I love, love, love the title of Samantha Wilde’s debut novel, THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME. Women looking for a funny, sharp-witted read will adore Wilde’s book about motherhood. We’re thrilled she’d made the time to answer some A/B questions. -ML
1. If Oprah invited you on her show to talk about your book, what would the theme of that show be? Boy, if I got on Oprah, I hope the theme would be ME! And motherhood, too. That would be interesting. Motherhood in America. Oh, and ME. Did I say that? Does Oprah read your blog?
2. What was the most fun scene in your book to write? The most difficult? I delighted in writing all about the awful stuff that happens post partum. What was the hardest? Maybe the middle. It’s hard to be in the middle.
3. Do you have a muse, good luck charm, writing vice? I do tend to eat chocolate while writing, which is very museful. I also work well under pressure, so it helps that my real job is being with my kids around the clock. My writing is squeezed in. Very motivational.
4. What do you write on (type of computer, or notebook, etc.) and where do you write? When I wrote THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME I was lying in my bed using a laptop. I now write and revise in our family office/guest room. Sitting on a big blue ball.
Sam, I sit on a big white wall. But I like the sound of “big blue ball” better.
5. Have you had a “rock star” moment regarding your writing career? If so, what was it? I think I’m too new to feel like a rock star. I’m waiting for Oprah to call. Or, actually, the other day, after a Borders book signing, a woman came over and picked up my novel and looked at it. She read the back. Flipped through the pages. Stared at the cover. I was by the bathrooms with my mother. Then she put it down and walked away. Isn’t that what happens with real books?
Sam, it’s even worse when they do that right in front of you. As if you’re not sitting there. Oy.
6. What do you do to celebrate your writing successes? I am still waiting on being a success. But I celebrate the little achievements by spending more time with my family.
7. Describe your personality with five adjectives that would make your 5th grade English teacher proud. Energetic, enthusiastic, helpful, driven and persistent.
This summer, Samantha Wilde makes her literary debut with THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, a fresh and funny novel about a new mother who discovers the wonders and terrors of motherhood—one hilarious crisis at a time. The book will be published as a Bantam Trade Paperback Original on June 23, 2009.
The novel 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 Wilde, “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.”
With THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, Samantha Wilde brings a candid and hilarious light to the universal story of new motherhood.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Samantha Wilde is the mother of two born in under two years. A graduate of Concord Academy, Smith College, Yale Divinity School and The New Seminary, she lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and children. She is the daughter of novelist Nancy Thayer. When she’s not mothering her toddler and baby, she writes, teaches yoga, and moonlights as a minister. Although she never sleeps, she’s never once been tempted to give her children away to the highest bidder (well, almost never). She’s currently using nap times to write her second novel for Bantam Dell. You can visit her at wildemama.blogspot.com
Get it at Amazon or at your favorite bookseller.
THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME
by Samantha Wilde
A Bantam Trade Paperback Original
June 23, 2009/ 978-0-385-34266-7/ $12.00
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