Sphere joins with blogger Wallace on parenting novel

Sphere has partnered with blogger Kathryn Wallace to create a comic novel about parenting, working and school gate politics “for anyone who has ever shared a #fml moment on Facebook”.

Absolutely Smashing It will be published in March 2019, ahead of Mother’s Day. Wallace blogs as "I Know, I Need to Stop Talking" on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and has over 150,000 dedicated followers across her social media channels, according to Sphere.

Deputy publisher for Sphere fiction Maddie West acquired World rights in two books from the author directly.

A spokesperson for the publisher described the title as a “hilarious, upbeat novel about parenting, working and the school gate for anyone who has ever shared a #fml moment on Facebook”.

Absolutely Smashing It is the story of 40-year-old Gemma, a single parent to a seven-year-old daughter, “who is only just holding it together”, the blurb reads. When her friend Becky persuades her to start dating again, Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world as well as her attraction to her daughter’s teacher Tom.

West said: “Since Kathryn and I started working on this book, I have tormented my colleagues by laughing out loud at my desk at her heroine’s brilliant – and embarrassingly familiar – tales from the parenting frontline. I’m so excited to share Kathryn’s funny and uplifting book with all the readers who have stories of their own parenting trials (and triumphs) to share.”

Wallace said: “I am over the moon to have had the opportunity to work with Maddie and the team at Sphere on this book. I hope it makes people laugh, I hope it makes people think, and I really, really hope that it makes every parent out there feel like they're slightly less alone - and realise that they are actually all, in their own individual way ‘Absolutely Smashing It’.”