Don't Tell Your Mother

About the Book

From a World War II plane crash to chasing an axe murderer, Don´t Tell Your Mother is an episodic novel told from the point of view of a young girl as she negotiates life in Arizona with her angry, bitter mother and her charming polo-player father, all against the backdrop of World War II. Her accounts are humorous, dry, and have a detachment found only in an innocent but resilient child.

On her journey from childhood to adolescence she tries to comprehend adult behavior. Along the way she is exposed to molestation, a friend´s incest, a stranger´s suicide, a hacksaw murderer adultery, mental illness, a gangster, and an escaped German prisoner. She also experiences great love and tenderness from ordinary people: housekeepers, gardeners, teacher, neighbors, and relatives.

Several of the chapters in this book have been previously published: "Winnie Ruth Judd" in Phantasmagoria ; "Mrs. King" in RE:AL, A Literary Journal and "Cousin Chickie," in Oregon East.

About the Author

Elaine R. Warick is a medical writer/editor who lives in Los Angeles with her husband Lawrence, a psychiatrist. Together they have written articles on the Norwegian author Edvard Munch. which have appeared in Psychoanalytic Perspecive on Art and The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. Her poetry has appeared in Eureka Literary Magazine, Long Shot, Midstream, Mindprints, International Poetry Review, Paintbrush, Rattle, and The Pikeville Review. She was nominated for a 2005 Pushcart Prize. Elaine received her degree in English Literature from U.C.L.A.