As an author, blogger, comedian, producer, and mother of three, one could get a little frazzled. But if Stefanie Wilder-Taylor ever does, she keeps her sense of humor about it. On July 7, she comes out with her latest collection of personal essays, cumbersomely and hilariously entitled It's Not Me, It's You: Subjective Recollections from a Terminally Optimistic, Chronically Sarcastic and Occasionally Inebriated Woman, which recounts the stranger episodes of her life with wit and winning candor. Below is an interview by Mommybloggers with Stefanie, after the publication of another excellently titled book of hers, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay.***
Mommybloggers: Welcome, Stefanie! Let's jump right in and get to know you better. You have said you don't like people who say "one thing to know about me." So, tell us 5 things we should know about you.
Stefanie: Well, since you asked… you probably should know that I’m addicted to carbs. I couldn’t last twenty minutes on the Atkins diet because my body craves hash browns like a heroin addict craves smack. Mmm… hot crispy hash browned potatoes… what else? I was the least popular person in my junior high school. It was just like Welcome to the Dollhouse and I was Weiner Dog. All right, stop crying! I’m over it. Pretty much. Let’s see, I’m a really big tipper, my breasts are real, and I own a Celine Dion CD. There you go.
Mommybloggers How did you get into blogging and does it ever interfere with your book writing? Which is harder, in your opinion?
Stefanie: I got into blogging because I needed an outlet in the first few months after giving birth. I was so damned anxious and felt I was going crazy from my new schedule of feed, cuddle, feed, sing, feed, check my email, feed, watch baby sleep, repeat. Once I got the book deal I stopped blogging until the first draft was done and then I went back to it. Writing a book is definitely a lot tougher than blogging. The trouble with blogging when I’m writing about parenting for a book is trying to save the material for the book instead of purging it right then and there. Sometimes I can look at a post and see the nugget for a chapter and that helps, but then I have to take it down from the blog.
Mommybloggers: Your book Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom is a fantastically humorous read and one of the most honest looks at motherhood out there. What was the catalyst that caused you to take these thoughts and make a book out of them?
Stefanie: I have to say that I read a lot of books on pregnancy in the first year of motherhood and found most of them mind-numbingly boring or terribly alarmist (mostly the preggo ones). I felt that despite the huge number of books offered on the market, I had yet to find one that captured my experience. I realize that not everyone has the same experience I do but walking through Target and seeing all the tired, expressionless moms, I knew I had to write something different. Something funny but not in an FM DJ way.
Mommybloggers: You received a lot of flak for the section of your book on breastfeeding. How did that affect you? Or did it?
Stefanie: It did affect me. I wanted to shake people when I read some of the harsh reviews and say, “You didn’t even read the book, you moron.” A lot of people who came down hard on my book based it on that one chapter. If they’d actually taken the time to read it, it would’ve saved them the time it took to wrongly tear it and me apart. I never say that anyone shouldn’t breast-feed. My point is that for the people who are having a tough time of it and want to stop, they shouldn’t let people make them feel guilty. I wasted too much time on guilt when I could have been enjoying my baby. Now, I just don’t care anymore. Breast-feeding is just one of those politically charged topics (although I don’t know why) that get the crazies out writing letters. Hey, why not protest the war and forget about my boobs for awhile?
Mommybloggers: Since then, have you ever felt the need to censor your words either on your blog or in your books?
Stefanie: I don’t feel the need to censor. Obviously I struck a chord, and in doing so, must’ve helped some people. If people don’t have a strong response to your writing (good or bad), you aren’t writing anything interesting.
***
The full interview is available here, and you can catch Stefanie at the following locations in the next couple of days:
Wednesday, July 8 at 6:00 p.m.
Tony Burch Boutique
40 Little West 12th St.
New York, N.Y. 10014
Monday, July 13 at 7:00 p.m.
Book Soup
8818 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90069
310.659.3110
--Emmaline Silverman
Photo by Jon Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment