Tag Archives: My Rotten Stepbrother Ruined Fairy Tales

Mar 20 2018

Happy Book Birthday to Me! The Buttheads Have Landed!

BUTTHEADS_final cover

Today is a huge day for me.

Those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while might remember when it was my dream to get a book publilshed about my journey to parenthood. That book, “Mommy Man,” came out in 2014. Hooray! Bucket list check mark! So… then what?

Well, today, I’m celebrating the publication of my 6th (!) book. And I couldn’t have done it without all the support I got from my readers in the early days of this blog. You convinced me to follow my dream and my voice and to keep writing.

mrsr-cinderellaAs you probably know by now, I’ve shifted gears a bit and started writing kids’ books. My four-book series MY ROTTEN STEPBROTHER RUINED FAIRY TALES came out last year, and I’ve gotten some amazing feedback on it. 10-year-old Oscar at Kid Book Reviewer wrote, “Every time I finish reading a book in this series I keep thinking it is the best, funniest book in the world. I don’t know how Jerry Mahoney makes each book sooooo much funnier and amazing than the last.”

Reading a review like that is the best feeling in the world. It’s like my happily ever after.

lloydblank2_edited-2So I couldn’t be more excited to have a new book to share with you. This one, as I may have mentioned a thousand times before, is called BUTTHEADS FROM OUTER SPACE. It’s about two best friends, Josh and Lloyd, who try to persuade aliens to come visit them by writing an Earth travel blog. And it works! The problem is that the aliens who show up are total buttheads — literally. They have butts on their heads, and they talk in farts. They love Earth so much they invite 70 billion of their friends to come join them here. Uh-oh…

I’ve mentioned it’s a kids’ book, right?

lemoncelloOne of my favorite kids’ authors, Chris Grabenstein, who wrote the gazillion-selling, award-hoarding smash super-hit ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY and dozens of other awesome books, even wrote me a blurb: “I laughed my butt off!”

It was crazy. I sent him an email through his website and told him about the book. He wrote back with his address, so I sent him a copy. Then, he wrote me that perfect blurb. (Side note: Please go buy all of Chris Grabenstein’s books. He’s a great writer and a swell guy.)

joshblank_edited-2There have been other great reviews, too, like these:

“Will cause giggle and snicker overload!” – Kirkus Reviews

“A strong bid for Captain Underpants grads!” – ALA Booklist

“A fun, wacky story that kids will love! A great book to hook reluctant readers!” – Erik, This Kid Reviews Books

“276 pages of blasting-dookies-who’s-the-weeniest-phasmic-wave-induced fun. Buttheads from Outer Space is expertly paced, comical, and full of heart!” – Joyce Audy Zarins, Writers Rumpus

I’ve decided not to do any chart twerk-type stunt with this book. If you’ve read my other books or even just a few of the posts on this blog, you know what you’re in for: cheap, lowbrow humor and shameless tugs at your heartstrings. Hey, I know my skill set.

I also know that tons of kids hate to read, but if a book has fart jokes in it and their parents think it’s gross and offensive, then they just might pick it up and check it out. Then, they’ll get all the booky goodness they’ve been missing by not reading, without even realizing they’re enriching themselves. (Suckers!)

Think of it like putting chocolate on top of a salad. Wait, am I the only one who does that?

So I hope you’ll check it out. Buy it for yourself. Buy it for a kid you know. Buy it for a teacher or a school library. If you want to buy it today-ish and help me get a boost on the charts, even better.

Here are some places you can find it. (Click on the links to go to the sales page.)

amazonlogo

barnesandnoblelogo

indieboundlogo

Thanks again to everyone reading this. This blog and all the support you gave it has made all the difference in giving me the writing career I’ve always wanted. I hope you (and/or your kids) will enjoy my new book.

And for those of you who come here to see pictures of my kids, here they are with their friend Duncan at my book release!IMG_0145

Jun 18 2017

My Surprising Father’s Day Gift

gaydadcard.JPG

Unless you’re a straight white male or Bill Cosby, it’s been a pretty crummy year so far. Well, it’s not much, but for me, there’s been a small bright side, and it’s that card pictured above. It may not seem like a big deal to you, especially if you’re a straight white male. But that is the card I got my husband for Father’s Day this year, and it felt pretty awesome to do it.

Anyone who’s gay can relate to the challenge of finding greeting cards for special occasions. Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or anniversaries, there just aren’t a lot of options for us, at least not in the usual venues. Sure, there have long been some great out-of-the-way stores and underpromoted websites geared for folks like us, and I highly recommend giving them your business. But not everyone can trek to the gay part of town for a greeting card or wait to have a gift shipped to them.

As someone who’s LGBTQ, that leaves you with a few options: buy a blank card, make your own card, find a card so generic that it’s not gender-specific or buy a card that says “To my husband” and cross out all the references to “wife” and/or cartoons of the girl squirrel holding the boy squirrel’s hand (or vice-versa). (Special props to my brother-in-law, who bought two identical wedding cards when Drew and I tied the knot. He snipped out the grooms and put them both on the same card, to make a homemade gay wedding card.)

As hard as gay relationship cards are to find, gay parent cards are even more of a challenge. So when I went to Rite Aid to get a Father’s Day card for my husband Drew, I was planning to do some creative thinking, as usual, to turn a card for someone else into a card for us.

Then I saw something I hadn’t expected to see – a label in the Father’s Day section that said “Two Dads.” There was only one card there, and it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say. (I would’ve gone with “the two luckiest guys” instead of “two of the luckiest.”) But it felt so good to be acknowledged.

In a Rite Aid.

With a card from American Greetings.

This was unthinkable when we started dating 14 years ago… and when our kids were born 7 years ago… and even when we got married 3 years ago. But there it was, with all the other cards, just no big deal. When I took it up to the register and bought it, the cashier said, “Happy Father’s Day,” and almost before those words were out of her mouth, she yelled, “Next!” and waved me away.

Sure, this one greeting card doesn’t do anything to help Muslims, women, African-Americans, Jews or any of the other people who’ve been having a tough time since this new administration took over (and since long before that), and it barely does anything for LGBTQ people. But for me, it was a reminder that you can’t stop progress, even in an otherwise rotten time for progress. And even while we’re fighting for our rights, there are appropriate moments to stop and reflect on how far we’ve come.

It may have been noteworthy to my husband and me, but of course, our kids had no idea why this greeting card was different from any other one.

And that’s probably the best part of all.

Happy Father’s Day to all the gay dads out there — and to you straight ones, too!

* * * * *

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but that’s because I’ve been busy with my kids’ books! My series MY ROTTEN STEPBROTHER RUINED FAIRY TALES comes out August 1, 2017 from Capstone, and you can preorder them nowpreorder them now! Also, check out my new website for my middle grade and young adult writing, jerrymahoneybooks.com. [End of shameless plug.] 🙂