Category: Publishing

author erin somers, ‘we all know a louie …’

Thank you Erin Somers — author of the darkly humorous Stay Up with Hugo Best (pick it up, you’ll thank me) — for your gracious words about Louie on the Rocks:

“Louie on the Rocks perfectly captures our divisive era. We all know a Louie–someone who has been changed indelibly by the last several years of politics. O’Brien writes him, and his devastated family, with precision, humor, and grace.”

ms. career girl recommends ‘louie’ for liberal adult children with conservative parents

The web site Ms. Career Girl has pulled together a list of recommended reads for 2025 — “a book for every type of reader” — and Louie on the Rocks made their list.

Ms. Career Girl recommended the novel — out Feb. 4 from SparkPress — for liberal adult children “living in their parents’ conservative world.”

two new books in 2025

While I’ve already announced the upcoming February release of my second novel — Louie on the Rocks, a dark comedy set in central Massachusetts about a dysfunctional family influenced by Trump era politics, circa 2019 — I can now proudly announce my second 2025 book.

Uncomfortably Numb 2: An Anthology for Newly-Diagnosed MS Patients is slated for publication in May 2025 by Wyatt-MacKenzie, which published my 2020 medical memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, about the life-altering impact of my MS diagnosis.

This nonfiction book will feature the stories of MS patients at varying stages of the incurable autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord, and of MS advocates who work to better the world for multiple sclerosis patients. Additionally, I share new stories about how I have morphed from being a stunned, newly-diagnosed patient to an MS Activist who lobbies state and federal lawmakers on behalf of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

It’ll be quite the tonal shift to move from promoting a dark comedy about an alcoholic MAGA dad squaring off against his progressive, bookseller daughter just weeks after the presidential inauguration, to discussing the experiences of MS patients. I hope you’ll join me on what promises to be one bizarre ride.

worried about the presidential election? here’s an excerpt of my forthcoming darkly humorous novel about a father-daughter political rift.

Feeling stressed out about the US presidential election? Experiencing tension with friends or family members? You’re not alone.

@girltalkhq has published a sneak peek preview of my Feb. 2025 darkly comedic novel, Louie on the Rocks, about how Trump era politics exacerbated the estrangement between a retired MAGA dad and his progressive Millennial daughter.

Set in central Massachusetts, readers hear directly from a trio of narrators: Father Louie, daughter Lulu, and recently-deceased wife/mother Helen. Things get, shall we say, profane and heated.

Link here: https://www.girltalkhq.com/an-election-season-novel-for-those-trying-to-navigate-polarizing-times/

audiobook for ms memoir on sale through may 31

Audiobooks.com is putting my MS memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, on sale for the month of May.

Narrated by Erin deWard, the audiobook traces the two years it took me to finally get diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (after being told my symptoms were psychosomatic), and then the three years it took me to reach an uneasy peace with the ways in which the incurable, neurological disease changed my life.

If you click on this link, you can listen to a sample of deWard reading my words aloud (something that still feels surreal, someone else giving voice to my experiences).

Image credit: Audiobook.com.

uncomfortably numb’s now an audiobook: get 50% off!

Uncomfortably Numb — my medical memoir about the life-altering impact of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis — has been transformed into an audiobook.

I can’t tell you how odd it is to have this intensely personal story about my health and ultimate MS diagnosis, which occurred months after my 65-year-old mother died from a fast-moving cancer, read aloud by somebody else.

When I was first approached about having the memoir professionally narrated, I was excited but also concerned. How could anyone possibly use the emphasis I intended, the specific tone of voice that was in my head when I wrote those words, I wondered.

Well, in the trusted hands of narrator Erin deWard, I fret no longer.

While the audiobook is available on Amazon, it is also on sale for half price at Audiobooks.com until the end of January.

I’m thrilled to have Uncomfortably Numb now available to those who prefer audible formats. Let me know what you think!

Image credit: Audiobooks.com.

lockdown lit takes on the bay state

I have been remiss in posting about the wonderful literary event which took place at one of my favorite indie bookshops — Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass. — featuring members of the Lockdown Literature writers’ group.

You may recall that during the shutdowns of 2020, I banded together with a group of 70+ authors whose books, like my medical memoir, were being released in the midst of an historic pandemic. Our group included writers of memoirs and nonfiction, of dark novels and wry works of contemporary fiction. We hailed from the east coast and the west, from overseas, and even included a superstar author who won all the big 2020 literary prizes (I’m talking about Douglas Stuart of Shuggie Bain fame).

I was incredibly honored to arrange to have some Lockdown Lit folks gather — just prior to the omicron COVID-19 surge — gather and read aloud from their work at Tatnuck Bookseller. Those talented writers included:

Christina Chiu, author of Beauty

Alice C. Early, author of The Moon Always Rising

Leslie Gray Streeter, author of Black Widow

Brad Fox, author of To Remain Nameless

David Daley, author of Unrigged.

You can watch the delightful beauty of the awkwardness of live events on my Instagram page as well as on YouTube.

what did YOU read in 2021?

I consume news in the form of two daily, hard copy newspapers (I know, I’m ancient), the Boston Globe and the New York Times. I also read online subscriptions of the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, as well as devour magazines, the New Yorker and New York Magazine (yes, in hard copy), and the online version of The Atlantic.

When I’m not busy reading all of that journalistic and literary goodness (I just added the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction to my subscription list), I’m reading books. Funny books. Serious books. Fiction. Nonfiction. New England-centric. Politically-oriented. My tastes run wide.

Halfway through the year I published a list on Instagram of the books I’d read starting in January 2021 through early June 2021:

Then, as 2021 drew to an ignominious close with lines for COVID-19 tests wrapping city blocks, I shared the second half of my 2021 reading list:

What did YOU read in 2021? Give the authors a shout-out. They’d appreciate some social media love.

washington post review of books about hunt for covid-19 vaccines

Washington Post image

I was thrilled to have my first book review published in the Washington Post this month. I was asked to read two nonfiction books about the development of the COVID-19 vaccines: Brendan Borrell’s The First Shots and Gregory Zuckerman’s A Shot to Save the World.

The review began this way:

The rapid development and rollout of coronavirus vaccines is one of the biggest news stories in recent memory. As the novel and highly communicable virus began spreading at the end of 2019, the hunt for a vaccine began in early 2020, relying heavily upon a foundation of knowledge created by little-known scientists and researchers. By the time vaccines were being injected into arms at the end of 2020, the United States had lost hundreds of thousands of people to covid-19.

A story this expansive and consequential could surely fill many books. (Think of how many have been written about the 1918 influenza pandemic.) So it really isn’t surprising that two journalists have tackled the same big story in separate new books — with similar titles and stark covers featuring syringes. The books offer dueling tales of how coronavirus vaccines were developed in what seemed like record time. While they cover some of the same territory and quote some of the same people, the books largely shine their respective lights on different narrative slices of the story.

Read the rest of the review here.

Image credit: Washington Post