Adult Conversation

A Novel

Brandy Ferner

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781631528439
• Subtopic: Women in Fiction

April is a thoughtful yet sarcastic mother of two who tries her best to be a caring, connected mom in a middle-class culture where motherhood has become relentless. April rages at modern motherhood’s impossible pressures, her husband’s “Dad privilege,” and her kids’ incessant snack requests. She wants to enjoy motherhood, but her idealist vision and lived experience are in constant conflict with one another. Is she broken—or is motherhood?

Desperate for an answer, she seeks out a therapist, and lands with an unexpected woman whose validation and wisdom gives April the clarity to reclaim herself and even start designing clothes—her pre-motherhood passion. But when the ever-elusive babysitter cancels last-minute, April finds herself back at square one. She seeks guidance, but her therapist is now dealing with her own crumbling marriage—and instead of counseling April, she convinces her to speed off to Las Vegas with her to help catch her husband cheating. With a little weed, alcohol, and topless pool hopping, plus a male stripper and some much-needed autonomy, the two find lost pieces of themselves that motherhood swallowed up. But neither one is prepared for how tested—and tempted—they will be, or for the life-altering choices their journey will force them to make. Who is guiding whom anymore?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Chapter One: It Was Small, But It Was Something
• Chapter Two: Royalty
• Chapter Three: All Roads Suck Balls
• Chapter Four: Parenting for Fifteen Hours Isn’t an Aphrodisiac
• Chapter Five: Swallowed Up
• Chapter Six: Mother Mary
• Chapter Seven: Reclaiming My Time
• Chapter Eight: Mom Vomit
• Chapter Nine: As in Birth, in Life
• Chapter Ten: The Life-Changing Magic of Alone Time
• Chapter Eleven: Seeds
• Chapter Twelve: Love and Light (and Lips)
• Chapter Thirteen: Human Time Bombs
• Chapter Fourteen: Asking for a Unicorn
• Chapter Fifteen: Superheroes
• Chapter Sixteen: The Revolving Door
• Chapter Seventeen: Mr. Calvin
• Chapter Eighteen: Choose Your Own Adventure
• Chapter Nineteen: Junebug
• Chapter Twenty: Dorothy and the Scarecrow
• Chapter Twenty-One: The Blue-Eyed Man
• Chapter Twenty-Two: The Green-Eyed Man
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author