Lucy Adams: If Mama Don't Laugh, It Ain't Funny
Reading Group Guides

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Your introduction, discussing all the Lucy Adams out there, was clever, funny, and original. Where did you get the idea?

I have three younger siblings (one older), all 7 - 13 years younger than me, who are hip and in the know. Several years back, I was complaining that I couldn't find someone's contact information. That's when I found out about googling people(Yes, I just used Google as a verb). Then I discovered that it was incredibly fun to google myself. And there are a lot of Me out there doing amazing things! There's also a lot of Me out there doing the same old thing, and even some embarrassingly strange things.

I realized that discovering myself on Google was a way, albeit weird, to live a kind of fantasy life. I can be googled therefore I am, if you will.

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Where did the idea for turning your daily life as a mother of four into a humorous book come from? How did you get started writing?

Even as a child I was a "writer." I wrote poetry - most of it very, very bad, particularly in my teen years - and I kept journals off and on. In high school I contributed to and edited the school's literary magazine, Prepwork Papers. After that, I didn't do much of anything with my aspirations. I went to college and got a bachelor degree in education and a master degree in psychology, and even worked on my doctorate for several years.

It wasn't until after my fourth child was a year old that I decided to pick up writing again. A newspaper opened its doors in our town and I suddenly became inspired to write a column. So I typed a couple on my computer, and there they stayed for two months. I wrestled and wrestled with the idea of writing for the newspaper, until my husband said, "Just go do it. Take them over to the newspaper office and ask if you can write a column. What's the worst that can happen?"

Well, I knew the worst would be that the editor would reject my work. But I went anyway. Then I made phone call after phone call back to the editor trying to get an answer. At last, he said yes, and I agreed to write a Slice of Life column every other week. About three months into it, he wanted me to write a column every week, and again I was terrified. How would I ever come up with enough ideas?

My husband, the voice of wisdom, said, "If you don't do it, he's likely to find someone who will." Thus, I agreed to make weekly submission, and to my amazement, ideas started flowing from all directions. I started filling notebook after notebook with stories and pieces of stories. Eventually, the column evolved into mostly humorous compilations with a few inspirational essays thrown in to add variety.

The idea for the book came when a publisher familiar with my work contacted me to ask if I would write an advice book on parenting. You know, a manuscript telling other parents how to parent correctly and achieve success. Flattery of course makes me lose my head, but when I came to my senses, I realized, having not completed the job myself and therefore not knowing how my own children will turn out, I am ill-equipped to write down the rules of parenting.

Again, my husband butted in and said, "So pitch something else, like a book of your columns." Thanks to him, the rest is history.

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Many of my friends can relate to the chapter titled "There's no way to look cool in a minivan." I think one of the hardest things about motherhood is that you have to eventually come to the realization that you are no longer as "cool" as you used to be. Inevitably your kids will think you are dorky. When did you first experience this?

I don't think there was any one defining moment, except maybe when my 4th child was born and I had to give in a buy a minivan. Ugh. But mostly, I lost my cool over time, more on some days than others. My oldest son turned 13 in August. I lost whatever remaining cool I had left on his birthday. I am now the biggest geek to grace the doors of the middle school. What he doesn't know is that his friends don't notice me at all. Every other kid is too busy looking at his own mother to see what dorky outfit she wore and to hear what dorky words are spilling from her mouth.

Of course, when I'm feeling really low about how un-cool I am, I google myself and find out what cutting edge things I'm doing all around the world.

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

No matter how crazy your life gets (picture day with four kids- yikes!) you absolutely appreciate the family you have been blessed with. How do you stay so positive?

I am blessed to have a husband who supports me and believes in me. And I am more than fortunate to have been given stewardship over four healthy children. I know that I have a divine purpose and that my days are meant to add up to more than X number of loads of laundry and thousands of miles on my minivan.

Just like everyone, I often get frustrated by the chaos and the seemingly endless monotony of getting up every morning knowing that I'm going to do the same thing today that I did yesterday and the yesterday before that. Yet, while God gives us big milestone moments in life, most of his interaction with us is in the mundane activities of life. All those snippets of time are treasure troves of humor and love and inspiration. Recognizing those moments is my biggest success.

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Your title line, "If Mama Don't Laugh, It Ain't Funny," seems to have come from your husband. Is he as comedic and fun as you are?

Oh yes! The man is brimming over with snappy one liners and he's excellent at pointing out absurdities. We play off of each other incredibly well. When we get going at dinner, the kids' eyes start rolling back in their heads.

The dangerous part of it all is when the kids try to repeat at school what they think they heard at dinner. We're slowly learning to be careful.

Truly, my husband is the source of inspiration for many of my stories. And he is quite a good sport about it, even though he sometimes bans me for a few weeks from writing about him in the newspaper. But then he starts to miss people asking him, "Did you really say that?"

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams

Do you have plans to write any more books? Perhaps a "kids say the darnedest things" theme?

I do have plans to write more books. I have a completed manuscript on my desk right now that needs cleaning up (and a publisher), and I have characters from an unfinished novel rambling around in my head. So, along with a very long list of 2009 un-resolutions (things I will not do, such as swim with sharks), I also penned a couple of real resolutions, one of which is to write at least 250 words every day for either of those book projects, my blog, my newspaper article, or freelance assignments.

The other is to do at least one thing a day with my kids that has no purpose other than fun and being together. Therefore, it is very likely that I will also come up with a lot of material for another book about them.

Reading Group Guides: Interview with Lucy Adams