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Real-Life Parenting Stories

  • I'm putting together real-life stories about the first year of mothering. Click on the blue link above to read the whole archive.
    If you'd like to send me a story yourself, I'd love to read it: either add your story as a comment or write to me directly at Sarah DOT Bilston AT Yahoo DOT com. Don't worry about grammar, this doesn't have to be a work of art! I'm just interested in hearing other people's experiences of, for example, - Colic - Sleep Deprivation - Mother's (or father's, or sister's) interference - Managing a marriage and a new baby - Mixed feelings about going back to work - The best thing about having a brand new baby.

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  • ABOUT THE NOVEL:Juggling a new baby, a husband, and a troubled younger sister, Quinn "Q" Boothroyd reassesses her life, her home, and her career in this funny and poignant tale of modern life.

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Sleepless Nights - The Story Behind

  • The story behind the story:
    Sleepless Nights is partly about my own experience adapting to being a mother. I have three children now, so I like to think I know what I'm doing... But when my first child came along I was completely, utterly clueless. I already had a job, I had a house, I was turned thirty; I was supposed to be a proper grown-up. But when my daughter came along I was thrown. I remember in the hospital praying that the nurse would keep on changing my daughter because I couldn't figure out which way round the diapers went. And it went on from there... So the novel is partly about the millions of small surprises, and partly about the 'bigger' issues most of us face - like, how on earth can I still have a life of my own and be a good mommy?

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Biography

Sarah Bilston was born in England and now lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children. She received her undergraduate and Master's degrees from University College, London, and her doctorate from the University of Oxford. She is now an Assistant Professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Hartford. Her first book, on Victorian representations of girlhood, was published by Oxford University Press in 2004, and her first book of fiction, Bed Rest, was published by HarperCollins in May 2006. Sleepless Nights, her second novel, was published in the UK in 2008 and the US in August 2009. You can reach her by Email at Sarah DOT Bilston AT Yahoo DOT com.