Los Alamos, NM
What if being a mother isn't all its cracked up to be? In Swimming for Shore: Memoirs of a Reluctant Mother, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Laura Ann Mullane gives an unflinchingly honest account of her decision to have children in spite of her many doubts and the struggle to come to terms with her new role as Mom after her son and daughter are born.
At turns both laugh-out-loud funny and gut-wrenching, she explores everything from the high-pressure Perfect Mothers' Club of the Washington, D.C., suburbs to the guilt and shame that plagued her as she navigated her children's tantrums and the constant demands of motherhood.
"I wrote this book because I felt like no one was really honest about how hard it was to be a mom," said Mullane. "My life changed so dramatically when my son was born-I lost so many things that I loved: spending time with my husband, going for long hikes in the mountains, riding and competing my horses. I missed it all terribly. But everyone kept telling me that being a mom was the most rewarding thing I would ever do-and all I could think was, 'Really? It sure doesn't seem like it.'"
So Mullane wrote a book about her decision to become a mom and the first three years of her children's lives in an effort to start an honest conversation about the challenges and very real doubts many mothers face, yet few feel they can say aloud for fear of being labeled a "Bad Mom."
Mullane is co-author of God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2009), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Washington Post Magazine, Hemispheres and Open Skies, among others. She spent the first eight years of her children's lives in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Today, she lives in northern New Mexico with her husband, two children, two horses, two dogs and two cats.
The self-published book is available on Amazon in paperback ($9.99) and Kindle ($4.99). Watch the book trailer here. Mullane is available for interviews; copies of the book are available for review.
Book Excerpts:
...But even if the parents didn't feel the need to use these moments as a forum for the Parenting Olympics, the meetings were just a painful reminder to me that I didn't fit in. I couldn't say exactly why, but there was a clubbiness to the school that made me feel like I was on the outside looking in.
For media inquiries please contact Kathy Silverstein at Kathleen(at)onthemarcmedia(dot)com or call 410-963-2345
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