This Little Mommy Stayed Home

The cover for This Little Mommy Stayed Home by Samantha Wilde is absolutely adorable…

Samantha’s new book is out and she stopped by to answer some of my questions.

Tell me a little about your book.

Joy McGuire, a seemingly normal person with a seemingly normal marriage, has a baby, after which point, nothing is normal again. Not her breasts or her belly or her heart or her marriage. It’s a hilarious, rueful, laugh-out-loud post partum tale about the grueling work of the first nine months of the first baby when change is an urgent necessity that you wish you could run away from.

What got you writing in the genre in which you write?

Being who I am, I suppose. I think my genre is chick lit, yummy mummy lit. It just came out of me that way, actually. And then it landed in a genre. Sassy, funny stuff about motherhood really only has one genre, in fiction, for the most part.

Favorite thing about being a writer?

The actual writing, the living inside the worlds of my characters, and some sense that some time, somewhere, my words may make someone laugh, may make a difference, for an instant.

Least favorite thing about being a writer?

Being alone. I’m a people person. I don’t love sitting in front of my computer.

What is the most interesting thing that’s happened to you since becoming a published author?

I started blogging. I am afraid of blogs, so this still surprises me. It’s been alright. I’m a ludite. I’m into in-person community, but I’ve learned a lot and made some connections.

What’s your writing process/writing environment like?

I wrote THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME while lying in bed, eating chocolates, during my infant son’s nap times. I write quickly, with the sense of an impending cry from the nursery. I write without looking back and look back later. I write in a sort of frenzy, but mostly I write in my head, so when I have my hour, I can go, go, go.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about writing?

My mother, Nancy Thayer, has been quoted as writing, “It’s never too late, in fiction or life, to revise.” We laugh, because this is true and also not true. (When it’s on the shelves, it’s too late.) Still, it helps when I’m writing to know there is a time later to perfect things. She also always said to me, “put it in your work.” I do. I put it all in my work. It’s a great place for things, the good, the bad and the ugly. And it makes of a mess, a meaning.

What’s next for you?

I just finished my second novel I’LL TAKE WHAT SHE HAS out from Bantam in 2010. It’s about envy. Another topic I know nothing about.