Spotlight and Giveaway: Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave

Introduction by Melissa Amster

You may have heard of a summertime sitcom called Odd Mom Out. Well, if you haven't, you should definitely go to Bravo's website and check it out. I'll wait. I got into it last year and wrote a post about my favorite episodes. The show stars Jill Kargman, who has written several novels (I reviewed The Rock Star in Seat 3A) and a couple of humorous essay books. Her latest, Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave, is in the latter category and we have FIVE copies to give away, thanks to the generosity of Ballantine.

In honor of Jill's pub week, I want to mention my top three favorite episodes of Odd Mom Out, season two. (No spoilers, I promise.)
#3-Hamming it Up: Because Hamilton, of course! I love all the Hamilton references and the cast cameos.
#4-Knock of Shame: This episode featured Drew Barrymore and speaks volumes about how hard it is to make friends and what happens when the friendships show their ugly side.
#9-The Hamptons: Cameo from Molly Ringwald, plus worst traffic jam EVER! I could definitely relate to what it's like to travel with impatient kids. 

Anyway, I am very much looking forward to reading Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave!

The star of Bravo’s breakout scripted comedy Odd Mom Out shares her razor-sharp wit and backhanded wisdom in a deeply observed and outrageously funny collection of musings, lists, essays, and outrages.

From her unique lingo (things don’t simply frighten her, they “M. Night Shyamalan her out”) to her gimlet-eyed view of narrow-mindedness, to her morbid but curiously life-affirming parenting style, Jill Kargman is nothing if not original. In this hilarious new book, the sharp-elbowed mother of three turns her unconventional lens on life and death and everything in between, including

• the politically correct peer pressure she felt from the new moms in her hood, the women who provided the grist for the mill of her hit television show • the evolution of her aesthetic from Miami Vice vibrant (a very brief flirtation) to Wednesday Addams–meets–rocker chic
• her deep-seated New Yorker’s discomfort with moving vehicles that aren’t taxis and subways (a.k.a. “suburban panic disorder”)
• the family obsession with reading obituaries for their medical revelations and real estate news value
• the reasons why, in a land of tan-orexic baby-oil beach bakers, she chooses to honor the valor of her ghostly pallor

From a hellish visit to the Happiest Place on Earth to her unusual wedding night with Russell Crowe to her adrenaline-pumping Gay Pride parade experience, Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave is as wonderfully indecent and entertaining as a spring break road trip with your best friend. Assuming your best friend is the kind of gal who still wears a motorcycle jacket to pick up the kids at school.

Jill Kargman is the writer and star of the hit Bravo television show Odd Mom Out, based on her novel Momzillas. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund (as well as three other novels co-authored with Carrie Karasyov), three novels for young readers, and the essay collection Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut. She has written for Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, and many other magazines, was a columnist for Style.com, and wrote for the MTV shows So Five Minutes Ago and Who Is. Kargman is a graduate of Yale University and the British American Drama Academy. Married and the mother of three, she lives in Manhattan. Visit Jill at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

For more fun, read Jill's interview with Scary Mommy or listen to her phone interview at Reading with Robin.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends September 13th at midnight EST.

September Reader Spotlight: Cy Creed

We're doing a new series at the blog for readers to do either guest posts or interviews. One reader will be featured each month, and if it's a theme month, that will be the focus. 

We have our previous Go-To-Gays, Wade and Gary, to thank for this month's reader finding us and becoming a regular follower.

Cy Creed is a humor writer who lives outside of Buffalo, NY. Her day job is that of a Sr. Manager of Talent Acquisition for a Recruiting firm which allows her to work from home and sneak off to write from time to time.

She was the second runner up in the 2014 Robert Benchley contest for her article, "Just The Socks, Please. Nothing But The Socks" and was honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists as a top ten finalist in the 2008 Will Rogers Writing Competition for her article “The Side Effects Of Advertising”. She has also been a Finalist and Semi-Finalist several times over in Humor Press along with having been recognized with numerous Honorable Mentions from 2007 to the present.

Cy was introduced to Chick Lit Central several years ago when she was a participant in a Wade Rouse/Gary Edwards Workshop and is thankful for the opportunity to a part of the Chick Lit community.

