Join Zibby Owens for the Philadelphia stop of her Zibby-Verse tour: where authors are rock stars! She’ll speak with fellow author Jo Piazza.
About the Book
Author, podcaster, publisher, CEO, and mom of four, Zibby Owens, the powerhouse behind Zibby Media, the monthly book round-ups for Good Morning America, and creator of the hit podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, has written her first novel, BLANK, where she dives head-first into a meta-satirical story about the publishing industry, rounding it out with themes of motherhood, friendships, marriage, career, and…betrayal.
In BLANK, with picturesque L.A. as the backdrop, we follow Pippa Jones, a forty-something mom of two in her used Volvo playing chauffeur to her kids, chasing open house leads for her secretive, but hugely popular Instagram account, Zooming with her three best friends for “book club,” and longing for the days when she and her husband were intimate. But Pippa is about to encounter one of the biggest obstacles ever when she is informed that if she doesn’t deliver the follow-up to her bestselling book by the end of the week, she’ll have to return her advance (already spent!) and risk becoming a one-hit wonder. The problem? She hasn’t written a word…
Panicked, Pippa starts fielding ideas from her friends and her children, until she lands on the best one…really the only one that will work. Her book will be blank. It’s on-the-nose commentary on the publishing industry and the arbitrary nature of bestsellers. People will flock to it as a conversation starter! Use it as a journal! It’ll work, right? Well, it has to…
During the course of the week, Pippa’s agent dumps her, there’s a scare at her son’s Hebrew school, inappropriate advances are made towards her by a man in a position of power, and she has to handle all of the chaos without her husband’s help. And then she discovers a secret that the people closest to her have been keeping and her life seems to be spiraling out of control. Who can she trust? Will this book idea work? Or will she evaporate into the literary ether?
Amid the chaos, readers are met with humorous, witty, dialogue and they get to peek inside the mind of a gloriously imperfect middle-aged woman who they’re left feverishly rooting for. BLANK is a breezy, funny, smart story of self-discovery and the power of believing in yourself.
About Zibby Owens
Zibby Owens — like Pippa Jones — wears a lot of hats. She is the award-winning podcast host of Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books; founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the publishing house Zibby Books, a book club, retreats, classes, and events; and is the proud owner of Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica.
Her previous books include Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, children’s book Princess Charming, and two anthologies that she edited. A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and other outlets, she is – most of all! – the mother of four fabulous kids ages 9 to 16 — and wife to Kyle Owens, founder of Morning Moon Productions.
Follow her on Instagram and Substack where she tells it like it is.
About Jo Piazza
Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, podcast creator and award-winning journalist.
Jo is the national and international bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance, We Are Not Like Them, You Were Always Mine, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, The Knockoff and How to Be Married. Her work has been published in ten languages in twelve countries and four of her books have been optioned for film and television. Jo's podcasts have garnered more than twenty-five million downloads and regularly top podcast charts. An editor, columnist and travel writer, her work has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, New York magazine, Marie Claire, Glamour and many other publications. She lives in Philly with her husband, Nick Aster and three feral children.