Q&A/Reviews: I''ll Take What She Has and This Little Mommy Stayed Home by Samantha Wilde

Happy Pub Day to Samantha!!!!! I'll Take What She Has was released today!

Perfect for fans of Marisa de los Santos and Allison Winn Scotch, Samantha Wilde’s new novel is a funny and heartfelt look at friendship, marriage, and the dynamics of modern motherhood.

Nora and Annie have been best friends since kindergarten. Nora, a shy English teacher at a quaint New England boarding school, longs to have a baby. Annie, an outspoken stay-at-home mother of two, longs for one day of peace and quiet (not to mention more money and some free time). Despite their very different lives, nothing can come between them—until Cynthia Cypress arrives on campus.

Cynthia has it all: brains, beauty, impeccable style, and a gorgeous husband (who happens to be Nora’s ex). When Cynthia eagerly befriends Nora, Annie’s oldest friendship is tested. Now, each woman must wrestle the green-eyed demon of envy and, in the process, confront imperfect, mixed-up family histories they don’t want to repeat. Amid the hilarious and harried straits of friendship, marriage, and parenthood, the women may discover that the greenest grass is right beneath their feet.

One thing I love about Wilde is that she gets women and mothers. She knows how to write the real, the raw and the not so glamorous side of motherhood, female friendships and marriage. She makes you laugh and moves you to tears, but so flawlessly that you don't realize you were swept so deep into the story, the characters and their lives. I'll Take What She Has has everything that a great book is made of. A great cast of characters, drama and humor. Wilde is authentic and worth reading! Pick up this title and her other tile THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME (another hit that I adored!!!)

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The Mother of all Motherhood novels.

In this riotously funny, ruefully honest, and irresistibly warmhearted debut, Samantha Wilde writes about one new mother who discovers the wonders and terrors of motherhood—one hilarious crisis at a time. For new moms, potential moms-to-be, and anyone who just wants to (wisely) live the experience vicariously…

New mom Joy McGuire hasn’t changed her sweatpants since her baby was born. Of course she’s crazy about her newborn son; it’s her distracted, work-obsessed husband and his impossible mother she can’t stand. Joy turns to her own mom for support, but she’s too busy planning her fourth wedding to a suspicious self-help guru. Sure, Joy’s a woman on the brink, but it’s nothing a little sleep, sanity, and chocolate can’t fix.

Until her old college boyfriend shows up at their ten-year reunion. The one she was still in love with when she married her husband. It must be the lack of sleep, because Joy is starting to think she might have ended up with the wrong man. Not to mention she’s obsessed with her sexy yoga instructor, who might just be interested in her. Joy used to be single, skinny, and able to speak in complete sentences, but who is she now? As she’s trying to figure that out, her husband goes missing….

Frank, bawdy, and full of keenly self-aware observations, this novel tells the story of one new mother, three men, one marriage, and the baby love that keeps us up at night

This is one of the funniest books about what it means to be a mother.  I was laughing so hard I was crying during numerous parts of this book. There are so many things I could relate to in this book, like what it means to become a mother, how your body changes, how your relationship changes with your spouse and how you relate the world in general when you are sleep deprived.  I recommend this book to all mother out there, such a great read!

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Q.  What inspires your writing?

A.  Life. My own, the life of my friends, lives of strangers, brief glimpses into houses while walking at night, conversations overheard at the cafe, memories stirred up by a smell on the breeze, fragments of stories shared by friends, and words, as well as books themselves. I read constantly and a really good story always inspires me to write a good story myself.

Q.  IN THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME are any of the shenanigans that Joy gets herself into based on any true events from your life?

A. Ah! I wish! Joy's life is far more exicting than mine was those first nine months post-partem, although run-ins with dirty cloth diapers we have in common.

Q.  As a mother, I really appreciated the honesty and the truth of the not so glamorous side of motherhood as portrayed in TLMSH.   What is the hardest thing for you as a mother, the easiest?

A. The hardest is probably how urgently I want to be excellent at mothering and how impossible a thing to master motherhood actually is. I am always a better mother when I am well slept and fed and read! Any time I am with my children outside, it is easy. And reading to them. The cuddles and kisses and playfulness. No one likes to be a task master and so much of mothering is "do this," "do that." Dull!

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

A.  That I get to write! That I get to do what I love, putting words on a page, and it means something to someone else.

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

A.  The modern world of publishing has most authors doing a lot of the leg work in the publicity and marketing department. This is not a strength for me. I find self-promotion difficult, awkward, and it takes away from time that could be spent writing (though I know how necessary it is).

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

A. Well, since I am not mostly an author I can answer this easily! I am a full-time mother to my three children. I write during naps or at night. I am yoga teacher by training and teach one weekly evening class, and I am a minister by calling so I frequently officiate at weddings, baby blessings, memorials, and preach. If I could not be a published writer, I would be a mother, and a yoga teacher and a minister.

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

A.  You Are Loved.

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A.  Oh, dear...that's hard. I'm a book junkie, always finding new favorites. I love The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, and She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb, and poetry has meant so much to me, as well as a host of non-fiction books that have probably altered by life more than I know (like You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay). I guess I am still open to finding my favorite book of all time.

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

A.  It's been a long time since I felt just like a character. Like most girls, I thought I WAS Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House books. I also fancied myself a bit like Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. I think I haven't grown up!

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

A. Perhaps Annie, from I'LL TAKE WHAT SHE HAS, although I feel more like the character in the new novel I am just finishing. I have made her a more perfect version of myself!

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A. This one! (whatever it is). Or at least I try as it can't always be summer!

Q.  What inspired your book covers?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

A. I love the cover of I'LL TAKE WHAT SHE HAS. That baby is scrumptious.

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

A. I had a book talk and signing at a large bookstore in Burlington, Vermont back in 2009 for THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, and I went into the store the day before the signing with my young son and infant daughter. I wanted to see what publicity they had done. I walked around the store and could not find anything! Not a single book or sign. Disheartened, I took my son's hand (I probably had my daughter in a front carrier) and started heading out. He tugged on my hand and said: "Look, Mama! There's the baby we have at our house!" I turned around to see what he was pointing at. It was in fact the baby at our house. It was the baby on the cover of THIS LITTLE MOMMY, in fact, a whole, enormous, mobile shelf of that baby, shelves of books and books stacked and displayed!

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A.  I'm working on a new novel and two memoir projects.

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

A.  Tell me what you think of the novels! I love to hear from readers.

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