She is finishing up a book for children called "Pyramids and Whiskers" while also working on a bittersweet book about aging parents. She can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Studies Show

Studies show families who eat meals together are closer, encounter less problems in life and have better hair days. I asked my children if they could remember the last time we all ate together as a family. Actually sat a table. With no cell phones. Where food was prepared in an oven. With plates that don’t bend and silverware that actually goes in a dishwasher. And with manners. None of this twirling ones foot in a grapefruit half. Or seeing who can belch the loudest. Also not included is trying to balance a soup bowl on one knee and a cracker on the other as you’re watching “Jeopardy”. No, I’m talking about a meal which requires preparation. A meal where we discuss current events and politics. Kind of like the Kennedys but without all those pesky servants hovering about.

“Was it Easter?” my son asked.

“No, I think it was Christmas,“ my daughter replied.

“Remember that Pop Tart I toasted for you last May? I think that counts,” I noted.

Both kids nodded in agreement; though I caught them rolling their eyes at each other silently acknowledging Pop Tarts probably wouldn’t count in the definition of a meal and last we knew, did not require an oven.

The decision had been made. I talked it over with my children and it was unanimously agreed. We would prepare and eat a meal together. There would be vegetables and everything. No trying to pretend Doritos constituted a food group. Or that a box of Lemonheads would be considered legumes.

Once inside the grocery store, I made the mistake of choosing a shopping cart the size of a Mack truck complete with a kiddy car attached to the front of it. Maneuvering the thing required the precision it takes to land a Navy jet onto an aircraft carrier or trying to back a Boeing 747 into my driveway. I looked around to see if anyone had seen me knock over a display of Beef Jerky and wished I had worn my trench coat and fake mustache I find useful in situations like this.

The woman at the meat counter looked me over as I asked for a roast.

“How much do you know about cooking a roast?”

“Oh, I imagine it goes into an oven, right?”

“Here’s a guide to the roasts we offer and how to cook them. Review it and come back later.”

“But I don’t have time.”

“You don’t have time? Do you think this is something you approach with little preparation and knowledge? You think you can just waltz in here and ask for a roast- all willy-nilly like?”

“Well, no but..”

“Take for example this roast. If I were to let you buy it- and I’m not saying it’s a go at this point- you would have to promise me you’ll follow the instructions. Gently rub it with olive oil and garlic. Massage it with herbs de provence. Bake it in a….”

“How much is a roast that size?”

“How much is it? Is this a question about money?”

“Well, kind of.”

“If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.”

“I promise. I just want to know if I need to delay paying my mortgage this month.”

“Sorry. You aren’t getting this roast.”

“I’ve managed to raise two fine children to adulthood. I think I can take on a roast.”

“Not with that attitude you can’t.”

I texted my kids to tell them we’d have to go to plan B.

As we sat down to eat, a calm embraced us. We were together and that was all that counted. Our meal may not have been as planned but it’s amazing what one can do with a bag of Doritos and a box of Lemonheads.

Book Review: A Spoonful of Sugar

By Jami Deise

Mary Poppins has been a cultural touchstone for well over half a century. Before the 1964 Disney film came out, her character starred in a popular series of books that were first published in 1934. Even now, her name is synonymous for the perfect nanny. But do today’s working families really need Mary Poppins? After all, her mission was not to take care of Jane and Michael (who had already run off several other women), but to show their parents they needed to spend more time with their children. (Although Mr. Banks’s job at the bank is blamed for his malaise, Mrs. Banks is ridiculed for her suffragette work.) After Mr. Banks has his epiphany, Mary Poppins flies off.
Today’s families do not need a nanny who abruptly takes off.

Author Amanda Orr has updated the Mary Poppins fantasy with her debut novel, A Spoonful of Sugar. Covering much of the same territory as Allison Pearson’s groundbreaking I Don’t Know How She Does It, Elisabeth Egan’s A Window Opens, and Jennifer Weiner’s All Fall Down, Sugar does not star Colombian nanny Maria, but rather Maria’s harried employer, Anna Moore. We meet Anna the day before her six-month maternity leave (a true fantasy for most women) comes to an end. Anna’s baby, Max, is her third child; she also has two- and four-year-old daughters. Anna is the creative director for a Seattle-based advertising agency, and when she pops in to show off her latest baby, she discovers someone else in her office. While this problem – and this employee – are quickly dispatched with, there’s another one at Anna’s daycare center, a particularly gross type of problem that results in Anna starring in a sensational YouTube video titled “My Daycare is a Shitbox.”

