As if I did not already have enough reasons to love Laura Zigman, author of one of my all-time favorite novels (Animal Husbandry), she went and wrote about me on her brant, and even posted both my book covers.  I told her if she keeps this up, my love for her will be enough to cause my husband to take legal action.

I first discovered Animal Husbandry when I was working at Audio Renaissance, publisher of books on tape. I have abridged more than 100 books for audio, but wasn’t lucky enough to work on Laura’s. I did read it, though, and fell in love. When you work in publishing, you read a lot of stuff and you tend to become very jaded. Much of what I read inspired me to write, because I knew I could do better. But many books made me feel like throwing in the towel and never writing again because I’d never be on par with these other authors. Animal Husbandry made me feel like that. I loved the premise, the characters, and didn’t want it to end.

Then she went on to write Dating Big Bird, which was also great, though it didn’t knock A.H. out of its top spot in my heart.  Her, which I admit I still haven’t read (bad me). And finally, Piece of Work, her newest, which once again made me want to retire my laptop and fall at her feet humbled and unworthy. It’s about a woman returning to work (out of necessity) after being a stay-a-home mom for a few years. The guilt, the aggravation, the jealousy when her husband becomes a hit with the preschool moms… As a working mom of a toddler son, the emotions were all too familiar and very very real. 

The woman is just plain brilliant. So, when Monkey Star was finished, I decided to try to contact her and ask for an endorsement. I braced myself for a polite refusal, but instead she said I could send it. Then I waited torturous months while she went about her busy life with her busy writing schedule and busy family, and wondered if she would forget about me. But then she sent me this:

“To say that Holly Heckerling is one of those quirky characters with a heart of gold might sound like a cliche, but there is nothing cliched about Brenda Scott Royce’s writing.  ‘Monkey Star’ is funny — really and truly funny — and it is also a novel in which everything and everyone rings true.  Royce has a great ear for how people — funny people — talk and think, but she also has a true understanding of how people feel, which comes through on every page and which makes ‘Monkey Star’ such a satisfying read.  Plus, any novel with ‘monkey’ in the title has to be good.”  –Laura Zigman

Now, the entire thing is probably not going to appear on the book cover, because … well, they have to fit the title on there somehow, too.  But I may have a T-shirt made with the whole thing on it.  It would have to be an extra-large. The kind you sleep in. Which I won’t sleep in, because I think my husband may already be jealous of my love for Laura, and that would just be rubbing it in. 

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