A BUMP IN THE ROAD = Awesomeness!

I’m going to try to make this quick, as I’ve got only 50 pages left in A BUMP IN THE ROAD and I really want to see what happens!! This book is fabulous, funny, and so relatable. I’m dying to finish it, but then I’m also so going to miss Clare when it's over!

Question One: In A BUMP IN THE ROAD, Clare loves to watch and order products from infomercials. Have you ever ordered anything off of an infomercial? (Being tempted counts!)

I’ve never actually ordered anything from an infomercial! I generally don’t watch them, but after my son was born, I’d sometimes be up in the middle of the night feeding him and desperate to watch something, so I’d turn on the only thing on: infomercials. Once, I was going to order some kind of abdominal crunch machine – granted I’d just had a baby, so my stomach was one of my top concerns at the time. Anyway, I didn’t order it in the middle of the night, but the next morning I tried to find it online, and when I Googled it, one of the first things that came up were complaints by a bunch of people who’d been injured when the machine snapped them in. Needless to say, I decided to go with old-fashioned sit-ups instead!

Question Two: The book opens with Clare and her husband Jake being tortured on an airplane by a toddler sitting behind them. If you have kids, any funny stories about traveling with them? If not, who is the strangest person you've ever sat next to on an airplane?

I do have several stories about traveling with kids and episodes of inappropriate peeing and pooping, but I’ll spare you the details. Before we had kids, my husband and I went on a trip to Vegas. We went on New Year’s Day, just after The Fiesta Bowl ended, and the flight ended up being nearly the entire Oregon football team and us. My husband and I had seats together, but (and this was back when you actually had to check in with the ticket agent), the gate agent somehow messed up checking us in and re-ticketed us on another flight, which ended up putting us on stand-by for our original flight. So we eventually got on our original flight, but, since we were standby, we were the last two people on and seated on total opposite sides of the plane. I sat in between two of the biggest hulking football players I’ve ever seen, both of whom must have been pretty sleepy because they put their head down on the tray table and slept the whole time, while I sat scrunched up in the middle seat.

Question Three: As a famous blogger, Clare is often recognized in the public, usually right after she's spilled something on herself or the like. As an author, have you ever been recognized by a reader? Or have you ever seen a famous author in public?

No, I’ve never been recognized in public, nor have I seen a famous author in public. A wise author friend of mine once told me that being an author was the best sort of career that might bring you fame. Because, she said, even if you have some degree of fame, you can still leave the house without make-up on and not have to worry about people recognizing you. Thank goodness, because I rarely ever leave my house with make-up on these days. So it’s good to know that no one will recognize me, even if I ever do reach some level of famous author-dom!

Question Four: Clare's sister Sam, who's in high school, throws a party while their parents are out of town. Would you ever have dared to throw a party when your parents were gone? (No need to actually fess up...unless you want to!)

Nope. Never. I actually had (and still have) a really close relationship with my parents, so if I’d wanted to have a party I probably would’ve just asked them!

Question Five: One of Clare's guilty pleasures is watching really bad (and thus awesome), cheesy Lifetime movies--especially ones starring Tori Spelling. What is your guilty pleasure movie?

My guilty pleasure movie is Fools Rush In starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek. Best. Movie. Ever. I may have seen it so many times that I know all the lines. . . but what can I say, I’m a sucker for romantic comedies. And speaking of Tori Spelling, my guilty pleasure summer reality show is Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I love watching Tori try to eke out her second book on her laptop while her son throws a tantrum in the background!

Happy Release Week, Maureen! And congrats on a fabulous book!! If you're reading this, and you haven't yet gotten your hands on a copy, I HIGHLY recommend it!