title: Playbook for a Dame
author: Davenport, Vivian
description: Dreams! Drive! Danger! BALLS!
  It’s 1954. Mona Winston, now a ripe fifty-two, is hell-bent on finding fame on the stage. She’s devoted ten years to chasing after Hollywood film roles and New York teevee jobs. After a gig as a carnival hootchy-kootchy dancer, she lands in Metroville, the Broadway of the Midwest. Filled with more drive and self-delusion than talent, the hard-scrabble Mona knows she’ll make it, “because I’m tough!”
  Nevertheless, life is still a struggle. She survives prison time and a bout with amnesia. She tangles with dangerous men, including two exes, a lynch-happy farmer, and a merciless drama critic, but yearns for the only guy she trusts, a three-armed musician with an extra shoulder to cry on. Mona finally scores a choice role in a major Metroville play. On the brink of stardom when opening night arrives, she makes two startling discoveries and must choose between her shot at fame and a shot at being a stand-up broad.
  PLAYBOOK FOR A DAME is one dame’s struggle to be somebody. Her juicy story is served with a dash of noir, a dollop of heart, and a heap of grit.