Jane Porter - Odd Mom Out

Jane Porter has a book soon to be released this month (Odd Mom Out) and let me tell you every mom, daughter, niece, cousin, etc. should read it! It's about the "alpha mom", the single mom, the little girl trying to fit in with the popular crowd, it's simply wonderful women's fiction.

Here's an article which appeared in the Seattle Times I thought Porter fans would enjoy। By the way, if you live in Washington State, Oregon, California, Texas, New Jersey, Rhode Island or Hawaii, Jane will be signing and appearing with Odd Mom Out.

"Odd Mom" idea knows no boundaries

By Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times staff columnist

The women, all poised, beautiful and elegantly dressed, sipped cosmopolitans. The Mom's Night Out party in Medina on Sunday looked like a cross between "Sex and the City" and a sorority meeting. The guests' cars cost more than I earn in a year.

My first thought: "What the heck am I doing at this party?"

I felt like I had just stepped into the pages of "Odd Mom Out," a novel by Yarrow Point author Jane Porter. Like Porter, I was a celebrity guest at the literary event. Guests purchased party tickets at last spring's Medina PTA auction.

Although the book won't officially be released until Thursday, each guest received a pre-party copy as a gift. A party perk was after-dinner dishing with Porter about the book.

Marta, the heroine in "Odd Mom Out," wears combat boots and drives an old truck. She doesn't fit in with the blond, perfectly dressed mothers at her daughter's elementary school. Independent Marta wouldn't care except for the daughter who feels left out and friendless.

The frosting on this chick-lit story is the Eastside setting. I sometimes shop at the QFC mentioned. All 18 party guests recognized the stores, restaurants and icons such as Microsoft's Bill and Melinda Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Our big question was, who was the model for Taylor Young, the ringleader of the book's troupe of perfect wives and mothers? We all swore we knew someone just like her.

We were wrong. Porter, a former teacher, explained the nemesis was an exaggeration from her own imagination.

I was wrong about the crowd, too. As conversation swirled around Judy Sidell's living room, every woman identified with the odd-mom concept. We all had felt like an outsider at different times. Insecurities, it seems, know no economic bounds.

These women do good things, such as raising oodles of money for schools. One of the hostesses, Joan Lambert, moved to California between the auction and the party. She flew back for the weekend, just to help.

Even though I haven't been a PTA member since last century, these Medina moms were as lovely as the friends I still cherish from my children's school days. They schlep kids to soccer practice, to music lessons, to swimming. As I did, they agonize over children making friends and fitting in enough that they'll like school and get invited to sleepovers and play dates.

We had more in common than I thought.

("Odd Mom Out" is published by 5Spot Books. Porter will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble, 626 106th Ave. N.E., Bellevue.)

Pop over to Jane's website www.janeporter.com for her booksigning tour.