Fun Facts for “The Before and After of Molly Baldwin”

Factoid One
First book in the series in which the names of the main characters both start with the same letter.

Factoid Two
Although this is technically Book 12 in the Carlsbad series, I finished this one before I finished Book 11

Factoid Three
This is the first book in the series which bears the name of one of the main characters.

Factoid Three
This book has the longest title in the series.

Factoid Four
Like Molly, my girlfriend is also into collecting chemises.

Factoid Five
In Chapter 5, when Molly quips about knowing exactly how much her shopping bags weigh after she handed them over to the shop girl…
A week before I wrote that line, I used the same wisecrack when me and my friends were out shopping one day, and we handed bags full of purchases we had made in other stores over to a different shop assistant.

Factoid Six
In Chapter 8, when Malina is on cupcake guard duty…
That also happened to me when I was at the fifth birthday party for the son of one of my married friends.
For some reason, that friend thought it would be a great idea to invite all of her single, no-kid-having friends to the party. We all just pretty much glommed together, feeling completely out of place among all the parents and small kids, and sneaking into the house to add vodka to our punch.
In any case, eventually, I was tapped for cupcake guard duty, and, like what happened to Malina, some guy who was there with his son decided to “assist” me and started hitting on me.

Factoid Seven
This is yet another book in which I mention espadrille sandals. That’s because I love espadrille sandals, and have, like, six pairs.

Factoid Eight
Malina has an employee named Danae—mentioned as one of her trusted lieutenants at the yoga studio.
I have a good friend named Danae who lives in the Bay Area of California, and who is a yogini.

Factoid Nine
The Sacred Sapphic Scrolls are real, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Factoid Ten
Molly’s statement that she would love to see Malina dressed in the uniform of a Pacific Southwest Airlines stewardess, circa 1960s, was no accident.
I happened to see a photo of those women in an advertising book I own, and I absolutely love the uniforms they used to wear!

Bonus Factoid
The conversation in Chapter 21 between Malina and Molly, about what each of them are like on their periods, mirrors almost exactly a similar conversation my girlfriend and I had on the same topic early in our relationship.