By Camylle Fleming

Author Heather Haldeman’s debut memoir Kids & Cocktails Don’t Mix (Apprentice House Press, June 2021) explores machinations of gender and power dynamics in the 1960s and ’70s as Heather comes of age and must decide how she wants her own life to look.

When Heather’s father abandons the family to chase a wealthy woman, her once opulent lifestyle is turned upside down. Complete with a bathing suit-by-the-pool photo resume, Heather’s mother sets out to find a new husband.

Granddaughter of the Governor of California, Heather Grew up in an exclusive gated community in Los Ángeles with celebrities and political figures as neighbors, pool parties and cocktails flowing, children seen and not heard, and with moments straight out of “Mad Men.” Yet, nothing in Heather’s young life is as it appears. Cars are repossessed and the fashionable house they live in is crumbling to pieces.

Heather, together with her glamorous mother Marilyn, must find must find the grit to keep going forward. Which of the many inheritances of her parents will she keep, and which will she jettison?

Heather Haldeman lives in Pasadena, California, and spends some time in Utah. She has a loving husband, three grown children, and two granddaughters. Her work has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Chicken Soup for the Soul, From Freckles to Wrinkles, Grandmother Earth, The Mom Egg, and numerous online journals. While she has received many prizes for her essays, Kid’s & Cocktails Don’t Mix is her debut book.