Starring in the Movie of My Life

Thirty-five-year-old Samantha acts without thinking. Her heart is huge while her sense of purpose is small; shes willing to fight for those she loves but shes never learned to fight for herself. Eighteen-year-old Melody is cold and calculating and shes driven by the desire to better herself. As these compelling yet deeply flawed women battle for the affections of twenty-five-year-old Nathan he becomes increasingly confused and torn between them. Nathan is Melodys English teacher and after he saves her from being raped she becomes attached. Melody longs for the affection shes never felt so she involves people in her self-invented drama making sure she is at once the star and the director. Meanwhile Samantha is newly married to Nathan. But Samantha has hang-ups about motherhood and lingering feelings for her ex. To make sense of the world Sam relates her life to the themes of her favorite movies while she independently makes a documentary to jump-start her non-existent film career. Stylistically influenced by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner Starring in the Movie of my Life is told alternately from both Samanthas and Melodys points-of-view and relates two complete yet combined stories about love acceptance and redemption. It speaks to our universal desire to be saved by the ones we love and the monumental effort required tosave ourselves. Laurel Osterkamps first novel Following My Toes published by PMI Books won the 2008 National Indie Book Award for Excellence (Chick Lit category). She drew on her experiences as a high school film studies and creative writing teacher as she wrote Starring in the Movie of my Life. Currently she lives in Minneapolis with her husband son and daughter and is working on her third novel.