Today we are giving away two books and one e-book by Lela Davidson. If you like essays that are funny and smart and media commentary and how-tos that are sassy and relevant, then be sure to check out Lela’s growing body of work. Please help me welcome Lela!
Introducing Lela Davidson
Lela is an award-winning humorist and freelance journalist who loves media and marketing. She entertains and inspires audiences in print, web, video, and television. Lela is the author of Blacklisted From The PTA and Who Peed On My Yoga Mat?, and a contributor to NBC News, TODAY Moms, iVillage, and Huffington Post. She frequently speaks about motherhood, marriage, marketing, and the challenges of being over-40 in a Botox world. Lela wrote Sexy, Smart, and Search Engine Friendly: Get Found Online Without Losing Your Mind or Wasting Your Time especially for authors, artists, and small business entrepreneurs.
Learn about Sexy, Smart, and Search Engine Friendly: Get Found Online Without Losing Your Mind or Wasting Your Time
This guide is for entrepreneurs who know nothing about online marketing and search engine technology, but know it’s important to be discoverable online.
This guide is also for people who understand how all this stuff works, but get overwhelmed by the thought of putting all that knowledge into action. My hope is that all of us would be empowered with a simple, workable plan that doesn’t take too much time away from our real pursuits, whatever those may be.
Readers of Sexy, Smart, & Search Engine Friendly:
- gain clarity where once there was only confusion about the mysterious world of online marketing.
- learn that you don’t have to be an expert, and you don’t have to spend untold nights and weekends tweaking your website.
- increase website traffic when they apply insider understanding of the ways search engines find websites.
- walk away from this guide with a simple plan—one that’s easy, effective, and doesn’t rob their core business of their most valuable resource, their time.
- develop confidence in simple strategies as they practice them, and in their own ability to maintain effort and focus for the long haul.
Anyone who markets products and services online has a lot to gain from applying the simple strategies outlined in this guide.
Learn about Who Peed On My Yoga Mat?
Lela Davidson doesn’t like to brag, but her children are clean and fed, her husband likes to cook, and she is rarely referred to as Troll Toes at the yoga studio. In other words, she’s got it all. Who Peed On My Yoga Mat? peels back the curtain on family life to show that happiness is really a matter of perspective. Between watching adorably annoying toddlers transform into text-obsessed teens, and facing inevitable moments of marital “for worse,” a girl’s got to carve out time for inner peace. As she did in Blacklisted From The PTA, Davidson shows us once again that laughing at yourself and your family is the surest path to tranquility — or at least the most fun.
Learn about Blacklisted From The PTA
Blacklisted from the PTA is an irreverent look at motherhood and the modern family. From the high chair to a vinyl restaurant booth on date night, Lela Davidson has captured life on the cul-de-sac with a husband, two kids, and the occasional pet. Whether failing at cloth diaper origami or smug in knowledge that her children have never consumed a PopTart, Lela assures parents they are not alone, and that it’s okay to laugh-at yourself, and at your kids. These are the stories of Everyparent-even if we don’t always tell them out loud. Each of these 62 essays can be read in under five minutes for a quick laugh-either with or at the author.
As a CPA on the mommy track, all Lela wanted to do was sit on the driveway and drink wine out of a box with the neighbors. Luckily, she started writing down her stories instead. Whether tackling PTA meetings, neighborhood politics, or inflation-by-Tooth Fairy, Lela exposes the humor in every awkward moment and maternal meltdown. From a trendy Seattle condo, to a tidy Arkansas subdivision, Lela shares the comic side of family life. She takes you to Mexican bars, the hockey rinks of St. Louis, ski slopes near Santa Fe, shopping in Dallas, and even introduces you to a few strippers-the novices on the playgrounds of New York City, and the pros in Vegas. Lela says what the rest of us are thinking. Her hilarious observations and subtle satire are always spot on. She’s not afraid to reveal her screw-ups, along with fleeting delusional moments of wherein she honestly believes she is the best mom ever.
I asked Lela three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:
1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?
Expressing myself is almost all I do. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that I’ve been able to create a sustainable business out of writing primarily about my own experiences. It’s what I like to write and what I like to read. Whether it’s science or politics or how to make bean sprouts, if the writing doesn’t include the writer’s personal perspective, I’m usually not interested.
2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?
To me self-expression is about connecting with other people, and sometimes my dog. If I’m not writing I’m talking. I love getting up in front of a room, drinking wine with a group of my girlfriends, or just talking one on one (maybe to my dog). I need to express myself in order to figure things out. I am the person continuously in an imaginary conversation with someone. Thanks to technology, talking to yourself is so much more socially acceptable today than it was when I was a kid hanging out with my imaginary friends.
3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?
I hope that what I write shows other people they are not in this thing alone. I have been there, done that, and usually found the laugh. There are challenges in deciding what to make public when you write about your own life, as I do, because I’m not the only one in it. When you write humor, it’s tempting to go for the cheap laugh, and that can damage relationships. I don’t want to sacrifice the people closest to me for the entertainment of my readers. (Seriously, I have the BEST stories about teenagers than I just cannot tell you!) I want to be respectful of my family and friends while still expressing what I feel are MY stories. It’s a fine line to walk sometimes, and as I grow as a writer I will push it because I feel like when I’m brave on the page it gives other people the encouragement they might need to be brave in their lives. Or it makes them pee their pants a little. Either way, I’m happy.
And Now, Your Turn…
You remember how this works right?
Please read the complete rules at least once!
I ask you a question.
You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.
Please just respond once, even if you make a typo. 
Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).
What makes you laugh? I mean what makes you really laugh? What makes you laugh so hard you can’t stop? What makes you laugh so hard that you cry and laugh at the same time?
Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.
Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!
And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.
View the complete list of authors and books.
View the giveaway Pinterest board.
