Monthly Archives: May 2013

Out of Africa

When we were at the American School in London, a Thames Television show called Magpie sponsored  us on a flamingo-tagging trip to Lake Nakuru in Kenya.

We flew into Nairobi and took a buss to Lake Nakuru.

We had to wear paper underwear because there was no way to do laundry.

And we discovered that the woman our science teacher had brought along was his mistress.  Oh, and many flamingoes were tagged.  

Thanks to my friend Lynn Williamson for the pictures.  As anyone who’s read the book can imagine any pictures Robbie and I had didn’t survive.

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Happy Return to the Scene of the Crime

I had a wonderful time at my old school, Beaver Country Day in Boston, talking to a number of classes of students in the theater and then reading and signing books for alumni in the afternoon.

People who knew me then frequently say that they had no idea what kind of craziness was going on in my life (although my mother’s arrest at my sister’s Beaver graduation kind of opened a window).  Mostly that was because I was afraid to let anyone know.  As I say in the book, covering it up was my full-time job.  

But kids like the students I met at Beaver are eager to know and ask lots of questions about how I survived — I suspect because some of them are going through their own difficult times.  One of the reasons I wrote the book was that I was hoping young people would read it and know that they’re not alone and don’t have to be alone.  

 

With my incredibly brave sister, Robin, co-heroine of Chanel making her first return to Beaver since the cops showed up.

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Memphis!

On my way back from Boston I had a layover in the very nice Memphis Airport and an awesome bar-b-que sandwich and coleslaw (on it, of course) at Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que…

And discovered their book store has a Bad Mom section!  Over to Santa Monica tomorrow to tape the fabulous “Connie Martinson Talks Books”.  

If you’re not lucky enough to be passing through Memphis or Southhaven, MS, you can get your BBQ fix on line at: www.interstatebarbecue.com  

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Scene of the Crime

It’s strange to find myself in Boston on Mother’s Day weekend.  I’m speaking to students and alumni at my old high school Beaver Country Day (scene of Mother’s arrest at my sister’s graduation).

And look what I found:


My old self, Wendy Rea, dreaming of Broadway.   And despite everything, ten years later that’s where I ended up in the Heidi Chronicles.  I talked to the students about Chanel and surviving a homelife I’d tried to conceal.  I think it’s important for kids, for people, who may think they’re alone in that situation to know that they’re not and that they can come through it and achieve what they hope to achieve.

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Betty Confidential

“If ‘Mommie Dearest’ and ‘Running With? Scissors’ Had a Love Child” — Meet Wendy Lawless, Author of This Summer’s Hottest Read, “Chanel Bonfire”

Meet the author of “Chanel Bonfire,” a must-read memoir of a fashionista-goldigger mother in the swinging ’70s.


The Fabulous Harvey Helms

Interviews me today on his amazing blog Betty Confidential.  LOVE him.  Read more at http://bettyconfidential.com/if-mommie-dearest-and-running-with%e2%80%a8-scissors-had-a-love-child-meet-wendy-lawless-author-of-this-summers-hottest-read-chanel-bonfire/#udhRjPyvFFc0e2IQ.99 

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