Our guest today: Josie Brown
Why we love her: She is one sassy lady!
Her latest: Totlandia: The Onesies
The Scoop: The Pacific Heights Moms & Tots Club is the most exclusive children’s playgroup in all of San Francisco. For the city’s ultra-competitive elite, the club’s ten annual spots are the ultimate parenting prize.
But not everyone is PHM&TC material. The club’s founder, Bettina Connaught Cross, adheres to strict membership rules: Moms only. No single parents or working mothers allowed. Membership is an arduous commitment. And there’s no room in the club for scandal, bad behavior, or imperfection…from tots or their moms.
In a world of power and prestige, no one has more than Bettina. And as every mom in Pacific Heights knows, you simply cannot cross her. But this year’s admissions process is more rigorous than ever, pitting prospective members against each other to prove their mettle.
But four of the six candidates vying for the remaining four slots have a secret that would knock them out of the running. Jade is a former stripper and porn actress, who has been absent for most of her son’s life. Jillian’s husband cleaned out their joint accounts and left her for his pregnant assistant. Ally never even had a husband—just a sperm donor—and she’s hiding a high-ranking corporate job. And Lorna fears that her son may have special needs… just the excuse her sister-in-law, Bettina, needs to deny her entry to the club.
Can these hopeful moms keep up appearances long enough to outlast the competition? Or will their chances—and their private lives—go up in flames?
Our thoughts: The perfect gift for your favorite Mom this holiday season!
Giveaway: FIVE eCopies! Leave a comment and we'll choose winners on Sunday, December 9th after 3pm.
Fun Fact: Josie's novel, Secrets Lives of Husbands and Wives, has been optioned by NBC!
Where you can read more about Josie: Her website, Facebook or Twitter.
CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...JOSIE BROWN'S 5 BEST EVERS
1. BEST SONG: I’m very old school! “If I Fell” from the Beatles and “Stop in the Name of Love” from the Supremes. Both are about heartache, and so singable, right?
2. BEST BOOK: Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. I read it thirteen times, before I reached the age of sixteen. Part of my devotion has to do with the fact that its author is from my home town of Atlanta. (FYI: as is Kathryn Stockett, who wrote The Help, and I assume will inspire new generations of writers and readers.)
The scope of this saga of unrequited love – over a generation, and through a major war – seemed to me to be the ultimate love story. Frankly, it still does. Nothing comes close! The heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, envisions herself in love with a man who is promised to another, and never really showed her anything other than flirtatious lust. Only in the last chapter does she realize she has just lost the love of her ideal mate: Rhett Butler, who loves her, despite the tests of time, place and circumstance, which strip away all the gentility in which she was born and bred.
Again, unrequited love.
3. BEST MOVIE: Down and Out in Beverly Hills, with Richard Dreyfus, Bette Midler, and Nick Nolte.
I love the first because of its sly humor and perfect dialogue, and a great plot. An upheaval takes place in the Beverly Hills mansion of a wealthy family when a homeless man, trying to commit suicide in their pool, is saved by the Dave Whiteman, the owner of the mansion. Despite being a giving father and successful businessman, Dave feel s he’s taken for granted by his wife, and ignored by his children: a daughter who he worries is anorexic, and a son who is in the closet. Every member of the family wants to believe that the bum from the pool has some wisdom to dispense. Not. Finding out the truth is part of the fun.
4. BEST MOMENT: When I delivered my first child: my son. Pregnancy is an experience. Motherhood is a whole other life. It is a great journey, and a wonderful challenge, to have someone dependent on you for the first twelve years of their lives, then grow away from you, only to realize your love and faith in them won’t be matched by anyone else…until they find their soul mate.
5. BEST ADVICE: For everyone, it is to open your mind, and your heart. Those who close themselves off to new people, new places, new experiences, and of course new ideas. Life is a journey. Enjoy every step of the way.
Thanks, Josie! xoxo, L&L
