The Other Mothers' Club
Page 38
Then, as well as all the characters who are in stepmother situations, there’s a single mom, one who’s divorced, one who’s a widower, one who wants to be a stand-up comedian—none of those are me! Anyway, life doesn’t tend to be that interesting, so you have to use your imagination.
You’re a stepmom yourself. Are there times that you wish you had an other mothers’ club? (Or do you have one?)
Oh yes, definitely, in the past. I became a stepmother when I was twenty-three (my stepson was then six and he’s now twenty-five—he lived with us from the age of eleven to about eighteen). I was lucky I have a very supportive partner who always took full responsibility for the childcare. When Jamie, my stepson, came to live with us at the age of eleven, his father did all the parenting.
All that said, being a stepmother can be quite lonely. If you’re young, like I was, then your experience is a million miles away from your friends’. If you’re older, although you may know other people in similar situations, some of your friends may be on the other side of the fence and be a bit defensive, like Clare and Eve in the book. Eve is a new stepmom, Clare is a single mom who is having her daughter’s stepmother forced into her life by her ex.
I don’t have an other mothers’ club. (I don’t know of any in the UK, but I know they exist in America, and I think they’re a great idea. A couple of women wrote to me and said that having read the book, they were thinking of setting one up. I hope they do.) But like most women, I do have a support group of friends, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to write about it. I think friends play a crucial part in most women’s lives, and I wanted to address that.
What advice can you give to writers starting out?
Just do it. Loads of people say to me, “I don’t know how you find the time.” But the truth is, I make the time. Writing is what I do in my spare time. Also, don’t keep going back over the same chapter writing and rewriting. Keep going forward until you reach the end. THEN start editing, or you’ll end up six months down the line with the same fifteen thousand words.
How did you go about getting a book published?
I was really lucky, I’m under no illusions about that. The fact that I was a magazine editor definitely helped me get an agent. This is my third novel, but quite different from my first two. I wanted to try something completely different and felt really passionately about the subjects—being a stepmother, but also female friendship. My agent sold it to HarperCollins with fifteen thousand words, a plot outline and a synopsis. I was lucky that Lynne, my UK editor, who’s a stepmother too, loved it on sight and felt there was a real need for a book like this.
Which living author do you most admire and why?
J. K. Rowling. I think she’s amazing. Personally, I love the Harry Potter stories (so shoot me). But also, on a personal level, I think her story is incredibly inspiring.
What are your top five chicklit reads?
Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs
In Her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner
Heartburn, by Norah Ephron
Rachel’s Holiday, by Marian Keyes
The Girls’ Guide to Hunting & Fishing, by Melissa Bank
Top twelve rom-coms?
When Harry Met Sally
Julie & Julia
The Truth about Cats and Dogs
Roxanne
Sleepless in Seattle
Notting Hill
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Bridget Jones’s Diary
High Fidelity
Pretty in Pink
10 Things I Hate About You
Sex and the City
Dos and Don’ts of Meeting the Stepchildren
DO buy a little gift (emphasis on the little—the latest, biggest, most expensive must-have you can find will make their mom hate you and set you up for broke for the rest of your life). DON’T do it without asking their dad first.
DO learn to love pizza (if your stepkids are little, you could be eating a lot of it).
DON’T order off menu (if you order dressing on the side, chances are your teenaged almost-stepdaughter will too).
DON’T wear your new designer outfit (accidents will happen).
DO look like you’ve made an effort (your best gardening jeans won’t cut it).
DON’T tell them what to do or not do until you’ve earned the right to.
DO ask if you can join in.
Five Stepmom Must-Haves
A thick skin
Wipe-clean clothes
A sense of humor
Ability to read out loud/play games/help with homework
A support group!
Acknowledgments
Profuse thanks are due, in no particular order, to:
All the stepmothers and almost-stepmothers who generously shared their experiences (good and bad) of living with and loving, in the main, other people’s children. Your tips, advice and good humor were invaluable. Thanks also to the many step-daughters who vigorously put across their side of the story!
In the course of my research I read several books by journalists whose candid weekly columns of living with cancer couldn’t fail to move all who read them: notably, Before I Say Goodbye by Ruth Picardie; Take Off Your Party Dress by Dina Rabinovitch; and C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too by John Diamond.
My brilliant (and eternally optimistic) agent, Jonny Geller, I’m glad you’re on my team; Lynne Drew, you’re an inspiration—yes, I hated you when you sent me those few small points that stretched to twenty pages, but this is a far better book for it. Thanks also to Victoria, Kate and all the team at HarperCollins, and Christy Fletcher and Lucia Macro, Team America.
Tammy Perry for motivational pep talks. Nancy, Clare and Catherine, for all the usual reasons—mainly involving ears and alcohol! Everyone at Red for supporting me in both my day and night job, and being, well, the best in the business. Particular thanks to Saska for tipping me off to the unintended potential of Queen’s Park farmers market, and to all the Red readers whose vocal response whenever we printed the word stepmother tipped me off to its potential.
Karen at Caffè Nero for letting us treat the corner table like an office.
Mom and Dad for embracing the role of stepgrandparents so wholeheartedly. (Yes, I know you were much too young to have a six-year-old grandson, but you were really good at it. Still are.)
And last but so not least, Jon and Jamie, for trusting me to write this book and putting up with me while I did so. Without you there would be no OMC.
About the Author
SAMANTHA BAKER has edited some of the UK’s most popular magazines, including J-17, Company, and Cosmopolitan UK. She is editor in chief of Red, and lives between Winchester, Hampshire, and central London with her husband and grown-up stepson.
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By Samantha Baker
THE OTHER MOTHERS’ CLUB
Credits
Cover photograph by Katherine Fawssett/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE OTHER MOTHERS’ CLUB. Copyright © 2010 by Sam Baker. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, Sam, 1966-
The oth
er mothers’ club / Samantha Baker.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-184035-7 (pbk.)
1. Stepmothers—Fiction. 2. Stepchildren—Fiction. 3. Female friendship—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6102.A574S74 2010
823'.92—dc22 2010003343
EPub Edition © May 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-199140-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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