ANDERSON COUNTY — When most women see the cover of Anderson resident Angela Martin’s book “How to Ruin Your Ex-Husband’s Life One Day at a Time,” they assume it is a book about bashing men.

It’s an easy assumption, given the illustration.

In a stick picture, a modern-day cave woman holds a cell phone in one hand and a club in the other. A man is lying on the ground in tattered clothes with a bump on his head, a black eye and what appears to be a broken leg.

Oh, and then there’s the title.

But Ms. Martin, a new divorcee after 11 years of marriage, insists the book is more about healing yourself than hurting your new ex.

“It’s really about coming full circle from the pain of a divorce to create something funny to help deal with that pain,” Martin said. “A lot of it is about forgiveness and how to make yourself whole again.”

With chapters like “Prince (not-so) Charming,” “The Division of Property,” “Spite Diet” and “Post Marital Sex,” Martin addresses many of the situations newly-divorced women face.

“You laugh one minute, blush the next and cry the next minute,” Ernestine Martin, Ms. Martin’s mother, said.

The book tackles subjects such as one-night stands, whether or not to go back to your maiden name and how to enter the social scene again.

“I wish I had this book when I was going through my divorce,” Martin said. “The best compliment I have received is a woman said ‘You have helped me heal in one weekend what six months of therapy couldn’t heal,’” she said.

The book has many people talking, from Anderson all the way to Hollywood.

Ms. Martin’s book will be among the items included in celebrity gift bags at the 2008 Emmy Awards in September.

At a recent book fair in Atlanta, Martin met a fellow author who was so impressed with Martin’s book that she nominated it to be considered for the gift bags.

Soon Martin got a call from Hollywood requesting a copy of the book.

“I overnighted a book and within 48 hours, they offered me the spot.”

Martin will be one of several presenters at an expo held for two days before the awards ceremony at the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills, where celebrities will come and view the items that will be included in the bags.

“I will be able to hand my book to them,” Martin said.

From the exposure she gets at the Emmys, Martin hopes to get bookings on talk shows and start a book tour.

Not bad for a book she wrote in a month, illustrated and self-published.

After her divorce, Martin was thinking about all the comical things she had heard of women doing to get revenge on their ex-husbands, and she came up with the book’s title.

A few days later, she sat down and wrote all the titles of the chapters.

But with all of her daily duties, she could not find enough time to write the book.

“I decided it was never going to get written unless I quit my job,” Martin said.

Then a good friend of hers passed away suddenly. Shortly after that tragedy, her daughter became ill.

So Martin took what she believed was a sign that life is too short to delay your dreams, and she left her job as a physician’s assistant in April to work on the book.

Within three weeks, “How to Ruin Your Ex-Husband’s Life One Day at a Time” was written.

Martin found an editor, a woman who has worked in the literature business for 40 years, but she gave her the pseudonym D.J. Finley because she didn’t want her name attached to some of the book’s racy content.

It was difficult to be so honest about the sexual experiences in the book, Martin said.

“It’s like walking out in the street naked,” she said. “You put out every vulnerability you have.”

Martin doesn’t encourage women to do everything she talks about in the book, as most of it is written in jest.

“People ask me how many of the things in the book I actually did to him, and I tell them none,” she said. “The one thing I did was I borrowed a BMW for a few days and made him think it was mine. He was so angry. It was great.”

As for those who assume the book is too harsh on men, too racy or too light-hearted, Martin offers one other piece of advice: Don’t judge a book by its cover.