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EVENT: Sat. Aug. 13, 2011, 1:30-3pm Booksigning of Dayna Hester's new book, "Speaking Truths" at Bank of Books, 748 E. Main St., Ventura.
Dayna Hester will be coming out for a booksigning and read to promote her first book Speaking Truths. "What if you discovered that the life you were living was a lie?" Check out this great review by Nick Cassavetes REVIEW "It always amazes me. You find great talent in the oddest of places. I first met Dayna Hester socially - at a wedding, through a very dear friend. We spent the evening drinking and laughing. I never knew she was a writer. She mentioned she was working on something, and I'm sure I promised to look at it when she was finished, but it could have been anything. I assumed it was movie-related. It wasn't until years later that she sent me a book to read. I was floored. ‘Speaking Truths’ is far more than a coming of age story. It is a lyrical and literate character study of Landon, a not-so-average high school junior who doesn't fit in. Constantly acting out in school, his incessant troublemaking provides a graphically effective foreshadowing that hints at much deeper levels of tragedy, especially when Landon is apprehended by the feds. 'Truths' sucks us in immediately. Hester does a superb job of placing the reader in the protagonist’s shoes. When questioned by the FBI, Landon slowly pieces together the clues about his life, and soon we learn there are many types of truths. One truth is about the abusive man Landon lives with, Bob, who is very unfortunately not his father. Author Hester now easily transforms Landon from problem child to sympathetic protagonist, one whose very sanity is on the line. When Landon's truths start to fully reveal themselves, we are completely engaged. And as Landon struggles to accept the truth about his life and attempts to transcend its tragic realities, "Truths" has us by the throat. It is marvelous to watch such a young writer so skillfully balance so many intriguing narrative tensions, and Bob's arrest by the FBI provides a startling pivot point. A later plot turn threatens to spin the story in a whole new direction, but not to worry, the author is in complete control, never forgetting what the soul of this piece is. Shocking at times, but always imminently readable, "Speaking Truths" is an authentic look into the pain and tribulation of what it is to be this troubled youth. I simply could not put it down." - Nick Cassavetes Los Angeles What did Dave Ziegler Thank about "As a psychologist and specialist in the aftermath of traumatic experiences, the author has allowed me to comment on the emotional and psychological components touched upon in this book. At the outset I want to say that Dayna Hester has done a good job in this novel to introduce the reader to the world of the abducted individual. She would be the first to say that the story required that she make some accommodations in order for the reader to understand some of the complex themes that such an experience would bring up including: mental confusion, memory loss, loyalty binds, emotional conflicts, and auto-biographical chaos (trying to figure out who you are). "
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