Big Huge Ginormous Book Announcement
They're letting us write our book about boys!
Yes, we’re writing a book — and it will be in bookstores April 2025. Here’s the deal:
Seeing this announcement today almost made me cry.
I probably would’ve cried more, but my daughter was yelling at me because she was playing dress-up and I wasn’t putting her “fail” (veil) on correctly. In my defense, what she wanted to use as a veil was actually a tutu, and I was trying to put it on her waist like a fool, apparently.
One moment later, as I was just getting back to reading the announcement, my oldest son came to me with a problem regarding his AP Stats homework and my middle son walked in the front door carrying not one, not two, not three!, but six dirty Hydro Flasks he’d just found in my car. As if it had been scripted, the metal water bottles fell from his arms one-by-one. Clatter clatter clatter clatter, clonk, rolllll.
In other words, I’m a mom, which means I had about ten seconds of wonder and joy at this glorious sight. The tiny little box with the blue-and-red font and my name (and that of
) in bold. Publisher’s Marketplace. How could it be real?(Quick break from the narrative to say that if you want updates on the status of our book, please subscribe to this Substack or sign up for the mailing list here on our somewhat-official Talk To Your Boys book website. The story continues below the button!)
See, I’m one of those people who spent a lifetime sort of wandering.
The only job I ever wanted as a kid was to be a cashier at the grocery store. The cash register! The money! The buttons! The beeping and bagging and getting to talk to a million people!
I achieved that dream early — though with a little upgrade. I got to be the cashier at Lisa Kline, a fancy shop on Robertson Boulevard in LA, at the height of early ‘00s shopping fever. I also got to work with my best friends, a few of whom are still my closest confidants today.
After I had my first child, all my button-pushing dreams fulfilled, I was a little lost. What would I do to define myself outside of the little boy (and eventually boys) with big green eyes staring up at me all day? I didn’t want to be away from them for long retail shifts, and the economy was tanking anyway. Whatever I earned would go straight to paying the sitter.
I thought long and hard about what I loved to do, what I would like to do for a long time. What would be so rewarding, I wouldn’t mind being away from my boys while I worked?
The only thing I’ve ever truly loved to do was write. And it was pretty much the only thing I’d been good at in school. Writing and mothering my boys were my two greatest accomplishments (and now I have a little daughter, too).
So I started writing. And then I started writing about mothering. And then I started writing about raising healthy boys. I became an editor and learned how to market my work. My dream career took shape.
Today I get to live the biggest part of my dream and announce that Christopher and I have signed a contract with Workman Publishing to write TALK TO YOUR BOYS, a guide for starting conversations with boys that build trust while being informative. Conversations about things like sex, drugs, consent, romance, heartbreak, honesty, work ethic, rule-breaking and the law, social issues, gender & sexuality and more are easier when you have a sample script, tips and illustrations — all set up so you can pick up the book and read the chapter that pertains to your kid that day.
In other words, we’re writing a book formatted for your real life, one where you have twenty or thirty minutes waiting for your kid to finish band practice, a surf session or theater rehearsal. We’re there to help you figure out what the heck you’re going to say on your drive home about that tough situation he’s been dealing with.
So follow along with us here while we finish writing this book, interviewing experts and boys alike. We’ll keep you in the loop and share little bits of wisdom along the way.
Thanks for being part of our TTYB journey!
I'm so happy for you! And I love the little peek at the backstory of your moment of glory. I won't likely ever write about it, but a TV show of my life while writing my book -- flashing between me researching & writing the book and then what was actually going in my life & mothering at those moments -- would be hilarious. As messy, complicated, and difficult as writing a book can be, I think mothering is even more messy, complicated & difficult.
I hope we get the chance to meet in person someday. Mothering and writing are my things too AND I loved working the cash register when I was in high school & college.
Sounds like you followed the "build something you don't want to escape from" advice you shared in your last newsletter. So happy for you! Look forward to reading your book!!