Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown

Patrick Sanchez delivers a hilarious, moving, and all-too-true snapshot of a generation of women stretched between extremes, frazzled by time and tides, and determined to make everything work without losing themselves in the process.

Jennifer Costas has her hands full. She's the single mother of a five-year-old son;her full-time job is only getting busier;her force-of-nature college roommate recently showed up on her doorstep in need of a place to stay. . .indefinitely;her increasingly cranky "old-world" mother answers the phone every morning with, "I'm not dead," and her newly out-of-the-closet ex-husband is constantly late with his child support payments while he tries to get his new restaurant, Gonads (think gay Hooters) off the ground. She feels guilty about not making "stay-at-home mom cookies" and wary about tip-toeing into the dating scene carrying thirty-six years' worth of baggage. Having it all means juggling it all, and Jennifer's trying desperately not to drop anything. But just when Jennifer thinks she's operating at maximum capacity, her mother's health begins to fail. Faced with taking care of her mother in addition to her son, keeping her career on track, and maintaining some semblance of a social life, Jennifer's in for the ride of her life--one that will challenge her sense of humor, her sense of self, and her sense of sanity.

"A wonderful read! I loved it!"--Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, New York Times bestselling author on Tight

"A frank comedy of manners that exposes both the highs and lows of the modern quest for youth and beauty."--Kirkus Reviews on Tight

Patrick Sanchez grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. After surviving twelve years of Catholic school, Patrick attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he majored in psychology (with a minor in naps, The Price Is Right, and The Young and the Restless). Prior to his career as a novelist, Patrick worked as a professional writer in sales and marketing for a managed healthcare company in Falls Church, Virginia. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with a vindictive dachshund named Gomez.