Anna needs help, and she’s not getting much from her perpetually stoned mother and clueless husband Patrick. She finds Maria through Craigslist and hires her practically on the spot. Maria is a graduate student in early childhood education, and she wants $24 an hour to take care of Anna’s children. Anna agrees, and never stands up to Maria, even when she shows up in barely-there outfits and rearranges Anna’s house. The children love Maria, and Anna is forced to shell out even more money when her perfect friend Colette tells her the girls need to be in pre-school as well. Caught up in a campaign for a prospective client-- a pharmaceutical company that has a new drug for stressed-out women -- Anna is on a business trip in San Francisco when two earthquakes happen – an actual one that results in a dislocated shoulder, and a metaphorical one when Maria calls to say she can’t watch the kids the next day. Naturally, everyone in her family expects Anna to drop everything and go home.

Is a nanny like Maria really Mary Poppins, or does she create more problems by setting expectations and then not fulfilling them? While it’s well-known that American non-parents are happier than parents, a recent study pinpoints the reason why: lack of subsidized childcare, maternity leave, or work flexibility. For women like Anna, just getting to work, staying at work, and leaving work presents challenges every day. A sick child, an absent day care provider, a work crisis – these are daily events, and keep working mothers from ever achieving a real sense of balance.

The fact that authors are still writing very similar stories fifteen years after I Don’t Know How She Does It shows how little progress we’ve made in dealing with these issues. In fact, things have become worse – jobs pay less but demand more, child care and education costs have gone through the roof, and expectations for children and parenting are higher than ever. Simply put, most child care providers cannot live on the salaries they earn, and most American families cannot afford high-quality child care, which is also very difficult to find. Anna’s situation pinpoints a complication unique to the mother-nanny relationship – how tricky it is to manage to employee who works in your home and is paid to love your children. How could Anna fire Maria for not showing up when her daughters are crying for her?

Sugar has some unique plot twists, and Anna is a very different character than I Don’t Know How’s Kate Reddy, but no new ground is broken here. This says more about the national attitude toward child care – that it’s a personal problem and up to each individual working mother to solve – than author Orr’s debut.

Thanks to Amanda Orr for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Susan Bishop Crispell's secret ingredient of family...plus a book giveaway

Susan Bishop Crispell is here today to kick off "Family" month at CLC. She's celebrating the publication of her debut novel, The Secret Ingredient of Wishes, and St. Martin's Press has THREE copies to give away!

Susan has a B.F.A. in creative writing from The University of North Carolina - Wilmington. She lives--and writes--near Wilmington, NC with her husband and their two literary-named cats. Aside from writing, Susan obsesses over swoony fictional boys and baked goods and watches quirky TV shows, most of which got canceled way before their time (and she has a wax lion to prove it!). Visit Susan at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Synopsis:
26-year-old Rachel Monroe has spent her whole life trying to keep a very unusual secret: she can make wishes come true. And sometimes the consequences are disastrous. So when Rachel accidentally grants an outlandish wish for the first time in years, she decides it’s time to leave her hometown—and her past—behind for good.

Rachel isn’t on the road long before she runs out of gas in a town that’s not on her map: Nowhere, North Carolina—also known as the town of “Lost and Found.” In Nowhere, Rachel is taken in by a spit-fire old woman, Catch, who possesses a strange gift of her own: she can bind secrets by baking them into pies. Rachel also meets Catch’s neighbor, Ashe, a Southern gentleman with a complicated past, who makes her want to believe in happily-ever-after for the first time in her life.

As she settles into the small town, Rachel hopes her own secrets will stay hidden, but wishes start piling up everywhere Rachel goes. When the consequences threaten to ruin everything she’s begun to build in Nowhere, Rachel must come to terms with who she is and what she can do, or risk losing the people she’s starting to love—and her chance at happiness—all over again. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

How Family is Made

For me, the most compelling stories revolve around family. But family can take many forms. It can be best friends who know all your secrets (and jokingly offer to help hide the bodies). Or residents of a small town who dole out gossip and hugs in equal measure. Or the people who take care of you when you can’t take care of yourself. And all of these types of families appeal to me.

Because family isn’t about blood. Don’t get me wrong, biology gives people a really great start toward something more, but family at its core is about emotion. Connections to other people. And that’s especially true in fiction.

