It’s a Book! Announcing “Mean Mom, Good Mom”

So I know I’ve been ever so slightly M.I.A. lately. I beg your indulgence, but a couple of things are going on. Kids, for one — it’s mid-winter break right now, which means I’m even more pulled between my double existence of stay-at-home mom, and work-at-home mom. Sometimes, seriously, I wish I was one or the other, or the kind of working mom who, because she’s out of the house most of the day, unapologetically relies on a sitter or an au pair or after-care at school, on lovely things like grocery delivery, a cleaning service (bonus points if they do laundry). But because my office is cozily ensconced in a room in my home, and my work can theoretically be done anytime, my work-self and my mom-self are so wound up I feel like Chang and Eng, those famous Siamese twins who never were separated.

But — as usual! — I digress. I came here today, in between a looming work deadline, trying to keep my sons from spending their whole day in front of some screen or another, thinking about grocery shopping, and arranging some playdates, to make an exciting announcement:

I’m going to be writing a book! After a year of trying, my wonderful agent has sold my book proposal, Mean Mom, Good Mom: Why Doing the Hard Stuff Now Makes Good Kids Later, to Sourcebooks, to be published in Spring 2012. Seems like a long way off. But it’s not. It’s 10 chapters, an estimated 65,000 words, due in July. Or really, end of June, because it’s my goal to get it done before school ends, so I can spend the summer (at least, the six weeks covered by daycamp) plotting how I’ll sell the heck out of this thing. See above about being pulled in 17 different directions.

But it’s all good.

Now excuse me while I pry my children away from the TV/computer/Wii so we can hit the library and Trader Joe’s before this afternoon’s playdate.