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I was on a family bike ride the other day and a neighbor stopped me to tell me she was enjoying my book. As we chatted she said she was surprised that I had talked about my own children and my own parenting experiences in the book. She said teased me and said she would have thought that a parenting expert would have perfect kids. I have wonderful kids but they are not perfect and I am certainly not perfect. I thought about this as I rode, there are moments when I think it is hilarious that I have written a parenting book. When I am impatient with my kids and losing my cool, when I ignore the voice in my head telling me to mirror, empathize, and stay neutral. I have great kids, but sometimes that everyday stuff like my son taking forever to get out of bed, my teenage daughter having a fit because she has "nothing to wear" or the bickering in the back seat of the car that can get to me like nails on a chalk board. I can hear that voice in the back of my head telling me to use all the strategies I coach clients to use and even thought they work incredibly well, there are still moments that I just can't do what I know I should do.

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James King, author of Bill Warrington's Last Chance, has won the second annual contest in search of next popular novel and will receive a publishing contract worth $25,000 from Penguin Group (USA)

James King, an Ohio native and current resident of Wilton, Conn., has been a corporate communications specialist for the past 20 years, but dreamt of becoming a fiction writer since the age of six. In 2006, with the support and encouragement of his wife and two children, King decided to pursue his dream.  He entered the Master of Arts program in creative writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., and when he completed his degree in May 2008, he had written most of what would become the novel Bill Warrington's Last Chance.

In Bill Warrington's Last Chance, the title character tries to reestablish ties with his estranged children after he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After several attempts at a reunion fail, he decides to kidnap his 15-year-old granddaughter, April, so that his children will be forced to talk to each other - and to him-as they attempt to "rescue" April.

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Ok, it's not like I woke up one morning and said "Hey, I got it! I'll write a coming-of-age story about teenage drug traffickers. You know, for kids!"

But life is funny this way. Things happen that you never could have predicted.

It all started years ago when I was a filmmaker. One day, I met a real life surf mule. He was a friend of a friend and as I started to hear tales of his adventures in the surfer run world of pot smugglers, I immediately thought: there's a movie in this.

His stories were so outrageous and bigger than life, the characters so vivid and unique that I couldn't stop thinking about it. Together with my friend, we started gathering these tall tales and thinking of a script.