After years of plodding through a not-terrible-but-terribly humdrum marriage, all the while feeling that life-real, exciting, satisfying - was out there somewhere, Diane is finally free to explore what's next, even if it means starting over with a mountain of debt, two kids, and an inexplicable sense of optimism...Beautiful Lana came to Hollywood to make it as an actress. Instead, she found a role as arm candy for a movie star husband - until his very public affair made her fodder for every gossip rag in town. Playing the humiliated spouse isn't Laura's idea of a career, and there's no place like Hollywood for staging a dramatic comeback...Back in high school, homecoming queen Bonnie and football star Buck were the golden couple everyone envied. Now, as Buck walks out the door leaving Bonnie with two young children, her storybook marriage is in tatters, and she's not at all certain of the next chapter. Hard-edged divorce lawyer Annette knew the odds going in, but once she fell for Jackson, she closed her eyes and took the leap. She always hoped they'd make it, but some secrets can't be ignored, no matter how much Annette wants to try.
Leslie Lehr is a prize-winning author, screenwriter, and essayist. She never planned to be a writer, but she always wrote. In high school, she produced weekly cable TV shows, one of which earned an Ohio Governor's Award.
After graduating from USC's School of Cinematic Arts with a Student Emmy in hand, she spent several years in film production, rising to be the West Coast Production Manager of a major commercial and music video house, then went freelance to work on feature films.
Once a mother, Lehr started writing seriously. Her humorous essays evolved into her first book, Welcome to Club Mom: The End of Life As You Know it - but the publisher changed the subtitle to The Adventure Begins.
And it did.....
The what-ifs of modern motherhood drove Lehr to fiction soon after, and the result was her debut novel, 66 Laps, winner of the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society Gold Medal. Soon after, her screenplay, "Heartless," was produced as an independent film. The romantic thriller financed five other films for Santa Monica Pictures, aired on USA TV and has been screening in Europe for over six years. Her next books were the nonfiction tomes, The Happy Helpful Grandma Guide, now excerpted on FisherPrice.com; and Wendy Bellissimo: Nesting, featured on "Oprah." Her most recent novel, Wife Goes On, is the July 2009 Official Selection for the Pulpwood Queens Book clubs, with 210 chapters of tiara-wearing, book-sharing readers.
Lehr's essay in Mommy Wars, "I Hate Everybody" was lauded on the Today Show. "Parenting Paranoia" was excerpted in Arianna Huffington's bestseller, On Becoming Fearless. Her recent novel, Wife Goes On, was inspired by her essay, "Welcome to the Club, from the anthology, The Honeymoon's Over. Leslie is a contributor to the Tarcher/Penguin Series "Now Write." The next one will be released in January, 2010.
With a B.A. from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Leslie is a popular panelist at literary and film conferences around the country. She is a member of PEN, The Authors Guild, WGA, Women In Film, and The Women's Leadership Council of L.A. She teaches in the word-renowned Writer's Program at UCLA Extension.
A Buckeye at heart, Lehr now lives in Southern California...as close to the beach as possible. The mother of two girls, she continues to explore the dark and light sides of contemporary women in her work. She is currently working on a mystery.
