Q&A with The Welches discussion

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir

Our pub date is September 14th and we are gearing up for a busy week! If you have any questions: about us, the authors, about the book or the process of writing a memoir in four voices, fire away!

I'm looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the family on Wednesday in Wilton! We're so happy you fit us in this week!!

Karen - we're thrilled that the Wilton Library wants us to come!

And so looking forward to meeting YOU!

I'm curious how you've all dealt with criticism of the book. I always wonder this when it comes to memoirs. Writing a book is hard enough (and I'm sure no author wants to see their work slammed), but when the subject of the book is also you (and such a difficult part of your life, too), it must be doubly tough. How do you deal with it? Do you just not read reviews until someone tells you its a good review? Have you grown thick skin?

It's funny, Patrick -- I was really concerned before we published about how "bad" reviews would feel - after all, it's our life! But more than that, I also feel really protective of my siblings, and I feared that I would get really defensive of them if I felt they were being unfairly judged by people.

It turns out that it doesn't bother me AT ALL. I think that I have read the Amazon reviews maybe three times in this past year that our book has been released, and every time I do, I check the one and two star reviews first. I find it really interesting to learn what people felt the book was lacking - and since most of the reviews are so overwhelmingly positive, their kind words would bolster my spirits were I to take some of the bad ones personally.

More than anything, it is so gratifying to received the personal emails from readers who simply love our book and wanted to reach out, and also from those who have had similar experiences and can relate to the book on a more personal level. When folks who were in the foster system or who suffered the death of a parent tell us that our book helped them process their loss, I realize THAT is why we we wrote it in the first place.

Patrick, I could not agree with Diana more. It is funny, because the first review we got was from Publishers Weekly. And it was lukewarm! Which is a bummer because that is such an important one... but it did not slay us, at all in fact! We were so geared up by then, so proud of our book and then right on the heels of that we started getting really amazing reviews: from Booklist, from Tattered Book in Colorado, from Vanity Fair and People and O magazine... suddenly, the lukewarm review really did not matter so much. We just figured that the reviewer did not get our book. and were so happy that so many other reviewers DID!