When I was writing THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF WISHES, I knew I wanted family to play a big part. The only problem? My main character Rachel didn’t have much family. She accidentally wished her little brother out of existence when they were kids, and unable to handle the truth—that they’d had a son and forgot about him—her parents abandoned her. Her dad by taking off and her mom by retreating into a destructive spiral of questioning reality. Rachel still had her fiercely loyal best friend, but until she got lost in Nowhere, North Carolina, that was the extent of her family.

So when I stranded Rachel in Nowhere, I had to give her a family, a place to call home. Enter Catch and Ashe. They’ve created an unconventional family of their own, choosing to rely on each other when so many others have let them down. They’re family because they want to be, not because they have to be. And that’s what makes them work.

I pulled qualities from my own family as well as fictional ones that got it oh, so right. Here are some of my favorite fictional families and the qualities that make them so lovable.

The Weasleys (J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series)
The Weasleys with their ginger hair and matching sweaters and unwavering acceptance set the family bar pretty dang high. They are loyal and brave and unabashedly themselves. They stand up for what they believe in and fight for what’s right. And they love unconditionally. Even when it’s not always deserved (ahem, Percy).

The Gilmores (The Gilmore Girls)
When it comes to family, nobody does it like the Gilmores. From Lorelai and Rory’s shared love of coffee and pop culture and junk food to Emily’s desire to ensure only the best for her daughter and granddaughter, the bonds between them are unmistakable. Then there’s the quirky and heart-warming residents of Stars Hollow—Luke! Sookie! Miss Patty! They were Lorelai and Rory’s family when they had no one else. And every single one of them played a part in making Lorelai and Rory who they grew up to be.

The Waverleys (Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells and First Frost)
Apart from being delightfully magical, Claire and Sydney Waverley don’t have much in common. At least on the surface. They’re sister but not friends. But when Sydney shows up on Claire’s doorstep with her little girl in tow, none of that matters. Because even though they are virtual strangers, they’re family. And when you’re a Waverley, family comes first.

The Firefly Crew (Firefly)
Captain Malcolm Reynolds loves his boat. The only thing he loves more than Serenity is the crew that has his back at every turn. With the exception of Zoe, everyone else who became an integral part of life on the firefly was a stranger to start. But over time, they become friends, then family. And their differences are what keep them together. They balance each other out, Zoe is the voice of reason to Mal’s rash decisions, Wash is the comic relief to Simon’s stone-cold seriousness, Kaylee is the wide-eyed innocence to Jayne’s guns-blazing attitude. All of those personalities cooped up in one little spaceship shouldn’t work, but they do.

Thanks to Susan for her lovely guest post and to St. Martin's Press for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends September 11th at midnight EST.

Book Review: For Rent

By Sara Steven

What's another word for concierge/shrink/garbage collector/warden/adult daycare director? Apartment manager, of course!

When Cambria Clyne—a single mom down on her luck—gets the job as apartment manager at an L.A. apartment complex, she believes her life is turning around. But between having to talk to the retired couple in Apartment 22 about their loud bedroom "activities" and babysitting the owner's man-child who lives in Apartment 40, Cambria realizes the job is nothing like she'd imagined.

When crime takes over the community, Cambria adds "detective" to her list of duties, determined to find the criminals terrorizing the residents and threatening her job. Joining her efforts are rival Chase, the gorgeous not-so-handy maintenance man, and Tom, her one-time-love baby daddy. As the case unravels and tensions increase, Cambria finds that perhaps she's been a naïve accomplice all along...

If you like the lovable in-over-their-heads heroines of Sophie Kinsella's stories, with a little Janet Evanovich cozy mystery thrown in, you'll love this hilarious look at the adventures of a feisty gal trying to keep her crazy job and find love. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon)

Having worked in property management for over a decade, I was very excited to read about Cambria’s experiences. I haven’t been part of that world in a few years, and I was looking for nostalgia, a way to relive my own zany and bizarre experiences. Erin Huss didn’t disappoint. Reading For Rent was like time warping back into my own days of dealing with residents, the highs and lows that come from trying to perfect your customer service skills, but never feeling as though you can make everyone happy, because there is no such thing.

Cambria discovers all this, and more, while trying to learn the ropes on a property that the former manager couldn’t wait to retire from. Soon, she finds herself smack dab in the middle of a crime scene, and while she knows it’s best to let the authorities handle it, she can’t help but try to solve the crime on her own. It’s that, or find herself on the unemployment line, something she can’t bear to deal with. She’s got more than herself to think about. She needs to provide for her young daughter.

