Goldin’s First Release Tackles Motherhood

Author Jenifer Goldin’s debut novel, “Anonymous Mom Posts,” just released this April, is a compilation of relevant tales about complicated friendships, the pressures of motherhood, challenging marriages, and the path to self-acceptance.

In touch with today’s swirl of balancing balls and angst, Goldin uses the term, “momming,” as we intuitively know what all that involves. Goldin, a Miami native, graduated from the University of Florida and Gallaudet University. An audiologist by profession, Goldin specialized in pediatric cochlear implants.

As related to the AJT, Goldin stated, “I’ve written a few books, but yes, this is my first release. This book will not be a series, but it will be one of several books I plan to release about mom culture. ‘Have fun momming out there’ is my tagline.”

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Momming is the crazy whirl of thoughts, emotions, and tasks that encompass motherhood. Things like eating Goldfish [crackers] and wine for dinner, crying out in pain after stepping on Lego’s, getting soaked with rain while loading your stroller back into the car, running a taxi service for your kids, managing the logistics of getting your children to and from all their activities.”

“Anonymous Mom Posts” covers a bounty of topics and emotions that affect young families.

Her penning method, while actively drafting, involves spending about three hours writing while the kids are at school. She aims for 2,000 words per writing session. The first draft of “Anonymous Mom Posts” took six months. In the first draft, each character’s story was presented one at a time.

After getting feedback from a top literary agent, she revised the book to intertwine the characters and have the chapters alternate between characters. This presented a challenge and took two additional years to revise and edit. She revealed, “Writing has always been my passion. Sometimes, the stories I write reveal my truest emotions, and sometimes, my emotions are just the jumping-off point for a fictional tale. There are elements of my own life in this book, but overall, it is fiction.”

Delving into the book’s characters, Laura Perry is fed up with the snarky attitudes of the moms who post on the Hamilton Beach Moms’ social media page. She hopes the new anonymous posting feature will remind this community they are here to support each other. She enlists her friend, Gabriella, to be a co-moderator.

While Gabriella is intrigued by the page, she wonders if the virtual interactions are doing more harm than good. She and Laura hatch a plan to organize an in-person fundraising event, hoping to help the moms connect in real life.

As the moms start to reveal their secrets anonymously, irreverent comments pour in, and the page ignites with controversy. With the in-person event approaching, will one mom’s plan for revenge bring the entire community to the brink? And so, it goes.

There is indeed a thread storyline about a Jewish woman who grew up in a small town in Georgia in the 1980s. She was the only Jewish person at her high school. Her story plot includes her feelings about being different from her peers and her desire to fit in. In terms of navigating the ups and downs of the topic of marriage, Goldin said, “In past generations, the roles in marriage were rigid and clearly defined. Most moms stayed home, focusing on their children and the household, while most dads worked. In today’s world, moms are completely overloaded as they try to balance the pressures of a career and momming.”

Then, there’s the elephant in the attic: social media’s influence as a societal factor. She said, “I write a lot about the pros and cons of social media in ‘Anonymous Mom Posts.’ It is a double-sided coin. It can be positive and useful in some cases, and negative and harmful in others. But the thing about a coin is that you can easily flip it over, if you just remember you’re the one holding it.”

Goldin belongs to Congregation B’nai Torah, with her husband and two children.

Goldin’s author event will be held at Bookmiser East Cobb on Saturday, May 13 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. For more information, visit www.bookmiser.net/book-events.html.