Welcome Samantha Wilde

So, as y'all know my new novel is out and I'll be doing a tour of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit the week of July 20th. In the meantime, allow me to introduce you to another GCCer, a new member, Samantha Wilde. Samantha is the author of THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, which was released the same day as my book. I'm excited about her book because she got a blurb from one of my favorite authors: Elinor Lipman, who says: “Here’s a talent: when a narrator’s doldrums make a reader laugh out loud. Samantha Wilde’s inkwell must be filled with truth-serum because this brave and funny book gets the postpartum peaks and valleys so very, winningly right.”

Any mommy writers or mommy bloggers out there? You might get a kick out of this one!

THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME introduces Joy McGuire who has gone from being skinny and able to speak in complete sentences to someone who hasn’t changed her sweatpants in weeks. But now with a new baby to care for, she feels like a woman on the brink and as she scrambles to recapture the person she used to be she takes another look at the woman she is: a stay-at-home mom in love with her son, if a bit addled about everything else. As a new mom herself, Wilde, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, wrote THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME after the birth of her son when she was experiencing the ups and downs of new motherhood. According to Samantha, “I wrote the book because I couldn’t not write it. I took my lap top to my bed during my son’s naps and wrote and wrote. I wrote the book I wanted to read. The book takes a hard look at the effects of new motherhood on a woman and on a marriage through the eyes of one stressed but insightful woman. It’s a story that will keep mothers going when they think they can’t go any further.”

Check out what Samantha has to say about writing, and balancing kids and her writing life:

Q: When deadlines hit, what happens in your house?

A: I get more tired. The toilet bowl has to wait until late at night to be cleaned. I “stay-at-home” with my kids, so that’s my real job. If anything suffers during deadlines, it’s the house, which is not so tidy to begin with. No, that’s not true. It’s me who suffers. I won’t nap, and I’ll stay up later. I’ll forego a shower or a walk. So I guess I’m saying that I get stinky and fat. That doesn’t sound very good, does it?

Q: Um, I don't have kids and that sounds like my house! If you weren't writing, what would you be doing instead?

A: I’d teach yoga, which I do once a week anyway. And be with my kids more, though it hardly seems possible. Or maybe I’d just be lying in bed reading and eating chocolate. That would be nice. But then you didn’t mean if I wasn’t writing AND was wealthy, did you?

Q: Which scene (or scenes) in your novel did you love writing? Why?

A: I loved writing the fights between Joy and her husband. It was more fun than fighting and used up all my crankiness. Actually, I enjoyed writing most of it. Joy is so sassy and funny, I looked forward to what she might say or do.

Q: What would you change about your life if you became the next Sophie Kinsella?

A: Oooh, good one. That’s such a good one. I’d do what I’m doing on a bigger scale. I’d have more children. I’ve always wanted more children. I’d adopt some children. I’d have more friends for dinner, and more dates with my husband, and spend more time with family. I’d use the money for our children’s education and I’d buy as many books as I wanted. And it wouldn’t be bad to have a kitchen from this century. Or a house with a entry way for dirty shoes!

Q: Any tried and true tricks for beating procrastination?

A: Who has time to procrastinate? Have some young kids. You will not have the privilege of indulging it.

Q: What has brought you the greatest joy since you were published, and what has caused you the greatest angst?

A: Publicity has been difficult. I find self-promotion challenging on many levels. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I need to do something. My greatest joy? Probably realizing that my happiness has nothing to do with my book. I know that’s counterintuitive, but here’s the thing. When you long to be a published writer your whole life, you imagine when it happens, something will change—fireworks, lottery-style money, fame, etc. Getting the book published has put my dreams into perspective. I feel so blessed to have the book out there, but I am also relieved to find that my life is rich enough to sustain the possibility that it is—simply—a book. My treasure is in my children and my family. Strange kind of joy, isn’t it?

No, it makes total sense to me! One of the things I've also learned. If you make publishing your whole life, you will be sorely disappointed.