What I loved most about For Rent, was the realism behind the story. To those outside the biz, some of the antics of the residents might seem far-fetched, yet those of us in the know have quite a few stories of our own we could share. I’ve dealt with residents and their bedroom “activities”, or the neighbors who have been grandfathered in because their relatives manage or own the property, so they feel the rules don’t apply to them. I’ve also had to work through various crimes at even the best of properties, so it was easy for me to relate with Cambria, but even those who have never stepped foot in an apartment community’s office can identify with Cambria’s struggle to survive in a world she’s been thrown into. It truly is a crazy, fun adventure, and well worth the ride!

Thanks to Erin Huss for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Birthdays in September

Instead of posting on our Facebook page, we're going to honor all author and CLC team birthdays each month here!

(If we are missing a birthday, please let us know and we'll be glad to add it.)

9/1 - Gwendolen Gross
9/1 - Kelly Harms

9/3 - Jackie Pilossoph 

9/3 - Ben Stanford (logo designer)

9/5 - Kim Wright

9/7 - Kristin Billerbeck

9/10 - Sasha Wagstaff (a.k.a. Ella Harper)

9/11 - Shasta Nelson*
9/12 - Janelle Brown
9/12 - Robyn Neeley
9/14 - Lori Verni-Forgarsi
9/14 - Jenny Colgan
9/16 - Therese Walsh
9/22 - Laurie Baxter
9/23 - Jennie Shortridge
9/24 - Becky Gulc (reviewer)
9/24 -Jennifer Ammoscato
9/24 - Karyn Bosnak
9/25 - Kristin Hannah
9/26 - Matt Dunn
9/26 - Christina Jones
9/27 - Mia King (a.k.a. Darien Gee)
9/28 - Karma Brown
9/28 - Celia Kennedy
9/29 - Amy Hatvany
9/29 - Jessica Goodwin
9/30 - Liz Fenton*
9/30 - Cecelia Ahern

*Melissa A met in person

See birthdays from:

January * February * March

April * May * June
July * August

Book Review: With Love from the Inside

By Jami Deise

When is the best time to tell someone about the biggest secret from your past? When you first meet? A first date? First kiss? First “I love you?” Right before you walk down the aisle? Sophie Logan, protagonist of Angela Pisel’s debut novel With Love from the Inside, never told her husband Thomas the truth about her mother. "Died of breast cancer when I was twelve," Sophie lied. As her father died of a heart attack when Sophie was in high school, there was no one around to tell Thomas the truth. The years passed. The time was never right.

And then Sophie hears on the news that a woman’s execution date has been set for February 15th. And Sophie knows it’s her mother, Grace. Seventeen years ago, Grace was convicted of murdering Sophie’s baby brother William. Having struggled with depression, Grace was accused of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy. William was often sick after eating. When he died, police found windshield wiper fluid hidden in the garage and traces of it in his baby bottles. Although Grace’s husband, Paul, a minister, never doubted his wife’s innocence, Sophie stopped visiting her when she was in high school. Eventually, she found herself believing her mother was guilty.

With Grace’s execution date breathing down Sophie’s neck, Sophie struggles with what to do next. Her marriage to Thomas is shaky – a surgeon, Thomas loses a child after surgery and may be the subject of a lawsuit; Grace is also suspicious of his relationship with a gorgeous single drug rep. There’s also a child at the hospital, Max, sick and abandoned by his junkie mother, with whom Sophie forms a bond.

The novel alternates between Grace’s diary and Sophie’s present-day challenges. Grace lives up to her name as a woman with uncommon strength, never blaming others for her predicament and even bonding with some of her jailers. While Grace’s memories of family life do not include any incontrovertible evidence of her guilt or innocence, it seems inevitable that the question of what really happened to William will come into play.

With Love from the Inside should appeal to fans of Sarah Pekkanen and Lori Nelson Spielman. While most of the characters are a bit too good to be believed, the underlying messages of hope and forgiveness are moving. A minister’s wife, Grace never gives up on her faith, and Christian readers will find her steadfastness inspiring. But the impact is subtle enough that readers of all and no faith can also appreciate Grace.

Women’s fiction is a genre that is rife with complicated family relationships and long-buried secrets. With Love from the Inside is a nice addition to the category.

Thanks to Putnam for the book in exchange for an honest review.