MoonPies and Movie Stars »

Amy Wallen is the host of the open-mic night for San Diego Writers, Ink, and teaches creative writing at the University of California, San Diego. This is her first novel.

A laugh-out-loud romp across America pits a feisty Texas momma against the Hollywood machine

Ruby Kincaid is busy these days—running her late husband's bowling alley, wrangling her pistol of a sister, and chasing after the two grandchildren her daughter abandoned. When she sees her runaway daughter Violet starring in a TV commercial, there's only one choice and Ruby knows it—Hollywood or bust. Ruby packs a Winnebago with two friends, two unruly grandkids, and a mondo-size package of MoonPies and hightails it to California to fetch her wayward daughter. In a madcap road trip from the dusty flats of Texas to the glittering aisles of The Price Is Right, Ruby survives with a little pluck and some Texas spunk. Fans of Lorna Landvik and Billie Letts will love this tender and side-splittingly funny story of indomitable spirit and unstoppable force. BACKCOVER: Praise for Amy Wallen and MoonPies and Movie Stars:
“To read MoonPies and Movie Stars is to take a delightful and exhilarating journey, kind of like being on a tour bus guided by Eudora Welty on speed.”
—Mary Gordon, author of Pearl

“With a pitch-perfect ear for comic dialogue and a fine sense of the absurd, Amy Wallen writes herself a place on the porch swing of great Southern writing.”
—Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander

Los Angeles Times

Spirited and honest...Wallen capably illustrates that it is not only possible but also compelling to be funny, captivating, and compassionate, all in the same book.