| "Geared especially toward first-time parents, My Heart's First Steps will find a ready audience among those for whom it is intended. The construction itself, with short chapters, essays, and poems, will make it appealing to those first-timers in the dizzy world of parenting in which some days success is measured by having found time to brush your teeth, make the bed, and decide what you're having for dinner. Not actually prepared it and served it, mind you: just decided what to fix. The entries are short enough to be read in the 5-10 minutes at a stretch that are all new parents feel they can call their own." -Peggy Vincent, author of Baby Catcher |
| With writing by: Joyce M. Fischer, Karen Howland, Peter Krok, Susan Evans, Lysa James, Norman Wasserman, John Repp, Charles Grosel, Dennis Donoghue, Malaina Neumann, Todd W. Palmer, Robin Bradford, Anne McCrady, Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser, Liza Hyatt, M.S. Tupper, Marcia Gerhardt, Candy Shue, Pete Fromm, Dan Sklar, Liza Hyatt, Clark Karoses, James P. Lenfestey, Guy Reed, John Holbrook, Helene Barker Kiser, Dane Cervine, Paul Vos Benkowski, T.W. Berry, Roger Cody, Tara Moghadam, Rebecca Balcarcel, Anna Viadero, Terrence Dunn, Grey Held, Elliot Richman, Anne M. Bruner, Stephen Cushman, Susan Lascala, Susan Terris, Susan Hodara, Paul Hostovsky, Carolyn Adams, P.M. Hayes, Stephen Frech, C. Pettit, Lou Mason, Richard M. Berlin, Sondra Zeidenstein, Paul F. Cummins, Warren Garr, Tom Groneberg, Mary Cummings, Ann Reilly Cole, Phyllis Walker, Bradley Earle Hoge, Maureen Helms Blake, Cathy Lentes, Amy Pinnell, Lisa Rye, Leslie J. Wyatt, Dex Westrum, Alice Keane Putman, Sarah Barnes, Darcy Lipp-Acord, Tony Reevy, L.N. Allen, Pamela Malone, and Jeff Cannon. My Heart's First Steps--Writings that Celebrate the Gifts of Parenthood ISBN: 1580629369 224 pages, Trade paperback Publisher: Adams Media copyright 2004 |
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| Seventy writers, some widely-published and others making their literary debut here, share what they love, and don't love, about being parents. |
| "When my daughter was born, I wondered when I would feel different, feel like a mother. What does it feel like to be a mother, anyway? I was getting an idea that it was different than I imagined it would be." -Ann Reilly Cole, from "Diapers and Deadlines" |
| "After a long day of defending the dog, cleaning Cheerios off the carpet, quieting their cries and playful screaming, giving them dinner and baths, I miss them once they are asleep." -Bradley Earle Hoge, from "Renga of an At-Home Dad" |
| "It's difficult to capture the complex feelings of parenthood, but My Heart's First Steps succeeds." -Fit Pregnancy, March 2004 |
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