Blog for new moms leads to first book

WESTERLY — From the time she was a little girl, Melissa Kenyon Mowry had a knack for writing. Her teachers, noticing her talent, encouraged her to keep writing, and her parents enrolled her in creative writing classes at the Westerly Library.

She won a statewide writing contest when she was in grade school, served as editor-in-chief of the "Barker," Westerly High School's student newspaper, and majored in journalism at Northeastern University.

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But it wasn't until her son, Chase, was born that her passions collided and the stay-at-home mom found her voice.

Motherhood, it turns out, was just the inspiration Mowry needed to re-connect her with her calling — motherhood and the need to share her story with other moms.

On Thursday at 6 p.m., Mowry will share the culmination of her two-year writing journey at the launch of her first book, "One Mother to Another: This Is Just Between Us," at the Savoy Bookshop and Café.

Inspired by the blog she started when she found herself struggling with the new-mom blues, she calls the book "a collection of raw and relatable stories about motherhood."

She's already received advance praise for the book from her legion of followers, including from several local moms who laud her for "capturing every essence of parenthood," and for her "wit, charm and intellect."

"This book has made me laugh and cry," said first-time mom Amanda Williams of Westerly. "In every single section there is something I can relate to. It is raw, real and emotional, just like being a mother."

"She is the mother all moms hope to become: honest, true and real," said Kelly Mills of Ashaway.

Mowry, now the mother of a second son, 10-month-old Samuel, vividly remembers the moment that she sat down to write. It was a cold, March morning, and her husband (and high school sweetheart), Adam, had just left for work.

It was her first day home by herself with her newborn. Lonely, and feeling isolated, she turned on her computer, created a WordPress account and started to write a blog.

The words began to flow as she poured her emotions onto the screen.

She called her first post "Mom Guilt: There's Pretty Much Always Something You Should Feel Bad About," a "tongue-in-cheek commentary" about how the moment she became a mom, she began to "feel guilty about every little thing under the sun."

"I had a very special idea of the kind of mom I was going to be," said Mowry with a laugh. "We were always going to sit down to eat together at the table, the kids were never going to sleep in my bed."

It turns out, she added, "you have to let go of rules. There's the type of mom you think you'll be and then there's the type of mom you become."

Not that she was seeking validation, but if there was ever a shadow of a doubt that she following the right muse, Mowry received near-instant feedback, something she found "rewarding and intoxicating."

"Here I was pouring my thoughts onto the page as a form of therapy, having no idea that anyone else felt the same way," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I am not alone.'"

Mowry has been writing ever since.

Today, she has 8,000 followers on her Facebook page, and has contributed to such popular online sites as The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, BonBon Break, Mamapedia, Coffee + Crumbs and Mamalode.

Elissa Englund of Westerly, the event manager for the Savoy, said interest in Mowry's book and Thursday's scheduled appearance has been unusually strong.

"Melissa has an amazing group of fans who support her," said Englund. "This should be a really fun night both for moms and book-lovers in general."

For those close to Mowry, her accomplishment was a natural progression.

"Melissa loved writing at an early age," said Mowry's dad, Keith Kenyon, an assistant principal at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod. "She had an excellent vocabulary combined with a great imagination that she could turn into wonderful words and stories."

"I am thrilled that Melissa has been able to combine her passion for her children and motherhood and her passion for writing," said Mowry's cousin, Leanne Liguori Noonan, a mom and a teacher at Bradford Elementary School. "She's always been an amazing and talented writer ... I still have a letter she wrote me when I was in college ... it continues to inspire me."

Noonan said the cousins were "fortunate to have amazing grandparents," who "above all else instilled in us the importance and value of family."

It's a sentiment her cousin expresses "so eloquently through her writing in an honest and heartfelt way," added Noonan.

Mowry, who lives in the Dunns Corner section of town — in the very same house in which she and her sister, Ashley, grew up in and shared a bedroom — sat in her back yard one morning last week, with her younger son, Sam, sitting contentedly on her lap, and her older son, Chase, balancing on one arm of the blue Adirondack chair.

What she hopes her readers will experience while reading her book, she said, smiling broadly, is a feeling that they're sitting next to her on the sofa, sharing stories and sipping a glass of wine.

Perhaps the highest praise for "One Mother to Another: This Is Just Between Us," comes from the woman who brought Mowry into this world.

"I love, love, love it," said Mowry's mom, Westerly native Judy Liguori Kenyon. "It will make you laugh, it will make you cry ... and every mom will be able to relate."

nbfusaro@thewesterlysun.com

Source: Blog for new moms leads to first book