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Girlfriend Cyber Circuit Presents Melanie Lynne Hauser and  Confessions of Super Mom

I want to introduce you to Melanie Lynne, a super nice girlfriend, and the author of one of this year’s most entertaining books.   

Birdie Lee is an average hard-working single mother of two teenagers, PTA lackey, and mild-mannered grocery clerk at the local Marvel Fine Foods and Beverages.  One morning, while getting ready for work, Birdie is sidetracked by a stubborn Stain of Unusual Origin on her bathroom floor.  Unable to let the stain get the best of her, she tries to annihilate it with every household product she can find –to no avail.  Angry, hot, light-headed (and forgetting to turn on the exhaust fan), she makes one final desperate attempt to eradicate this vile, dastardly stain: she loads her Swiffer Wet Jet with every household cleanser she owns, aims, and fires….

And passes out, overcome by the fumes.  After regaining consciousness (and reminding herself to scrub the bottom of the toilet since from her perspective — flat on her back — it was looking a little dingy), Birdie realizes something’s amiss.  Her ears begin to buzz and her senses are aquiver.  Eventually, aided by Martin, her geeky thirteen-year-old son and trusty sidekick, Birdie understands that she now possesses extraordinary powers — superpowers, to be exact.  Birdie soon learns, however, that, to quote Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility and she finds herself struggling to balance a new onslaught of challenges, both at home and in her community.  While trying to keep her distant 15-year-old daughter’s heart from being broken (something not even a superhero can do), and dealing with her smug ex-husband and his over-achieving new wife, she must manage her job, PTA responsibilities and a budding romance– all the while trying to rescue her beloved town of Astro Park from an evil force that threatens its children.

What an original premise! This is Melanie’s first novel and I wanted to find out how she was enjoying the whole publication process.

1. Tell me how you came up with the idea for Confessions of Super Mom?

After having two previously-submitted, agented, novels not make it past the marketing committee level, I realized how important it was for a new novelist to bring something unique to the table.  One day I was talking with my agent and she said something along the lines of, "Maybe readers today expect their characters in fiction to be larger than life."  Because those two previous novels?  Beautiful, realistic, moving - and quiet.  Awfully quiet, according to all the rejections I collected!  So I was out in the backyard later that day, doing yard work, when I had a "Eureka!" moment.  The heavens parted, angels sang, and a ray of light beamed down upon my face as I said, "Aha!  You want larger than life?  OK, I'll write about a superhero!"

And so I did.  It was important to me to continue to write about the issues that were important to me as a woman, a mother; I just did it from a superhero's perspective.

2. This is your first novel. What has been the most exciting part of the publishing process? What's been the most unexpected thing?

Seeing the cover for the first time was overwhelming.  I believed I just sat at my desk and stared at it for an entire day.  Seeing the book in the store for the first time.  And now I'm privileged to hear from readers who have actually read it (and who aren't relatives who HAVE to read it!), and that's been so rewarding.

Unexpected?  I suppose that, despite the above, the realization that there really isn't just one big overpowering moment.  I didn't wake up one morning one person and go to bed another, because of anything to do with this book.  Everything was a series of steps that gradually led up to some accomplishment; I didn't just get a phone call with an offer, I got a phone call saying I was going to talk to an editor, then I had to revise for that editor, then I got the offer...so it wasn't just, "Wham!" out of the blue.  Same thing with almost everything else...you see the book in various stages - proofs, ARC's - so that when you do hold the actual book in your hands the first time, it's already familiar.  And of course, I never knew any of this before, so I imagined all these amazing first experiences, and it's just been a bit different than that. 

3. How much are you involved in promotion?

I'm so lucky with Dutton.  I have an amazing publicist who's very responsive to me, and who's doing a terrific job.  But I'm not the type of person who just sits idly by, either!  So I'm doing quite a bit, particularly on the Internet with a very targeted marketing campaign, blogging within the Mommy Blogging community (and being so grateful for their support for the book), doing drop-ins when possible, continually looking for opportunities to talk about the book, and now I'm putting together a special package just for book clubs.  I also believe in starting early, within your publishing house; every publisher puts out so many books so whatever you can do, in-house, to make you and your book stand out from the crowd is worth the time and effort.  Plus, it's just plain fun - I've gotten to meet so many wonderful people who all want the best for my book.

4. What's your children's reaction been to having a mom as an author?

Well, for starters, my youngest son now wants to be paid for any ideas he contributes!  Seriously, I know they're proud, but they'd never tell me.  They're teenaged boys.  But someone told me how proud they were at my first signing, as I was reading from the book.  Plus they do let it slip out, now and then, to their friends, that I'm a published author.  Whereas before, they never really talked about me at all to their friends.  Except, you know, to complain, or see if they could hit me up for money!

5. What advice would you offer debut novelists?

Keep writing.  Learn to let go of projects that don't go anywhere, and start the next one.  I don't know why, but it seems to me there's a strange alchemy that occurs between the moment you type "The End" for one book, and "Chapter One" for the next.  You've automatically moved up to a different level in your writing; you're automatically writing from a different, and better, place.