Laura’s amazing web guy figured out how to get a photo onto her brant, so scroll down (way way down) to the end of the long gingerbread-house-making piece and see what it looked like when Laura was finished. The only problem is, the photo makes the gingerbread house look short and stocky and pudgy and kind of goofy — completely different from what it looked like in real life which was tall and elegant and truly impressive.

In fact, it was so impressive that when she brought it in to her son’s preschool for Halloween some of the other mothers were kind of, well, jealous, which surprised Laura since several of these women had master’s degrees and Ph.D.s and were quite impressive themselves. This bizarre occurrence — baking something that would incite such jealousy and admiration — jealousy and admiration that her three published novels didn’t seem to incite!!! — became kind of a thing and prompted Laura to write a fake blog to four of her preschool mom friends (in the form of an email a few times a week) about how “great” she was (it was kind of like this brant except it was way more braggy and written in the first person). This in turn lead to Laura and the four fake-blog recipients to refer to themselves as the Blog Moms and it was a very fun year because the Blog Moms were always begging Laura to blog, which she did as much as she could and which gave Laura a huge ego boost when she most needed it (it had been a tough year in the Rejected-Writer department).

Sometimes, when their demands became overwhelming, Laura would call them Blog Hogs but that would just make them want her to blog more, and so she would, but it seemed the more she blogged the more blog they wanted and the supply and demand issue became somewhat of a vicious circle. Needless to say, this was pretty heady stuff for Laura — her three published novels had never created such excitement and desire for more of her writing! — and in time Laura realized that making her fake-blog extra-exclusive would continue to keep demand for her blogging very high. For example, one Blog Mom husband, Billy W., became obsessed with Laura’s fake blog and wanted to be put on the recipient list. This request was overruled (naturally — he was of the wrong gender and Blog Dad just didn’t have the same ring to it). Billy begged so incessantly for blog that he quickly acquired the nickname Billy the Blog Hog which only made him want blog more. He was so desperate, in fact, to be part of the Blog Moms that he offered to blog himself! But Laura turned down that request, too, and only allowed him to be a one-time fake-blog contributor, or, as they’re called in actual journalism, a “stringer.” His assignment: to cover a princess-themed birthday party of the child of a preschool mom who was obsessed with and always talking about scrapbooking. Billy the Blog Hog’s fake-blog was so brilliantly observed and well-written that Laura was tempted to allow him to be an honorary Blog Mom but in the end a vote was taken and the Blog Moms decided against allowing Billy to officially be part of the group.

That was two years ago and even though Laura stopped the fake blog long ago and now has an actual blog and even though their kids are no longer in preschool but are in first grade they still call each other Blog Mom and they probably always will.

Anyway, Laura doesn’t want to obsess or anything, but she’s going to try to upload a better picture of the gingerbread haunted house later today so that the whole Blog Mom phenomenon will make more sense.

The other night Laura was feted at Lincoln Street Coffee in Newton Highlands during a Girls Night Out evening her close friend and former next-door-neighbor Elisa D’Andrea (and husband Glen Weinstein) arranged. (Laura’s not sure how she feels about phrases like “Girls Night Out” or “Girls Night In” or any other one that uses the word “Girls” to refer to women over the age of 9, but for lack of a better descriptive title — “An Evening of Free Brownies and Coffee” just doesn’t quite seem to cut it — Laura’s going to leave it that way. For now. [She can always come back and change it. That’s the beauty of blogs. Or, brants.])

Anyway, about 40 women came for an evening of free brownies and coffee and to listen to Laura talk about herself while sitting criss-cross-applesauce in an upholstered club chair and read from her new book. Laura had a great time. One of the reasons she had such a great time was because so many of her friends from so many different parts of Laura’s life were there all at the same time. For instance, her cherished Preschool-Era Blog Moms were there — including Pinar, whose due date to give birth had come and gone two days before and who ended up, only hours later, giving birth (very very quickly) to a little girl named Ayla! Also there were the women from Laura’s book group (from which she’s taken a brief sabbatical); friends from Laura’s new neighborhood (another section of Newton called Auburndale); sisters of friends from Laura’s new neighborhood, former preschool teachers, friends of friends, etc etc. The other reason it was a great night was because Laura was feeling uncharacteristically blue that day (well, that’s not entirely true; Laura has battled off and on her whole life with depression, but that’s neither here nor there right now!!) and so being around that many truly good friends gave her mood an enormous and desperately needed boost. Quite a night, and Laura thanks Elisa, one of the smartest and funniest and most generous friends she’s ever had, and everyone who came, for helping her celebrate..

