The hero of the story.

It’s so weird having a book on the market. It’s like sending your baby’s pictures out there. (“Please, please, no one say my baby ugly, my baby not ugly, little baby he not ugly.”)

Then along comes Jane Nation’s review. Jane Nation is a cool website/blog with the descriptor “The World According To Women.” Which makes it a very good place to review a book like Thirty Rooms To Hide In because the hero is a woman: my mother. (It doesn’t hurt that I knew the reviewer in a former life, but I still say this counts as a review, dammit.)

While the book is partly about the ’50s and ’60s, partly about insanity and rock & roll, partly about hostile dads and long dark hallways….  it’s very much about my mom. About how she managed to brilliantly survive a decade of psychological abuse from her husband while raising six sons and doing it all in an era when a woman really couldn’t expect help from anyone. (“It stays in the family.”)

Much of the book is based on the huge cache of letters she wrote to her father; letters written from the foxhole of her marriage and the huge dangerous house she shared with her husband.

Some readers are already asking if they can write to her and I’m thinking there may be a lot more asking the same thing. I just emailed her a little while ago and asked her if I can give these fans her email address. She was a hero and people like to talk to heroes.

The website is thirtyroomstohidein.com.

And the book is available on amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, and at Blurb.