Answers **If you haven’t read the book, please see the brief blurb here: http://www.patriciamann.me for the context for this blog post. No, I did not have an affair with a former student fourteen years younger than me.  Yes, I am a professor.  No, all the things that happened in Beth’s life did not exactly happen in my life.  Yes, many of the feelings Beth felt are feelings I have had.  To those who say it’s appalling that Beth would do what she did with a twenty one year old kid ...Read More

Showing Your Privates I don’t regularly seek the counsel of psychics, but I’ve been known to dabble, just like Beth. I smiled as I sat cross-legged on a dusty wood floor facing the adorable, sweet little dark haired, pale faced youngster.  She was telling me all about how I needed to make life more fun, simple, and easy.  It was true, but isn’t that true for all of us? I wondered what she would think of the book that had been abandoned in a file on my computer for years.  I told ...Read More

To Be Or Not To Be... A Parent *Note: This blog post is not as long as it appears!  There is an optional piece at the end! Got kids?  Not yet?  Not ever?  I think that includes all of us.  If I’m wrong, let me know.  Let’s tell the truth about our mixed up, messy feelings about parenting, whether we have kids or not.  One thing I know for sure is that you have or had parents or caretakers of some kind and that makes you an expert on the subject. I’m a mom.  Yes, my world rev...Read More

Thank You So, you write a novel over a period of about ten years.  No, you’re not an author with a big advance from a well-known publishing house.  In fact, you’re a pretty regular person - a busy working mom - and you have no business writing a novel.  But for some inexplicable reason, it's a calling you’ve felt in your bones forever and you’re unable to ignore it for one more minute. After trying to write on your own for a while, you do a crazy thing and join a writing group.  ...Read More

For You My book is for you.  It doesn’t matter whether you read it or not, it’s still for you.  Don’t look over your shoulder to see who I’m talking to.  It’s you.  Especially you.  Only you.  My book is for the part of you that you hide from most of the world.  Like Beth, and like me, there is so much inside you that you work hard to contain.  Deep in your soul there is fear and longing, compassion and brilliance.  In your battered psyche there are painful open wounds and al...Read More