Showcase: Karen Bergreen- Perfect is Overrated

Book Description 

Think you want to be the perfect mom? Think again…..

Kate Alger has finally found the cure for her post-partum depression.  After years of suffering, all it takes to bring this mommy back to life were a few gruesome homicides!  When someone starts offing the alpha-moms from Kate’s daughter’s preschool, Kate—who worked as an Assistant District Attorney before she had Molly—realizes it’s time to get out of bed, dust off the skills and find out who is killing all the mommies she loves to hate.

Wickedly funny and slightly twisted, Perfect Is Overrated is a romp through the life of one very needy mom, her cockeyed family, gorgeous ex-husband, and the entire insane, entitled, over-dressed , over-zealous, eternally jealous parent body at The Hawthorne Preschool.

Read my review HERE

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A. This is a great question.  I am mostly interested in character development.  So my writing might be inspired by my history with one particular person or by a random stranger. I saw, for example, a person across from me eating sushi on a packed subway train, oblivious to the people crashing into her and the vile smells that must have interfered with her food. She was so committed and specific. I would love to base a character on her. 

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being an author?

A. The greatest thing is that I don't have to go to a big office. I always lose my ID.  I love creating something out of nothing. It's why I write; it's why I used to run; it's why I bake (although there are ingredients there, but you get the idea).

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an author?

A. Rewriting.

Q.  If you could not be author, what would you do/be?

A. I would be President of a mid-sized African nation. 

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A. Do You Think I'm Fat?

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A. So hard. But I have been thinking a lot about The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay.  He died. last week. So sad.  I talk about it so much at book clubs and appearances that I think I have sold more copies of his book than mine.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A. You know that book He's Just Not That Into You? I am "you."

Q.  What character from all of your book are you most like?

A. I am probably most like Alice Teakle from Following Polly.  Alice is a semi-depressed TV addict with a great memory, inventive cooking skills and good sense of humor.  Like Alice, I am incredibly nosy but never act on my impulses--that is why Iwrite them.  

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A.  I love Fall. I live in the Northeast. The colors are beautiful, and I love not being hot anymore.

Q.  What is your favorite thing about Christmas or the holiday season?

A. I love baking. It relaxes me. I love baking about six or seven things in the period of one or two days and then having mountains of sweets. 

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

A. I really love both of my book covers.  As for Perfect is Overrated, it was my idea to do a cover where the woman's clothes matched something unlikely and it was a stroke of brilliance on the part of the St. Martin's Press Art Department to make it a bulldog outfit.  I love that dog!!!!

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. I was at bookstore reading in Austin,Texas and a girl sitting in the audience was reading a biography of Thomas Jefferson the entire time. I ended up giving her a copy of my book. 

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A. Yes. I am trying to do something that doesn't involve murder.  Too many have diedat the hands of Microsoft Word. 

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A.  Yes. Thank you for reading this.  If you are a creative person, act on it. You will be less miserable!!

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