Art and Artifice: A Memoir

A Story of Love, Deception, and Healing on the Texas Gulf Coast

I’m pleased to announce the release of my memoir: Art and Artifice! It’s the culmination of 3 years of writing, researching, and editing many, many drafts before I finally deemed it finished. Here’s a snapshot of the story:

“In the mid-2000s, Gail Bergan was in the midst of a second divorce when she fell in love again—hard. Paul was a colleague she’d worked with for more than a decade. When their stars collided, he seemed to be the one she’d waited for her entire life. He had exceptional artistic abilities and a deep desire to pursue a career as an artist that had lain unfulfilled since his college days. With encouragement and support from Gail, they both quit their jobs in Houston and moved to a small seaside town on the Texas Gulf Coast to open an art gallery that would showcase Paul’s work. The triumphant grand opening of their gallery took place in September 2005. What happened 4 weeks later detonated a bomb that blew Gail’s world apart, reverberating in her life for the next 10 years.

In Art and Artifice, Gail’s debut memoir, she describes the familiar patterns of getting involved with a narcissist: love bombing, emotional control and manipulation, gaslighting, abandonment—then return and repeat. She also describes how a brilliant therapist helped her break the pattern of control and set her on the path to healing. Gail wrote this memoir to help other women recognize these dangerous liaisons and to offer hope, solidarity, and support for those who choose to walk away.”

Arrogant thinking and behavior fueled the cruel narcissist facing Gail. This kind of manipulator can make you question your own reality. Indeed, it is Gail’s persona, colored with hues of trust and generosity, that gave her the type of strength most can only envy. The opening snapshot to Art and Artifice bleeds romance and vulnerability and engages the reader with a fusion of tragedy and tenderness rarely witnessed in a memoir. This is writing laced with authentic emotion. Gail reaches our hearts and souls sooner than most. Her writing is raw, and her surrounding characters are real.

—Dr. Hank Roubicek is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at the University of Houston Downtown. He is an award-winning educator, founder and lead host of "So, What’s Your Story?" on Houston’s KPFT 90.1 FM, host of the podcast "The Story Voice," and author of several books including "So, What’s Your Story: Discovering the Story in You"; and contributor to "Studies in Mythology" published by Oxford Press.

Three ways to order

You have three ways to buy my book. All have pros and cons for me as the author and you as the buyer. You decide what works best for you.

Order from me! Paperback books available NOW.

PRO (for you): You’ll always get a signed copy when buying directly from me. This includes any gift copies you may buy.
PRO (for me): I’ll retain maximum royalty dollars because there’s no middleman. Readers may be unaware that the big retailers such as Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble can take 70 to 90% of the proceeds of book sales. That means on a paperback, for example, we might make only a dollar or two on each sale. In addition, they can take months to forward that dollar on to us. Buying directly from me means I get paid immediately.
CON (for you): I can’t offer free shipping or 1- to 2-day delivery, unlike Amazon. However, using the US Postal Service’s Media Mail service, I get rock-bottom, flat-rate pricing. Depending on your location in the US, Media Mail takes between 2 to 8 days to deliver. PLEASE NOTE that while I can accept international orders, I can’t use the US Media Mail service for those, and international shipping will cost considerably more.

Order from my publisher, BookBaby. EPUB and paperback books available NOW.

My print-on-demand publisher, BookBaby, maintains their own online store. BookBaby supports the indie author community by paying higher royalties to authors than Amazon or other retailers.

PRO (for you): If you want the EPUB version and you want it NOW (don’t want to preorder from Amazon and wait), then you can get it right now!
PRO (for you): If you want the paperback version, BookBaby has it available NOW, and may have a faster fulfillment than buying directly from me.
PRO (for you): BookBaby is the publisher for thousands of other amazing indie authors. If you’re looking for fresh new talent, this is one place to find it. Amazon tends to promote only best sellers or books published by the Big 5 publishers.
CON (for you): No signed copy from me.
CON (for you): You’ll pay Media Mail (or international) shipping.
CON (for me): I’ll pay a percentage of my royalties to BookBaby, but not as high as to Amazon.

Order from Amazon. EPUB and paperback books available on PREORDER.

I get it. I’m an Amazon Prime member too, and I love that free shipping. If you prefer to buy from Amazon (or Barnes & Noble, or Apple Books) for any reason, you do what’s best for you. I’d rather you read my book than quibble about how you buy it. Here’s the rundown:

PRO (for you): Free, 1- or 2-day shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime member and buying a physical book.
PRO (for you): If you’re buying an eBook and have a Kindle, the book gets seamlessly delivered to your device or app.
PRO (for me): Once word-of-mouth sales taper off, having my book on Amazon is one of the only ways to reach new readers.
CON (for you): Amazon has a preorder period of up to 6 weeks for new books not published by them. The EPUB can be preordered now, but won’t be delivered until Sept. 15, 2025. The paperback version can be preordered now and will be delivered by by Oct. 30. These delivery dates also hold for B&N and Apple Books.
CON (for you): No signed copy from me.
CON (for me): I’ll pay out maximum royalties to Amazon, and may wait up to 90 days to get paid.

Last, but not least…please write a review!

Authors live or die by the amount of book reviews they receive on Amazon! Believe it or not, it makes a huge difference for us, in their giant algorithm world. No reviews means our book doesn’t rise to the surface when people do searches. I’ve also learned that those panels at the bottom of product pages: “You may also like this” and “Customers also viewed this” are driven by reviews! So please, if you have an opinion, good or bad, about my book, drop a review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be lengthy, it just needs to be honest. And thank you!