The Book with Better Lighting
A man swallows a pill, wakes up inside the Bible, and his guide is a drag queen named Gloria.
What if the afterlife had better lighting — and better company? Gloria is wit as mercy. This is the book for everyone who loved God and was made to feel that love was conditional.
What This Book Is
Michael Lawrence Heard takes the Bible seriously enough to laugh at it.
In The Book with Better Lighting, our narrator wakes up inside scripture — not as a tourist, but as a participant. And the guide assigned to him is Gloria: a drag queen who embodies wisdom, mother energy, and the kind of mercy that doesn't flinch.
This is satirical spirituality with genuine theological weight. Queer, devout, irreverent, and tender — sometimes in the same sentence. Written for anyone who has ever felt that their version of love didn't qualify for the building.
Genre: Queer Spiritual Fiction / LGBTQ Religious Satire / Faith Deconstruction Fiction
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Where to Get It
Amazon
Available in paperback and Kindle.
Other retailers & libraries
Available through Draft2Digital — Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, and more.
About Gloria
"Gloria is wit as mercy, not mockery."
Gloria is the guide our narrator didn't ask for and couldn't have imagined. She is not a punchline. She is not a prop. She is the one who stays in the room when everyone else decides you don't belong in it.
If Mary Oliver had survived a bad church and kept her lashes — that's the register of this book.
And something else is coming.
The world of Better Lighting is bigger than one book.
A coloring book companion — comic-book soul, full-color spirit — is in the works. Gloria's world in ink and color, for everyone who wants to stay in the room a little longer.
Join the list above and you'll hear about it first.
Michael Lawrence Heard
Michael Lawrence Heard is an author, artist, and creative marketing director based in Dallas, Texas. He writes at the intersection of faith, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves when the old ones stop working.
Better Lighting is his debut novel. He has nine titles in various stages of completion — and a very specific vision of what a book can be.
