I’d had no children of my own so four-year-old little girls like Bella were not very familiar to me. I loved spending more time with my grandkids that age, observing them carefully as I created Bella. Bella’s mother, Robin, also required a good deal of research, since she’d had a heart transplant and I needed to learn what she would have gone through. I loved spending a few days in Beaufort, North Carolina—the beautiful little waterfront town where Robin lives. And finally, I had to learn more than I ever wanted to about the relationship between cocaine and baby formula!

4.      What are you currently reading?

I’m deep into nonfiction right now as I research my work-in-progress, a story that takes place on a North Carolina tobacco farm in 1960. As someone who grew up in New Jersey, I feel as though I’m learning about a foreign country in another era and it’s an eye-opening experience. As far as fiction goes, my favorite recent read was Stephen King’s 11/22/63. What an extraordinary page turner! I love King when he doesn’t do horror, but instead focuses on a human story with a twist, and this book really fits the bill.

Excerpt:

My hands shook as I scratched a note on the back of a gas receipt and stuck it in Bella's pants pocket, sneaking it in there so Bella wouldn't ask me about it or try to pull it out. I remembered the tremor in my mother's hands. "A fine tremor," the doctor had called it and he'd said it was harmless and barely noticeable. Mine wasn't so fine. I could hardly help Bella get her socks straight on her feet.

As you can see above, Diane Chamberlain has a live chat scheduled that you won't want to miss. To find out more information about this book, author and the blog tour, be sure to visit http://booktrib.com/blog-tour-the-good-father-by-diane-chamberlain/. You can read more about the book from other bloggers there too. And look for The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain in bookstores.


*Disclaimer: I received this book to review. All opinions are my own.*