Big News! Today, May 7, a great new novel is for sale in bookstores: CALL ME ZELDA by Erika Robuck. It’s about Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of famous American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (of The Great Gatsby), and about friendships and how they can help us heal.

CALL ME ZELDA is a very special book to me because Erika is my writing critique partner. Her friendship has been one of my life’s greatest gifts.

CALL ME ZELDA is published by Penguin / NAL and has been featured in some really great places:

Glamour Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, … and would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift, too.

I have an autographed copy of Call Me Zelda to give away to one lucky commenter at the end of this post (details below)!

What is it about? The story’s focus is on the friendship between Zelda Fitzgerald and a nurse named Anna, and it brings us into the years after the Fitzgerald party, after the Great Gatsby-like craziness. Scott notoriously used Zelda as his writing muse; Zelda famously fell into ruin, and after that, found her way into Phipps Psychiatric Hospital. From there, CALL ME ZELDA  begins. Through the lens of friendship, we watch each woman grow and heal in different ways, and strengthen each other over the course of the novel.

I particularly like the way Erika has portrayed Zelda, as sympathetic despite her illness and her famous antics. I also love the tenderness with which she writes about the Fitzgeralds together.

It is a must-read novel, on the ways we fail each other and yet can redeem those losses and support each other as well. CALL ME ZELDA helps shine light and meaning into brokenness, and opens up a new dimension to the Fitzgeralds and their place in history. I believe in its theme, that through friendships, we can become a better version of ourselves.

Personal Rave:   Erika is amazing. She is married and has three children (same as me, all boys), and has a passion for historical fiction. She is witty and sharp and compassionate. She has an incredible laugh. Erika is one of those friends I will always count as one of my life’s greatest blessings. Erika’s first novel with Penguin, Hemingway’s Girl, came out in September, which I blogged about here.

Watch: Erika on a beautiful video about CALL ME ZELDA:

To enter the drawing to win the personalized and autographed copy of Call Me Zelda, leave a comment (any comment) below, from 7 am to midnight Eastern time today, May 7. I will email the winner and announce it in the comments on Wednesday, May 8. And if you miss out on winning the copy here on May 7, we’ll be giving away another copy of Call Me Zelda at Great New Books on Wednesday, May 8. Thanks so much!