In Not Good Enough Girl, amidst the control, confusion, and chaos caused by her eight-times-married mother, Sondra Brooks’ story spans the extreme emotions of a mother-daughter relationship, touching on cyclical family dysfunction, addiction, and forgiveness. Beginning at the age of five, Sondra spends decades auditioning for the role of her authentic self. Her dazzling mother casts her as confidante and co-conspirator in her affairs and serial marriages. Sondra vacillates between fierce anger toward her mother—who does nothing to protect her from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse—and a desperate need for her love and approval. As an adult, Sondra enters into and stays in a toxic marriage for years, engaging in affairs with married men rather than divorcing. When therapy and AA eventually propel her out of the sense-deadening haze of alcohol and cigarettes, she summons the courage to tell her husband she plans to leave him. He reacts by playing on her biggest fear, telling her, “You’re going to turn out just like your mother.” Sondra attempts to establish a sober and separate identity, but tensions between her and her mother further increase when she marries someone new—a man who displaces her mother as the epicenter of her life—and her mother’s seventh marriage ends. During this time, traumatic childhood memories suddenly surface and a seismic shift occurs, freeing Sondra from her need for maternal connection. But establishing a life independent from her mother proves far more complicated than she could have imagined. Sondra R. Brooks graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy…
The buzz about Cheryl Strayed’s new memoir, Wild, couldn’t be ignored. If Oprah Winfrey brought back her Book Club just because of this manuscript, I knew I had to read it. Most everything Oprah recommended I’d read before she announced the selection. But Wild was a wild card thrown in my direction. The jacket described this book about the rough experiences on the Pacific Crest… [Read More]
If you really distill the many difficulties of blogging, there are two issues that are the most arduous to contend with on the regular: monitoring who’s talking about you, and coming up with fresh and fantastic ideas. Luckily, Google already has you covered. Google Alerts is a free online tool that can alert you anytime it finds a new page on the ‘net that’s related… [Read More]
Anne Tyler’s novels are punctuation marks in my own lifeline. Her first novels I discovered in college — If Morning Ever Comes and The Tin Can Tree — but by the time I got to graduate school, Celestial Navigation, Searching for Caleb, and Earthly Possessions captured my fancy as a reader. As each of her novels came out, I found myself compelled to purchase the… [Read More]
If you have a book manuscript and you think you are ready to pursue publication, there is a timeline you should consider before letting your horse out of the gate before the race even begins. I’ve seen too many great book concepts go nowhere, because when they send a query letter out, they don’t have a proposal ready to go. Yes, a book proposal. When… [Read More]
Facebook, for better or worse, has become quite the meeting hall of 2012. It’s where we commune electronically to discuss the days’ news, to check out our friends’ latest photos, and, as an author, promote our blogs and books. Self-promotion has always been a bit of a tight-rope walk – you have work you believe in that you want to show the world!… but you… [Read More]



