Synopses & Reviews
With bravado, good humor, and just a smattering of French, a dauntless American family begins a year-long adventure living and absorbing the local culture, customs, and language in the South of France.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to live in another country for a year with your children, in Mommy, Are We French Yet,? you will discover that it is not an insurmountable task, but it's made doubly rewarding when the day-to-day chores and challenges are approached with humor. Shawn Underwood moved her family, her husband and three kids, along with her sister's family to the south of France to experience the joys and frustrations of living abroad first hand.
"I do admit that language barrier is becoming an increasing problem...for Craig. I, on the other hand, am getting along famously when the French speaker talks SLOWLY. Today, for instance and after much debate, the kids and I all agreed to brave the hair salon. Unfortunately, the head beautician in the male/female salon is a "fast talker". My pleas of "lentement, s'il vous plait" (slowly, please) falls on deaf ears and disaster looms on the horizon."
Synopsis
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to live in another country for a year with your children, in Mommy, Are We French Yet,? you will discover that it is not an insurmountable task, but it's made doubly rewarding when the day-to-day chores and challenges are approached with humor. Shawn Underwood moved her family, her husband and three kids, along with her sister's family to the south of France to experience the joys and frustrations of living abroad first hand.
About the Author
Shawn Underwood grew up in Bellevue, Washington, where she attended an all girls Catholic school. Given the choice to attend a public or private high school, Shawn chose public school, whereupon her parent replied "wrong choice." It was the smartest decision she never made since at the time, her fondest desire was to live in a commune. After graduating, Shawn attended Washington State University, earning a B.A. in Speech and a Graduate Degree in Audiology - field that proved to be particularly useless in her future endeavors as a humor writer.
Over the years Shawn held a wide variety of jobs, which provided excellent fodder for her writing, but maybe not excellent wages. She failed to make her mark as a strawberry picker due to her languid picking style and flipping burgers left her feeling greasy. Shawn also worked as an "under" maid to the rich and famous in a resort town where she served appetizers at secret service-staffed cocktail parties and picked up the dirty underclothes of important people.
Fortunately, she did eventually find her true calling. Shawn ins currently the humor columnist for her local online newspaper, wwww.b-townblog.com, where she poses as "Underwood-Undercover." Thus far, her celebrity status as the only humor columnist in town has garnered neither free dinners at her favorite restaurants nor slashed tires. Shawn also contribute to www.nightsandweekends.com, a Website that reviews movies, books, and music. Her short stories are featured in the "Instant Gratification" humor column.
One of Shawn's short stories, "Mom Versus Computer" was included in two 2009 anthologies: People of Few Words - Fifty writers From the Writers' Showcase of the Short Humor Site, published by Lulu, and in Laugh Your Shorts Off: Short Stories to Make you Giggle by Award Winning Authors, published by CreateSpace.
While living in France Shawn discovered just how much she enjoyed humorous lifestyle travel writing. Since then, Shawn has been documenting her extensive travels on her website, www.shawnunderwood.com. Shawn's first book, Mommy, Are We French Yet, was published in 2010 by Fiver Star Misadventures.
These days Shawn divides her time between her "office" in the neighborhood Starbucks, (the only place she can concentrate on her writing), her three children, two poorly behaved Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, known as Mr. Big and Mr. Small, her long-suffering husband of thirty years, and her Red Cross volunteer duties.