A Half-Empty Glassful of Optimism is a comic novel disguised as an adventure but masquerading as a self-help book. Lonny Pace had lived his whole life watching from the sidelines, until a freak accident involving a thunderstorm, an iPod, and rice cakes (yes, rice cakes) leaves him with the ability to channel a popular motivational speaker. He becomes a reluctant guru, unwittingly thrust into a race against time to save an innocent man. Along the way, the two will encounter a vengeful televangelist, a nomadic "hippie chick" (who may or may not be psychic), and a pair of bumbling federal agents.