THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE BOOK Some
stories simmer
in bits and pieces before they come together and make any sense at all.
I started writing about Oliver (who had a different name back then) as
a request from an editor for a Mother's Day book. I spent some time
thinking about about what it was like when my kids were little and the
things we used to do together. One of their favorite things was to ride
down the stairs using their pillows like a sled. And peanut
butter and sweet pickle sandwiches, well that's still one of my
favorite foods. Back then the book
was called Michael Martin Murphy's Marvelous Mother. I had fun with the
alliteration but the editor didn't like it. We went back and forth for
a while before she finally decided it wasn't going to work for her. I
stuffed Michael Martin Murphy in a drawer and went to work on other
projects. A year or so later, I brought it out again, gave him a new
name (dropped the alliteration) and out it went. This time it sold,
though we did have one more name change before it made it into print.
My kids took one look at the pictures and said, "Hey, we used to do
that!"
