Guest Post by Lisa Becker

Lisa Becker is the author of “Click: An Online Love Story“. She is currently doing an author blog tour to promote her book, which I managed to become a part of. I decided that I would like to do a week of posts revolving around her novel, and Lisa graciously wrote a guest post for my blog after very little begging on my part. Thank you, Lisa!

When I was a little girl, my great Aunt Yetta (now there’s a name that hasn’t made a resurgence!) owned a bookstore – a wonderful, charming, neighborhood bookstore.  She always had books around, talked about books and gave books as gifts.  I loved her store almost as much as I loved her and my Uncle Milt (another name yet to make a comeback!)

And while I was a little girl, I told myself I would write a book when I grew up.  In the meantime, I read.  And read and read.  I even studied English and American Literature in college and read a lot more.  It was after college while working in public relations that I read e by Matthew Beaumont, which tells the story of a fictitious ad agency vying for a big account, with the story all told in emails.  I found myself laughing out loud (on an airplane, no less!) and loved the narrative.

After my husband and I married (we met on a popular online dating site), I was recalling some of the hilarious experiences that I had with both traditional and online dating.  I decided to capture some of them in writing and from there, a novel emerged.  I remembered how much I had enjoyed e and thought that narrative style would work really well for the story I wanted to tell about the online dating world.  It was a modern way of storytelling that fit the topic and the times.

Click: An Online Love Story is loosely based on my real-life dating experiences, as well as stories friends have shared with me.  In some cases, things are written as they actually occurred.  Honestly, how could I forget a date with Pete who started every story (no joke!) with “My buddies and I were out drinking one night”?

In some cases, I’ve drawn on characteristics of people in my personal life to add depth and humor.  For example, Shelly’s hilarious habit of giving nicknames to her “man du jour” was inspired by a childhood friend of mine who had a nickname for a guy in college that she admired from across the dorm cafeteria.  She called him Maverick because he looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.  Much like Shelley, she is a self-confident, gorgeous, lovely gal and it wasn’t long before they met and dated for a spell.

And finally, other Click scenarios are exaggerated for comedic affect or are completely fictionalized.

Now, Click is a published novel that people are reading and enjoying (hurrah!).  And, it was just the other night when that initial childhood memory of my aunt’s bookstore came full circle and I found myself at a book signing for Click in the charming neighborhood bookstore in my local hometown.  A childhood promise had come true (another hurrah!).   And now that I’m grown up, just like my Aunt Yetta, I too always have books around, talk about books and give books as gifts.

– Lisa Becker

Previous “Click” Posts: IMM