by Lisa Tognola
To everyone on the She Writes Press (“SWP”) publishing team and their community of supportive women for believing that “women don’t let women write alone”: special thanks to Brooke Warner, SWP cofounder, for giving me a chance; Krissa Lagos, my gifted editor, for smoothing out my inconsistencies and making sure my tenses were perfect—and past perfect; Lauren Wise, my dedicated and patient project manager, for keeping me on track; and Julie Metz, for designing an intriguing book cover.
To my wise and earnest writing instructor, mentor, and editor, author Laura Zinn Fromm, for teaching me the elements of storytelling and encouraging me to “dig deeper.”
To Jessica Wolf, for providing me with brilliant editorial assistance and keen insight and skillfully slashing my word count to save me from the fateful curse of overwriting.
To my Montclair writing group, for shouting their constructive critiques over the din of Panera Bread: Diane Masucci, Sylver McGriff, and Linda Morgan.
To my Short Hills writing buddies, for teaching me, supporting me, and inspiring me to keep going: Edna Axelrod, Jo Varnish, and Dan Kiselik. Special thanks to Dan for the encouraging pep talks; without him this book would not have materialized.
To my peeps at Women Who Write, for your ongoing friendship and support.
To my friends, for helping me to awaken and harness my humor.
To my book club, for fueling my love of reading.
To Julie Patyk, Debbie Polishook, and Cindy Slavin, for being my first readers and giving me a sense of hope.
To Lori Pine, for keeping me sane.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
photo © Kathryn Huang
Lisa Tognola is an author, freelance writer, social worker, wife, and mother of three who always dreamed of getting married and living in the perfect house—until she discovered that passion comes with a mortgage. A former humor columnist at The Alternative Press, based in New Jersey, she is now a contributor to More. com and has contributed essays to five anthologies in the Not Your Mother’s Books series as well as My Funny Valentine: America’s Most Hilarious Writers Take on Love, Romance, and Other Complications and My Funny Medical: Off the Charts Humor from an All-Star Cast. Tognola hails from California but now lives in New Jersey, where she spends most of her time fantasizing about sunny skies, palm trees, and In-N-Out Burger.
Lisa Fox Tognola
@Lisatognola
@Lisatognola
SELECTED TITLES FROM SHE WRITES PRESS
She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve women writers everywhere. Visit us at www.shewritespress.com.
Arboria Park by Kate Tyler Wall. $16.95, 978-1631521676. Stacy Halloran’s life has always been centered around her beloved neighborhood, a 1950s-era housing development called Arboria Park—so when a massive highway project threatens the Park in the 2000s, she steps up to the task of trying to save it.
A Tight Grip: A Novel about Golf, Love Affairs, and Women of a Certain Age by Kay Rae Chomic. $16.95, 978-1-938314-76-6. As forty-six-year-old golfer Jane “Par” Parker prepares for her next tournament, she experiences a chain of events that force her to reevaluate her life.
Center Ring by Nicole Waggoner. $17.95, 978-1-63152-034-1. When a startling confession rattles a group of tightly knit women to its core, the friends are left analyzing their own roads not taken and the vastly different choices they’ve made in life and love.
Play for Me by Céline Keating. $16.95, 978-1-63152-972-6. Middle-aged Lily impulsively joins a touring folk-rock band, leaving her job and marriage behind in an attempt to find a second chance at life, passion, and art.
The Geometry of Love by Jessica Levine. $16.95, 978-1-938314-62-9. Torn between her need for stability and her desire for independence, an aspiring poet grapples with questions of artistic inspiration, erotic love, and infidelity.
Stella Rose by Tammy Flanders Hetrick. $16.95, 978-1-63152-921-4. When her dying best friend asks her to take care of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Abby says yes—but as she grapples with raising a grieving teenager, she realizes she didn’t know her best friend as well as she thought she did.