Author Advice: Save your Elle Magazines for 30 years for when you end up in Elle

Now that I’m almost an author, I have some pretty sage advice to pass along. All that nostalgia you’ve been hoarding in your brain and in boxes over the years? Time to drag it out and parade it across the internet!

Exhibit A: Save your 1980s-era Elle Magazines from when you were a PRETTY WITTY mustachioed Freshman in High School quietly terrorized by her OH BOY BEAUTY percentage of “male hormones,” and likely still reeling from THE SHOCK OF SHEER white swimming suit that allowed your camp friends to see your butt over the summer. That sweet girl couldn’t imagine the CHILLS AND THRILLS of seeing her tiny name in the April 2015 issue of Elle!!

Exhibit B: Wondering how much of your kids’ artwork to save? What you should really upset yourself about, Author, is how much of your own artwork did you save? Now LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now doesn’t have illustrations like “The Book of Love Part 2” (Ann Krinsky, Randall publishing Company, 1983) but hopefully the dedication means just as much to Nancey/Nancy/Mom.

Exhibit 3: Accompanied Major! As a child I made a few solo trips to Brooklyn to visit my grandparents. Back in the halcyon days when grown ups could receive children at the gate, they fed you full meals with silverware on airplanes, and “unaccompanied minor” meant your typical 9-year-old after school with TV and several hours to kill, I flew from Madison to Manhattan and tried not to cry when they announced our arrival in some land called “LaGuardia” instead of New York City.

My grandparents gave me New York City. They gave me Broadway shows, concerts at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Barge Concerts, South Street Seaport, 5th Avenue, Tavern On The Green (I ordered a hamburger. Yes, I did.)–on and on and on.

On April 8th, I’ll return to Brooklyn for our book launch at Book Court as an Accompanied Major. I won’t have Grandma Jo and Grandpa Milton, but I will have my own family and my nostalgia in tow. No, I can’t believe any of this is real, either. I do hope you’ll join me and some fabulously talented LTYM folks from far and wide. RSVP on Facebook here.

You can still pre-order our book, coming out April 7th, at Book Court or any of these merchants.

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Tickets on sale NOW for the 6th annual Listen To Your Mother: Madison via The Barrymore Theatre, Barrymore outlets, Happy Bambino, Dragonfly Hot Yoga Middleton, and The Century House gift shop!