A Conversation with Barbara Graham

Meet Barbara Graham. She's a writer, a wife, and an all-around elegant woman (look at those cool eyeglasses!) -- and she's also that normally least hip of things, a grandmother.  

Graham talks to me in this interview about how she realized that when she became a grandmother, she didn't have a road map for how to behave. While talking to her peers, she realized they didn't know how to behave towards their grandchildren, either (let alone towards their now-adult children as parents). She also talks about why those conversations led her to develop an anthology, "Eye of My Heart: 27 Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother" (HarperCollins). 

As Graham says, "You have no say" as a grandmother, which can be devastating to mothers who spent years intimately involved in their children's lives, only to learn that those children now have very different (even opposite!) ideas about how to raise their own offspring. The beauty of having so many different writers contribute to "Eye of My Heart" is that every reader will find some aspect of grandmotherhood that echoes her own.

Will there be a book about grandfatherhood? You'll have to watch the interview to find out -- but Graham has some pretty specific views about that. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about this lovely, loving collection.