Nicola Kraus shares the love...plus a book giveaway

L to R: Nicola and Emma

Today we are celebrating the publication of Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus' ninth novel, How to Be a Grown-up, about a forty-something wife and mother thrust back into the workforce, where she finds herself at the mercy of a boss half her age. Fans of the TV show (and book) Younger might appreciate this premise, even though the main character in this story isn't disguising her age.

In honor of this special day, Nicola is here to share a heartwarming story with us. 
She also has THREE copies of How to Be a Grown-up for some lucky US readers!

Visit Emma and Nicola at their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

A Hug in the Mail

My mother died recently and it gave me time to spend with her girlfriends. It’s always interesting when you get to see your parent in another context, as a person who moved through the world long before you were ever in it. My sister and I got to hear wonderful stories, some of which we’d heard before, like the time my mom and her college buddies borrowed a hearse and drove from Buffalo to Florida. That made the papers.

But at her service a friend of hers I had never met in person came up to me, wanting to be sure we spoke before she left. Her name was Maria and she wanted to tell me that twenty years ago she had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. It was severe and she was very ill and living alone at the time. Apparently my mother had stepped beside her at an art opening and softly said, “I’m worried about your head. I think your head is cold.” Maria said a few days later a hat arrived for her in the mail. It was a lilac wool hat, lined with velvet. She wore it through her whole treatment and then for years afterward whenever she needed comfort. She said, “That was so like your mother. To see that I was in need in a way I hadn’t even been able to articulate for myself. But more than that, to make me feel loved.”

It was hard to say good bye to my mother, but to be in a room with hundreds of people whose lives had been similarly touched made me feel like a pebble surrounded by ripples of love in an invisible ocean that my mother is now a part of. And I will think of that story every time I see someone who could use a hug in the mail.

Thanks to Nicola for sharing her mother with us in this way and for sharing her book with our readers.



How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

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US only. Giveaway ends August 3rd at midnight EST.