Jillian Green DiGiacomo

Watchung Booksellers had author, Jillian Green DiGiacomo, visit the bookstore to promote and read her newest book, 'Codename Cupcake.'

New Jersey native Jillian Green DiGiacomo promoted her new book, ‘Codename Cupcake,’ at Watching Booksellers.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, author Jillian Green DiGiacomo came to Watchung Booksellers in Montclair for a fun event to promote her new book, Codename Cupcake. A synopsis for the book found on Watchungbooksellers.com reveals the story as being “an old fashioned stay-at-home-mom turned super-hero spy novel. It is the story of Molly Peterson, a frazzled mother of two, who is recruited by a super spy agency to infiltrate the PTA at her own son’s elementary school.”

They rave about the novel, stating, “Codename Cupcake offers a new twist on the superhero genre. It is a send up of motherhood, the PTA, comic books and spy novels. It is fast paced and funny with the underlying message that life really is better when you have super powers.” It’s already got a five-star rating on Amazon and The Montclair Times describes it as “a witty spoof of spy thrillers.”

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She grew up and still lives in New Jersey, and describes the beginning thought process of writing her book on her website. She explained, “I had two kids, two dogs, a husband who wore a business suit to work every day and I lived in the suburbs. Not a lot of drama. Not a lot of mystery. On the surface, anyway. I wanted to write a story about a mom. A real mom, in the trenches. That’s something I knew intimately. I wanted to present a kickass answer to that most infuriating question: ‘Are you working OR are you home with your kids?’ I’m home with the kids AND I’m working!”

Jillian Green DiGiacomo admitted that the story was based on her own personal experiences and feelings about the ups and downs of motherhood: “I don’t think anybody can do everything. You can’t have a day where you have the home-cooked meal and you’re playing Monopoly with your kids and you’ve read them a book for two hours. But over the course of a lifetime you experience a full life.”

It may not sound as exciting as superheroes and spy agencies, but to DiGiacomo, the adventures in her story are just a falsified version of those she faces in real life. “Before writing Codename Cupcake, I had never dreamed I’d ever write a spy novel. But once I created a superhero, I had to give that hero a crime to solve and a villain to defeat. That meant stretching the bounds of what I knew. And to my surprise, it all came together: Turning my suburban mom character into a supermom forced me to examine ‘normal’ everyday life in the suburbs and present it in a unique and heightened manner.”

This event at Watchung Booksellers was just one of many the bookstore offers in order to promote books and reading, and it was truly a treat to have Digiacomo present as a successfully published novelist. To stay up to date and find out more about upcoming events, you can visit Watchung Booksellers at 54 Fairfield Street in Montclair, or call at 973-744-7177.

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