What Comes After Crazy

Having grown up as the daughter of Madame Lucille, “Fortune Teller to the Stars,” traveling from town to town, wondering which of the many men her mother brought home would become her next stepfather, Maz Lombard just wants a nice, quiet life. But Mazs soon-to-be-ex-husband, Lenny, recently left for Santa Fe after his very public affair with a fetching young day-care teacher imploded, and her daughter Hope is convinced shes inherited the family “seeing” gene and is scaring her classmates with séances and dark prophecies.

When Lenny shows up wanting another chance, and Madame Lucille pulls into town with her newest husband, any hope Maz has for a simple, ordinary life goes out the window. But seeing her family in all its complicated, infuriating, and mystifying splendor might be just the thing to help Maz define herself on her own terms and live the life shes always wanted. And whats so crazy about that?

Includes a new essay by the author and a preview chapter of her terrific new novel, A Piece of Normal

Look for the Readers Group Guide at the back of this book.

Fast-paced, warm, and laugh-out-loud funny, "What Comes After Crazy chronicles a quest for normalcy that nearly drives a woman nuts.

Maz Lombard craves a nice, quiet life--and who can blame her? Having grown up as the daughter of Madame Lucille, "Fortune Teller to the Stars," she spent her Southern childhood traveling from town to town, wondering which of the many men her mother brought home would become her next stepfather (in a long line of stepfathers). Maz's soon-to-be-ex-husband Lenny left for Santa Fe after his very public affair with a fetching young daycare teacher imploded. And Maz's daughter Hope has become convinced she's inherited the family "seeing" gene and is scaring her classmates with seances and dark prophecies.

When Lenny shows up on the doorstep wanting another chance, and Madame Lucille pulls into town with her newest husband, any chance Maz has for a simple, ordinary life seems to go out the window. But is life at its craziest also at its most instructive? Will seeing her family in all its complicated, infuriating, and mystifying splendor enable Maz to define herself on her own terms and live the life she's always wanted?

Delightful, rollicking, but most of all unforgettably touching, "What Comes After Crazy marks the debut of a radiant new talent in women's fiction.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Sandi Kahn Shelton is a feature reporter and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Womans Day, Family Circle, Salon, Redbook, and Working Mother. The author of three nonfiction books, she has three children and lives in Connecticut.