Everyone who is lucky enough to have a great evening has a favorite part of that great evening, and Laura’s favorite part (besides the moment when she had a giant brownie) was when people started telling her how much they were enjoying her brant. Laura was shocked and amazed that so many people seemed to be reading it since she can count on the fingers of one hand the number of comments that have been left on her website. And so it became obvious that Laura would need to create a bridge for herself to get her over the huge chasm of doubt when it came to brant-writing. And so she asked the group of women assembled a favor:

To please please please leave a comment on her brant to let her know they were reading it.

Most of the women had only one objection to that request: they were too shy to leave a multi-sentence comment on her brant or her discussion page. Which is when Laura tailored her request to something very specific:

Just write the phrase, “I’m reading it,” she asked.

And so, the brask was born (brag + rant + ask = brask).

Laura is deeply grateful to the few friends and friends of friends (you know who you are) who have posted their support in the form of that one simple sentence, and she now sends out a wider brask for more people to do the same. This is because Laura finds it really hard to continue writing her brant when she thinks no one is reading it. All she needs is for a few people a day, or a week, or an hour, to post those three magic words — I’m reading it — to ensure future branting from Laura.

Laura has a real backlog of brants — several events and issues to cover. But it’s late and she’s going to try to keep things brief:

Newtonville Books
Laura never branted about her kick-off reading and signing at her hometown bookstore, Newtonville Books, owned by the fantastic Tim Huggins. Tim has a lot of facial hair and he’s from The South and he’s one of the best things about living (and writing) in Boston. Tim puts on these great events at his store (he calls them “Books and Brew” events because after the reading everyone walks down the street for free drinks at a nearby restaurant); he also used to organize these other great events at The Attic, a restaurant with a bar upstairs where big-draw authors would read or groups of authors would read; and he used to organize yet another series of great events called “Earfull” where writers would read and musicians would play. “Earfull” events were held in this really small crowded bar in Somerville and going there to read used to make Laura feel really old and pathetically suburban because she always got hot and sweaty and claustrophic and uncomfortable and she’d get really tense beforehand about where she would park. Parking has always been kind of a “thing” with Laura and going to Somerville on a weeknight knowing she would have to find a place to park would sort of throw her into a tizzy.

Anyway, on September 27, Laura did her reading at the store and a lot of her friends came. A lot of people she didn’t know also came, and perhaps it was the combination of all the people Laura knew and all the people she didn’t know that made her have an attack of stage-fright-sweating on the level of Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News.” Laura was caught completely off guard since she’s never ever ever had such a thing happen to her while she was meeting her public, but it happened, and now she’s hoping she won’t get panicky about getting panicky again at another reading.

Borders, Downtown Crossing, Boston
Well, Laura’s friend and neighbor John saved the day. If Laura thought driving to Somerville and finding a parking place was terrifying and overwhelming, then trying to figure out where Downtown Crossing was in downtown Boston and then finding a place to park completely immobilized her. Luckily John, who can get anywhere in Boston like a cab driver, offered to take Laura to the lunchtime signing. Laura couldn’t believe her good fortune: not only was she being spared the torment of the transportation, but she was also finally being escorted to an event by a person who had the means (a car) and the ability (he’s older than six) to perform the duties required and in the manner she required! In other words, Laura was getting escorted — chauffeured, if you will — to and from her signing!

Transportation and the much-needed management of her fragile ego aside, Laura was surprised that there were actually people there — some of whom were friends and some of whom were friends of friends. Laura was thrilled to see Monika and Gail and (a different) Jon there (each with a friend or two to fill up the chairs) and she was especially thrilled to see an old high school friend, Frank Morrissey. Frank is one of the smartest and funniest and most well-read people Laura has ever known and she had lost track of him since the last time he showed up at one of her readings — at Waterstones in Boston in 1998 for Animal Husbandry. So aside from the fact that after the reading Laura had to go with John into the garage to get the car instead of John just going to get the car and picking her up outside the store the way an actual media escort would have done, she had a good time.

“Book Swap Cafe,” NH Community Cable TV, Concord, NH
Laura already branted briefly about this — with a picture! — so she won’t go into too much more detail except to say that after doing two cable television shows in one week, Laura loves doing cable television shows and would be happy to do more. So if you have a public access or community cable show that features authors — or that simply features people –live people! — please contact Laura via her website’s “Contact” page!