Finding a 'Promise Land' in Destin

When 59-year-old pianist Brandy needs extra dollars in her tip jar, she just thrusts out her 40 double-Ds.

In “A Promise Land of Plenty,” a novel by Betty Lazarini of Destin's One Water Place, Brandy upgrades her life by marrying a millionaire, but after his death she learns the truth about the real source of his wealth. Becoming romantically involved with both a chauffeur and an FBI agent, Brandy travels to Destin, Boston and Kentucky in the process of sorting out her life.

Before coming to live in Destin a couple of years ago, the 67-year-old Lazarini, said she and her husband, Gary, had been longtime visitors: “We're out of Memphis. Memphians have been coming to Destin forever.”

She told The Log the inspiration for her novel came from a couple of statuettes she bought while vacationing in Destin with a couple of Memphis tennis buddies.

“I thought they'd be a hoot,” she said. “I'd buy them, they'd sit on the counter, have wine with us ... We started toasting them, making up stories about where they'd come from, and I said, 'I could do this in a book, I could make them into characters' ... and did.”

Lazarini said she's loved writing fiction ever since grade school and previously published a book of short stories, “Stepping Out.” She decided to see if she could write a longer work, with her tennis buddies serving as her sounding board: “I'd tell them what I thought was going to happen; they'd say, 'That won't work' or 'I can't wait to see what you're going to do with it.' ”

The title of the novel, she said, refers to promises - a lot of which are broken - and that there's plenty of money at stake in Brandy's adventures. She said she avoided using “promised land” so that people wouldn't assume the book had a religious message.

Lazarini said she submitted the manuscript to agents and publishers; after being turned down she decided to self-publish: “I couldn't wait any longer. I said, 'To the devil with trying the hard way, we'll have a party and have fun.' ”

She said she published the book under the pen name B.P. Laz because “I wasn't sure how much I wanted to expose myself,” though she's comfortable being interviewed under her own name.

Lazarini said she's working on another novel, featuring a “handsome, handsome waiter” from “Promise Land of Plenty” as the love interest: “It gives the character a chance to be a big man.”

Want to go?

Lazarini's book signing is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Tales by the Sea in The Village of Baytowne Wharf. For more information, contact Tales owner Heidi LoCicero at (225) 921-5375.