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I promised Andi I would be very helpful with this blog and then suddenly my work blew up and I am actually having to do something to earn my living. So I am waiting for my childcare situation to go from theoretical to practical (my little sister will be coming over and helping out) and […]

Everyone knows about the writerly obsession of checking your Amazon ranking on an hourly basis. Luckily, I don’t have to go to the trouble of doing that anymore — of actually opening up my browser and checking to see what my Amazon rank is — because a kind and enabling friend built me a Konfabulator […]

Oprah has a whole page of writers talking about balancing writing and motherhood. It’s a hobby of mine — seeing how other writing women somehow manage to product readable work between diaper changes, sandwich making, and carpooling. No majorly new insights here (was hoping someone had a magical tip guaranteed to make it all swing […]

Just got word that Stephany went into labor on Tuesday morning: Luke David was born yesterday, a month before his official due date, at 9:02 a.m., and weighed in at 4 pounds 13 ounces. Congratulations to the proud parents! And Stephany — welcome to mother land!

More on writing frankly about one’s children: I always, always, always look forward to Catherine Newman’s weekly column about life with Birdy, her two-year-old daughter, and her five-year-old son Ben. Bringing Up Ben & Birdy is published every Monday on the commercial site ParentCenter and in my opinion it’s the very best feature that site […]

There’s been a lot of negative buzz online lately about Ayelet Waldman’s new column on Salon, which she recently started after giving up posting on her addictively readable parenting blog, Bad Mother. I have to admit that at times I’ve been surprised, even taken aback, by just how much Waldman reveals but it’s… interesting to […]

Jennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkinson, the editors of Brain, Child magazine, wonder why publishers seem to be backing off literary offerings by, for, and about mothers — when sixty-eight percent of books are purchased by women. At one point though — say, around 2003 — around we started getting discouraging notes from writers we know. […]

This story is more than a week old but I’ve still chosen to link it now because it’s of particular interest to women who write about mothering. The Guardian recently took British writers Ali Smith and Toby Litt to task for characterizing the work of many women writers as “dull, depressed and domestic” in their […]

This Belgian commercial uses a zippy video game format to warn teen girls about the drudgery of mothering a newborn. It reminds me of the new baby feature in The Sims. I must have had at least three simulated babies taken away by a simulated child welfare worker before I understood just how much attention […]

Welcome to the Literary Mama blog. For the time being, I’ll be your guide — even though I guess I don’t yet strictly qualify as one of the “literary mamas” around here. Not just yet. My due date isn’t for another five weeks. But when that day does (finally, finally) come, I feel pretty sure […]