Oprah Winfrey and Roger Ebert: Dreaming About Depression Cookies

Thanks to the Author Blog Challenge, today's a day to dream. And dream big.

In the world of Depression Cookies as a New York Times bestseller, a world I quite like, I get a book signing and movie deal.

DAY 22 Describe your first book signing – real or imagined.

Real

My mom and I signed books at a lovely bookstore in Washington, NC (one that has now sadly gone out of business). The local media showed up, and we had both fans of the book and newcomers stop by to talk to us. Such a proud moment, a special kind of blessing because I was with Mom (we co-authored Depression Cookies).

Imagined

Oprah Winfrey still has her talk show and has us on as guests. We talk about our novel and mother-daughter relationships. From there, we head to three or four of the best bookstores in Chicago, focusing on independent bookstores. Women are lined up with their daughters to talk to us and buy our book. We make sure to conserve our voices since the next day we are flying to New York City to tape some morning talk shows and hit more bookstores. (Dream big, I say.)

DAY 23 If a Hollywood agent were to come knocking on your door with an offer to turn your book into a movie and told you that you could call all the shots, who would you have direct and star in it? Write the first paragraph of Roger Ebert’s review of your film.

Director

Nora Ephron. The director of Sleepless in Seattle, Julie & Julia, and When Harry Met Sally knows women and what they love. She could handle the nuisances of the mother-daughter relationship in our book.

Stars 

Diane Lane

Elizabeth Olsen

Lily Collins

Topping my list, Diane Lane would play Abby, the mother and heart of the story. Diane Lane has grace, beauty, and an amazing emotional range.  

I would want Elizabeth Olsen (after she dyed her hair darker) or Lily Collins (from Mirror Mirror) to play the part of Krista, the teenager. I would have loved Jennifer Lawrence of Hunger Games fame, but I bet she’s a bit too busy. The part requires spunk and vulnerability.

The “mean girls” in the book could be played by Ali Lohan, Lindsay Lohan’s sister (since Lindsay is a bit too aged, not by years but by lifestyle), and Anna Kendrick (Bella’s friend, Jessica, in Twilight). Both could embody the “pretty on the outside” teenagers who make Krista’s life so miserable.

Roger Ebert’s Review

Not since Steel Magnolias has a movie so honestly captured female relationships. In Depression Cookies, Abby is a mom buckling under the weight of her husband’s corporate relocations, three daughters’ needs, her own mother’s transformation, and health crises. Krista, her thirteen-year-old daughter, is struggling to define herself in the midst of insecurity and teenage cruelty. What neither expects to find is the true essence of magic in the strength, friendship, power and energy of the female spirit. Entertaining and poignant, it’ll inspire you to pick up the phone and call your mom, best friend, sister… any female who has touched your life. You’ll find yourself laughing one moment and reaching for your Kleenex the next.

*****

Wow, that was hard. I write reviews all the time (on Mom in Love with Fiction), but it's so hard to write a review of your own material. How did I do?

I loved Steel Magnolias, but I guess I (or should I say Roger?) set myself up to turn away people who did not like it. There's so much to consider.

If you could make a movie of your own life, who would play you?