Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to the Webby-nominated podcast, Moms don't have time to read books.

Thanks so much to my latest sponsor, the MermaidPillow Company, Mermaidpillow.com. They make these amazing pillows with

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10% off, which is super cool. So please check them out, mermaidpPillow.com. I'm really excited to be interviewing Mary Laura Phil PUTt. Mary Laura is the author of I Miss You When I Blink, a memoir written in essays, which was chosen as number one on the Indy Next list by booksellers nationwide. She also wrote and illustrated Penguins with People problems. She She has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, and many others. She is the founding editor of Musing, the online magazine of Parnass's books, and is the Emmy-winning co-host of the literary interview show, A Word on Words on Nashville Public Television. She currently lives in Nashville

with her family. So welcome, Mary Laura. Thanks so much for coming on. Moms don't have time to read books.

Thank you for having me. This is great fun. We met at the LA Times Book Festival when I basically

accosted you on stage, if you remember, and I was like, you have to be on my podcast. I was just trying to

think back to where we met. I was like, I know it was an event, and you came up after, and I,

and I traveled so much so quickly that something started to run together, and I couldn't picture

the place, and that's where it was. That's where it was. Which was great. That was. That was a fun panel. That was great. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. That was a good group. We had for people who are listening, we had Heather Haveleski, who is one of my favorite essayists of all time.

Kathy Goose. She wrote, she's so good. She wrote, what if this were enough? And then Lori Gottlieb, who wrote, maybe you should

talk to someone, which came out the same day my book did. And then Kathy Guyswhite, like Kathy

the cartoon, the real person Kathy was there. That was so fun. That was so fun. And Kathy and

Lori both are on my podcast also. I'm like going through the panel.

You did it. That's great. So your book, a collection of essays slash memoir called different

things in different places, is fantastic. And like I felt like it was so relatable. I felt like I could

have written this whole, like you were like, were in my mind. So anyway, could you please tell listeners what it's about and what inspired

you to write it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it's, I always feel like I should say at the beginning what it is.

So I miss you when I blank is a memoir told in essays. So you could pick it up and put it down at any

point and any single essay would make

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