Close encounters with Carol Brady, Mom-in-Chief, Mojo Mom and a Literary Mama

After I left Berkeley last week and headed down to Santa Cruz for the rest of my trip to California, I had very poor internet access, so I am sorry I was not able to blog sooner about what happened backstage at The View from the Bay.

If you remember, Jamie Woolf and I were there to talk about our upcoming anthology Courageous Parenting, but behind the scenes we were also trying to meet pop-culture icon Florence Henderson, Carol Brady herself, who was also on the show that day.

Jamie got up close and personal with her! Don't they both look great?


Florence was being whisked by while I was in the chair getting my makeup put on, and I just couldn't jump up to go meet her. But I could see her and Jamie in the mirror. Jamie was nice and bold and gave Florence a copy of her book Mom-in-Chief, which Ms. Henderson accepted with enthusiasm. She really seemed nice and embraced her lifelong role as Gen X's Mom.

But even though I missed out on that, not only am I proud of Jamie for getting right out there, but we also had the treat of running into Caroline Grant backstage. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the wonderful Literary Mama website, and she was on the show to talk about a reading list of recommended books for kids ages 3-12. There was some drama about a mistake in the schedule and whether she'd get on, which she wrote about with good humor in her blog. But we had a nice chat backstage and I have to say Caroline took it all in stride, and she did get on and was very poised in her segment.


So there we are, three writers in our own right. I felt like I was in an alternate universe, since I used to live in the Bay Area, and here Jamie and Caroline were talking about writing groups and other cool events, and I thought that if I still lived there I would love to spend more time hanging out with them, and Joan Blades, co-founder of MomsRising.org, who was gracious enough to host me while I was in town.

All in all it was a really fun day, and I hope you'll check out the video of our Courageous Parenting segment.

Mojo Mom, Mom-in-Chief, and Mrs. Brady on The View from the Bay today

I was already really excited to appear with my friend Jamie Woolf on the TV show The View from the Bay today at 3 pm in San Francisco. We'll be talking about our forthcoming book Courageous Parenting and sharing practical ways that real-life moms and dads can break overparenting habits. I believe that as parents think about taking a new path it's important to talk about the vision of where to go, as well as steps that lay out how to get there. We cover both in depth in the new book, coming out in March.

I hope a whole bunch of View from the Bay viewers will stop by and sign up for our Courageous Parenting free e-book offer.

And as if that wasn't already enough fun, having Mojo Mom and Mom-in-Chief together on this show, I just found out that Florence Henderson will be on as well -- Carol Brady herself! If that's not a divinely aligned motherhood event, I don't know what is. As many fellow Gen Xers will appreciate, I was addicted to the Brady Bunch for my whole childhood and used to be able to pretty much quote the whole thing.

My goal is to get a photo with her. We're on different segments but I hope to bump into her in the Green Room. Check back tomorrow to find out whether I succeeded!

Book release recovery, friends, Mom-in-Chief on The Huffington Post

I've had a tough week. I am grateful that it's all working out, but it's been a tough eleven days. My daughter got sick the day before Mother's Day, and she was getting well but then started to go downhill again. All this started with poison ivy--on her face--which got infected and ended up being treated with two kinds of antibiotics and strong steroids. I was just glad that after three doctor's visits we got on the path that led to her getting better. It was nerve-wracking to see her wake up after five days on antibiotics with her face so blotchy and swollen that her eyelid was halfway shut. Any time antibiotics are involved, and especially when they don't work the first time, I get a little panicked. But we managed to get her better and even had a little bit of fun over the weekend. She was hyper and hungry from taking the steroids, so she baked two batches of cookies and made blueberry pancakes. (She's quite the cook for someone who is not quite ten yet!) She's finally back to herself again.

So I was very grateful when Jamie Woolf checked on me at just the moment when I needed a friend, and a writer friend at that. Jamie is the author of Mom-in-Chief, a terrific book about leadership and parenting which came out in February--I am sorry I didn't know about it in time to include it in the new Mojo Mom. Jamie and I had known each other slightly before, but we really connected when we spent time together in Berkeley in January, after each of our books had gone to press.

