Smarties, we are super excited to announce our friend Molly Grantham, just dropped her second book, The Juggle Is Real – The Off Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom! We are beaming with pride over her next read, and you can pre-order your copy of her book just in time for Mother’s Day gifting. Read on!
For those of you who don’t know, Molly Grantham is an Emmy award winning anchor and investigative reporter who has been named TV News Reporter of the Year for both Carolinas, one of Charlotte’s top “40 under 40” and one of Mecklenburg County’s “50 Most Influential Women.” If all that isn’t enough, she has now written two books: Small Victories: The Off-Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom, in which she chronicles the first few years of her children’s lives and The Juggle Is Real – The Off-Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom (just dropped!), which picks up where she left off, but tackles a very difficult stage in life, losing her mom.
When you lose your mom, you pledge the sorority you never wanted to join. Initiation is the most brutal of all – you lost your parent. Each and every one of us will lose our parents ~ it’s just such a bummer when it’s your turn. Molly chronicles her struggles with raw emotion in this new book, all the while she’s juggling parenthood and a successful career.
Here is a Smarty sneak preview:
My first book, Small Victories, was an unexpected project. As a journalist, I storytell about other people as a fly on their walls, so writing closely about my own reality was an uncomfortable, peculiar feeling. The book originally started as Facebook posts during maternity leave when I was trapped inside my house with small children and missed working . . . missed adult interaction and the moving world outside. I was—and am—beyond lucky to have a daughter, a son, and a career, and though one of those things remains not like the other two, I knew all were pieces of me. I just couldn’t find anyone else saying it was okay to love your job AND your kids. Confessing those feelings in a sometimes-funny, sometimes-raw way helped me in those critical first weeks and months.
Small Victories started on Day Six of my second child’s life and went up through Month Thirty. When I go back to read whatever page haphazardly opens, I smile at the various memories that unspool. But after a few paragraphs of reading, I think of better words I could’ve used, and put the book down out of selfimposed humiliation.
You know, being a writer.
As a glass-half-full woman, however, there is a hands-down best part about both Small Victories and this new book The Juggle is Real: the stories are real. Someday, Parker and Hutch will hold their childhoods in their own hands. I also love that the visceral portrait of their lives ends up reminding many of you about your own children, your own grandchildren, your own desires, your own life as CEO of your household with no paycheck, or your own life as a working parent. Through your Facebook comments, your lives have ended up in front of my face, and I included some of your thoughts in both books because of the beautiful insights many of you have passed on. We all live different situations, but we find similarities. I thank you deeply for sharing.
Small Victories ended with three words: To be continued . . . Turns out they were the three most personally challenging words in the entire 323 pages. I wrote them before having a way of knowing how the book would be received, and by publishing them, I subconsciously built in a guarantee to myself that I wouldn’t cop out on writing a second.
This second book starts much differently than the first. The Juggle is Real picks up where Small Victories left off in its
afterword . . . inside a hospice house with my mom. In that sterile room, I was editing a memoir about how I became a mother while watching mine die. It felt very full circle. You’re about to read Month Thirty-One. It begins right there.
Right after her death, seen through my eyes, observing my children. A writer is a writer. Always. Someday, maybe, I’ll write a gorgeous novel with characters created from my never-sleeps mind, but right now I’ve got stories happening to me, around me, inside me, and in front of my face. Not an afternoon or night goes by when I don’t see or experience something I could write about. Sometimes laughable. Sometimes upsetting. Sometimes joyful. Often magically ludicrous.
I once again hope you enjoy the journey . . .
. . . I still enjoy living it.
I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book, it really hits home for me. I lost my mom five years ago, her final days spent in hospice surrounded by my family. It was a beautiful and horrific experience all at the same time. Molly and I are now in the same pledge class – the one where you lose your mom. But you still have to be a mom/wife/business woman, every single day. The juggle is real.
Click here to pre-order your copy of the book, it’s perfect for Mother’s Day gifting. Keep in mind, more than likely the book won’t arrive in time for actual Mother’s Day with our “new normal” right now, but it will arrive as soon as Molly can get it to you, pinkie swear.
Also, tune back in on CSP on Mother’s Day because Molly’s book and a Zoom book club reading just may be in our amazing Mother’s Day Giveaway – I promise, our Smarty Mother’s Day Giveaway is going to be the best thing to ever hit the QC quarantine scene!
You can always follow Molly’s journey here:
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