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Author Dish: Meredith O'Brien
Filed under: Just For Moms, That's Entertainment
Welcome to Author Dish! From time to time, we will use this place to interview authors who have written about pregnancy, parenting or anything in between. Up first is Meredith O'Brien, who recently released "A Suburban Mom: Tales From the Asylum." Meredith lives in Massachusetts, freelances and works as an adjunct professor at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She's also Mom to three, including a set of twins. You can read her blog here.
PD: Your book is titled "A Suburban Mom." Do you think moms from the suburbs sometimes get a bad rap?
O'Brien: Suburban moms often get lampooned (Think "Desperate Housewives") for being way too self-involved, for having ill-behaved narcissistic kids and for going overboard with parenting. To some extent, that's the image I'm talking in my book of essays. I live in the 'burbs, yet I'm not into intensive, smothering parenting. I don't sign my kids up for 14 billion activities, as I'd prefer they play on their own in the yard. And I don't throw over-the-top kids' birthday parties designed to impress other adults. So the book is my way of saying, "Hey, not every suburban mom is the embodiment of that stereotype. We're not all Bree Van De Kamps."
PD: A lot of bloggers are curious as to how to get a book deal. What was the process like for you?
O'Brien: Maddening and dispiriting. I have a novelist friend from my newspaper reporting days I contacted and, through her, got my manuscript -- a collection of dozens of newspaper columns on parenting I'd written over the years -- to her agent. But then the agent said the mom literary market was glutted, that moms don't really read much and that my columns didn't have a compelling enough voice. I pouted for about a year, while continuing to freelance and teach, let the columns gather dust. Then, a year later, I discovered Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, a small, niche publishing house that works with mom writers. On a whim, I contacted publisher Nancy Cleary and was overwhelmed at how embracing and warm she was. From that point, w agreed to have her publish the book as a "major release."
PD: As a woman who writes about having kids in her book, how do you feel about the "tell-all" blogs out there regarding children? Is there a line that you don't cross in regards to your kids and life?
PD: Your book is titled "A Suburban Mom." Do you think moms from the suburbs sometimes get a bad rap?
O'Brien: Suburban moms often get lampooned (Think "Desperate Housewives") for being way too self-involved, for having ill-behaved narcissistic kids and for going overboard with parenting. To some extent, that's the image I'm talking in my book of essays. I live in the 'burbs, yet I'm not into intensive, smothering parenting. I don't sign my kids up for 14 billion activities, as I'd prefer they play on their own in the yard. And I don't throw over-the-top kids' birthday parties designed to impress other adults. So the book is my way of saying, "Hey, not every suburban mom is the embodiment of that stereotype. We're not all Bree Van De Kamps."
PD: A lot of bloggers are curious as to how to get a book deal. What was the process like for you?
O'Brien: Maddening and dispiriting. I have a novelist friend from my newspaper reporting days I contacted and, through her, got my manuscript -- a collection of dozens of newspaper columns on parenting I'd written over the years -- to her agent. But then the agent said the mom literary market was glutted, that moms don't really read much and that my columns didn't have a compelling enough voice. I pouted for about a year, while continuing to freelance and teach, let the columns gather dust. Then, a year later, I discovered Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, a small, niche publishing house that works with mom writers. On a whim, I contacted publisher Nancy Cleary and was overwhelmed at how embracing and warm she was. From that point, w agreed to have her publish the book as a "major release."
PD: As a woman who writes about having kids in her book, how do you feel about the "tell-all" blogs out there regarding children? Is there a line that you don't cross in regards to your kids and life?
O'Brien: I try to imagine my children reading this book as adults and I ask myself whether they'll be angry or whether they'll view my material as representative of the more universal experiences of my generation's parenting challenges. Sure, there are funny, personal anecdotes about them, but doesn't everyone have a horrible poop story in their family history? Some crazy potty training tale? I don't reveal things I believe will be hurtful to them, or anyone in my family, or too revealing of their personal fears or shortcomings. In many cases, I run my material by the people involved -- not the kids though -- to make sure they feel comfortable with the material. If they don't, I modify it so people feel better about it.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2007 @ 8:13AM
cce said...Meredith,
Wondering how your career as a journalist on parenting topics began. How did you convince an editor that this was compelling subject matter that had an audience? Any advice. I think the hopes of getting a book deal out of my blog are minimal, but would love to start a column for our local paper. Any thoughts on how to approach the topic?
Thanks
~cce @ http://www.madmarriage.com
Reply