Jamie has a new piece out on The Huffington Post, "Female Bullying or Just Another Attack Against Successful Women," pushing back against recent "trend" pieces looking at women's workplace infighting. When we talked about it today, Jamie's perspective on this topic reminded me of how I feel about "the Mommy Wars," that these conflicts are more symptoms of our workplace challenges, rather than a direct cause. I can say from experience that working together with other women toward common goals is much more fun and effective than in-fighting, and it's sad that fighting is what gets the media's attention. (And yes, I was on The Today Show two years ago for a segment about "The Mommy Wars," but I stand by what I said when I got there.)

Since Jamie's book came out two months before mine, she's been a great sounding board about the emotional roller-coaster of the publishing process. I've observed that publishing a book can make one feel pretty neurotic. You work so hard, pour your heart out, and when you put your book out to the world it's like putting yourself out there. Your job then becomes getting the whole world to love you!

Yikes, time to recenter and remember why I wrote Mojo Mom, that it's about helping Moms one woman at a time and not just obsessing over Amazon.com rankings. The book release has been a fantastic experience, and I am trying to keep perspective. Tomorrow I am taking the whole day off and whisking away my friend and Mojo Mom Podcast co-host Sheryl for a rare and well-deserved spa day. I may blog again before then, but in any case, on Thursday I'll share any new insights that arise from our trip.

Reminder that I've already succeeded

I've made many wise friends through my work as an author. During the ramp-up to book release week, I asked my friend Jamie Woolf for the wisdom she's gleaned from the experience of her Mom-in-Chief book release this past February.

Jamie reminded me that it's important to decide what I specifically hope to get out of a book release. What are my goals, in addition to selling a lot of books? I think it's important for every writer to come up with at least 10 definitions of success that have nothing to do with getting on Oprah (as much as we'd all love that, too!).

This morning I saw that another of my friends, Momma Zen's Karen Maezen Miller, wrote a blog post that moved me to tears and made me realize I have already succeeded, just by having the experiences that came with the writing process and getting to publication. Right now my brain is as frazzled as my vocal cords are frayed, so I will let Karen's eloquence speak for itself by linking to her Cheerio Road blog post, The Mother at the End of My Block.

Karen, thank you. And I can't wait to see you in California in June...

...dear blog readers, you are invited to join us at 7 pm on June 23 for a Mom's Summer Reading Salon at Sierra Madre Books. Our first ever Momma Zen & Mojo Mom event!

Mojo Mom Podcast with Mom-in-Chief Jamie Woolf

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jamie Woolf as a fellow motherhood author. We even had a chance to hang out recently in Berkeley, as you can see here, with Jamie proudly cradling the advance reader copy of her new book Mom-in-Chief, which was released this week.

Jamie's book helps busy parents bring the leadership skills they learned in the workplace back home, to adapt and apply those skills to family life. I love several things about her writing: Mom-in-Chief is a book about parents as much as it is about kids; Jamie is very supportive, non-judgmental, and goes out of her way not to pile on Mommy Guilt; and her ideas are fresh and useful. Also, Mom-in-Chief really honors the skills that parents acquire at their careers, as well as the work they do at home. In my opinion, working Moms still often get criticized when they should be supported. Jamie builds them up without tearing anyone else down.

Mom-in-Chief is aimed at Moms, but I think that many a business-minded Dad would appreciate it, too. It's a solid, well-researched leadership book, and Jamie writes in a way that could reach some men who would only reluctantly pick up a parenting book. I plan to share it with my husband!

Jamie is my guest this week on The Mojo Mom Podcast. We talk about all this, and also how it felt to have Michelle Obama embrace the title "Mom-in-Chief" for herself.

Listen in to find out how to enter our upcoming Mojo Mom Podcast drawings, which will include two copies of Mom-in-Chief awarded on February 13, and an iPod Nano on March 7. Enter once and you'll be eligible for all our upcoming prize drawings, leading up to the release of the new edition of Mojo Mom on April 7.

You can learn more about Jamie's work through her Mom-in-Chief website.