The Critics Agree Happily Ever Before Novel is The Comedic Literary Love Child of Hit Shows

Oct. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- Now everyone, from Clair’s WASP-y in-laws to Diane, Grace and Clair’s mom, who has put her own life on hold, to Clair’s husband, Henry, who has a compulsive need to give Grace bizarre and overly personal pregnancy gifts, to George, Grace’s best friend who now needs to find a new drinking buddy, are dealing with situations they never dreamed of.

As the sisters are faced with hormonal surges, new romances, and a calcium enriched diet, they are forced to navigate this new family dynamic and test their sisterly love in ways that keep the reader laughing out loud.


Clair’s reaction to her father’s surprising death when she was fourteen made her realize that life was out of control. Their father died while shoveling snow early one morning. Unfortunately, for Daddy Higgins, the snowplow failed to see him as he shoveled off the driveway and ran him down. Then to add insult to injury, it covered him with four feet of snow as it cleared the street. Later that day, while Clair and Grace where building a snowman, they found a little something that wasn’t a corncob pipe or two eyes made out of coal. It was Daddy Higgins wearing a confused and, it goes without saying, frozen expression on his face. After that, he forever became their “Popsicle.”

Clair decided shortly after to control everything she could control, so that she would be better prepared for any other nasty surprises along the way.  She also came to the conclusion that snow was evil, snowplows were murderers, and that ice, even on the hottest Chicago day, was nobody’s’ friend. Now, the trouble with planning, and what Clair will learn, is that even the things we plan can’t be controlled, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Right now it’s 1991 and Clair had planned the following: at twenty-seven years of age she was to marry Ralph Macchio, he of “Karate Kid” fame; become an Accountant; make Vice President at some important accounting firm that had five names, such as Friedlander, Smith, Wong, O’Brien, and Dakota; become Partner at said accounting firm; and have exactly two kids by the time she was thirty-five. Clair had done the math and she knew that if she was even one millisecond off her plan she would never be able to retire at sixty-five. And really isn’t that what life was all about?

Now, Grace, she with the midnight black hair, had nothing planned. Well, apart from being a librarian, a chosen career because she reasoned that if she was on tour with her band Death Parade and they inexplicably got into some horrible fight and vowed never to play together again, she could find a job in whatever city she was in because—duh—every city had libraries! Logically, it made sense. What didn’t make sense was whether or not Grace had given any thought to what it meant to be a librarian and if she’d even enjoy a career as one. As the first born, many would expect that because it has been psychologically proven, Grace would be the planner and Clair would be the wild child. To be honest and for a short period of time, a time we will refer to as BPP (Before Popsicle Passed), Grace had been known to plan out her fair share of activities and life goals and Clair did have a penchant for streaking and rebel rousing. Grace, with her midnight black hair, green eyes and pale complexion, was just as shocked as Clair when they found their Popsicle that random afternoon. At that moment, Grace also learned that life was uncontrollable and, therefore, decided she would never plan another thing for as long as she lived. Life, she learned, should be lived and planning every single second of your life meant that you weren’t actually living it. Because she was in school studying to be a librarian at the time of the incident, she wasn’t going to rock the boat. Her family, especially her mom, Diane, was in shock and so, for Grace, the routine of going to school was something of a relief. It meant she didn’t have to think. The problem that Grace will eventually come to learn with not making any life plans is that you inevitably wake up extremely confused from your self-prescribed coma and wonder what the hell happened to your life. Oh, and APD (After Popsicle’s Death), Grace decided that she’d never get attached to just one guy and sex was part of life and life was supposed to be fun, and… well, you get the picture, but that’s neither here, nor there!


ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Melissa Peterman and Aimee Pitta
Melissa Peterman currently star's in ABC Family’s new hit series “Baby Daddy”. Peterman is best known for her starring role as "Barbra Jean" on the ever popular series "Reba." Peterman, who grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, made a name for herself when she was cast and performed in over 500 productions in the local production of “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” and went on to become a staple on the comedy and improv scene. Peterman produced and starred in CMT’s “Working Class”, host’s the networks #1 game show “The Singing Bee” and is currently working on her first comedy album for Big Machine Records. This past year Peterman toured with Reba McEntire, George Strait and Lee Ann Womack. Peterman made her feature film debut as Hooker #2 in the Coen Brothers’ Oscar winning movie "Fargo." Other film credits include  "Dirty Politics," "40 is the New Dead," and "Here Comes the Boom."

Aimee Pitta, a native New Yorker, is an Award winning Writer/Producer and Marketing Executive with over 20 years experience creating cutting edge theatrical marketing campaigns for almost every major studio in Hollywood. Her skills as a writer and marketer have also allowed her to create a niche as one of the top film “retitlers” in the business, and she has titled such films as Playing For Keeps, People Like Us, Mirror-Mirror, No Strings Attached, It’s Complicated, Our Family Wedding, The Bounty Hunter, Almost Heroes and the upcoming Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand comedy The Guilt Trip.

Melissa and Aimee met at Book Club, which over the years devolved into Eating Club, and then, well completely disappeared, but they maintained their friendship and toyed with the idea of writing together. While working on some ideas Melissa and Aimee hit upon the concept for "Happily Ever Before" and when Aimee suggested that it might make a great book, Melissa gamely went along and the rest as they say is history.

Melissa currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and son. Aimee currently resides in Los Angeles with her couch and DVR.

The site for Happily Ever Before is happilyeverbefore.net
You can follow the writers on Twitter @happilyevrbefor