Where the Heck Have I Been?

 

Mad Men has started its strange new late-60s season while The Good Wife concluded its fourth with great Florrick flourish.

The Red Sox season thus far, hasn't, surprisingly, been cringe-worthy.

The Boston Marathon was bombed and a violent manhunt was waged through the streets of the Boston metro area.

Two of my favorite humorists -- David Sedaris (saw him speak recently in Boston) and Dave Barry -- have come out with new books.

Alas, I haven't been able to break open the pages of the new books, muse about Mad Men as I'm wont to do or catch the bulk of the Sox games, never mind blog in this space. Why not?

Three reasons:

1. I've been prepping for the release of my novel, Mortified: A Novel About Oversharing, this month, May 12 to be exact. (Here's the book web site. This is the Amazon listing. The local paper also ran a good piece about the book here. *Fingers crossed to thwart any bad reviews.*)

2. I've been teaching writing and journalism full-time, as well as advising the university's student newspaper. (Here's the web site for the online/social media course I'm teaching.)

3. I've been actively researching my next book, a work of non-fiction where I chronicle the year in the life of a middle school jazz band.

BUT ... the university's classes are almost over for the semester and the grades will be filed soon, so I plan to resume my pop culture, politics and media musings ASAP. I've got a fierce Mad Men post I've been mulling over after another head-scratching installment Sunday night.

More to come! Promise!

In the meantime, I appeared on the Manic Mommies podcast where I not only discussed my novel and the wild media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, but what's hot in TV right now.

Image credit: Michael Yarish/AMC.

'Mortified: A Novel About Oversharing' Now Has a Cover

My publisher, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, has just listed my forthcoming novel, Mortified: A Novel About Oversharing -- yep, you read that right, MY forthcoming novel -- on its web site with its provocative cover.

Promo copy for the book:

Maggie Kelly started her personal blog for one reason: to prevent her head from exploding with frustration. She is, frankly, tired of at-home motherhood and weary of her husband Michael’s frequent absences due to his workaholic ways. She feels like a hostage to marriage and maternity. So when a friend suggests that she create an anonymous blog where she can complain to her heart’s content and not have to hold anything back, “Maggie Has Had It” was born.

After her controversial, raw and profane blog posts draw thousands of online readers, Maggie’s blogging identity is inadvertently revealed. Michael is horrified to learn that his wife has written, in great detail, about his shortcomings as a husband and, mortifyingly, between the sheets. To make matters worse, it is his mother, Dorothy, who tells him about his online humiliation.

While many people have been embarrassed by unkind remarks that have been made about them from time to time, few have had those unflattering quips go viral in the way Michael’s humiliation does. Mortification in 21st century fashion: via Google. In the age of blogs and omnipresent social media, where is the line between laudable, cathartic honesty and oversharing?

It'll be published this May. *fist pump*

Image credit: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing.