Oversharing Humor Writer Heather Davis Connects with Moms Everywhere

Oklahoma author and middle school teacher, Heather Davis, connects with other mothers through her hilarious books. She didn’t always think she could write, though.

“When I was in fourth grade, I’d been reading either Encyclopedia Brown or Nancy Drew, and I decided to write my own mystery,” she said. “But I scared myself so badly with my own story that I decided that I wouldn’t do those.”

Even though mystery wasn’t the genre for her, the desire to write never completely went away. While Davis was on maternity leave with one of her daughters, she read Celia Rivenbark’s book We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier.

“It struck me as odd that I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time,” she said. “I’d been so caught up in being a new mom and doing everything right that I had let go of the fun in my life to be the perfect parent.”

Her need to write about her experiences really took off one day when she found the contents of her baby’s poopy diaper smeared on the wall near the crib. She cleaned up the mess, loaded the baby and her older daughter into the van, and headed off to her daughters’ dance class. After hurrying her daughter into the studio, she got the baby situated and looked around.

“All the other moms looked really well put together, but miserable,” she said. “We were all trying so hard to do the right things for our kids.”

Spontaneously, Davis confessed the dookie debacle from which she’d just recovered. Instantly, the tension eased, and the other parents began to share their own child-rearing disasters.

“We all do so many things that we think are wrong, but just help us get by,” Davis said. “Everyone has an opinion of what you should do, but if things don’t go as planned, that’s okay, too.”

She began blogging as the Minivan Mama, and this endeavor grew into a parenting column for her local newspaper and a column in a regional magazine. Davis developed quite a following and began writing her thoughts in book form. Buzz Books picked up the manuscript and rebranded Davis as TMI Mom.

As Davis overshares her life with her readers, she tries to avoid snarkiness.

“I saw a growth in my following when made sure that all the snarkiness was toward myself,” she said. “I post silly, but positive—I don’t have to make readers feel bad about themselves to get a laugh.”

She also weaves her faith into her writing.

“Oklahoma is the buckle of the Bible belt,” she said. “Some people think that being Christian is being `judgey.’ I’m not judgey at all—I’m pretty open-minded. I’m really liberal, and people are always asking me how I can be a Christian Democrat.”

Readers are always reaching out to Davis about how relatable her writing is. These readers are as inspirational to her as her work is to them. But she is also excited about the fact that her family has her books and blog as a record of their lives. Currently, Davis blogs at Heather-Davis.net.

“I’ve been blogging since my youngest daughter was almost two,” she said. “They have this printed word of their lives.”

Recently Davis’s mother suffered a stroke and had to move in with her family. Davis chronicled her new role as her mother’s caregiver in her book Life with Extra Cheese.

Of her busy life, Davis said, “We just evolve—I have no formula. I just make lists. And I never clean unless we’re having for-sure company, then we just shove things out of the way.”

Currently, Davis is indie-published through Road Trip Media, LLC. Her books are all available on Amazon for Kindle. In fact, 87% of her sales are Kindle downloads, which is probably reflective of her readership.

“I write for moms in the drop-off lane and the ball field,” she said. “They can get these books delivered wirelessly to their phones and other devices.”

With nearly ten books in print, Davis has come a long way from a fourth grader whose own writing completely freaked her out.

“The number one thing to remember with writing is to just do it,” she said. “Now, I’m calling my own shots, and it seems to be working out pretty well.”

When you’re done shopping for Heather’s books on Amazon, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Meaningful-Connections-In-The-Classroom