Author Reads New Creepy Novel at Skylight Books Wednesday

Imagine this: Your mom dies. She is cryogenically frozen. She comes back to life. As an infant. 

That is the premise behind Carla Tomaso's fifth book, Frozen, a dark comedy about a daughter’s determination to create the good mother she always wanted. 

Tomaso will read an excerpt from her latest novel at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Skylight Books, which just celebrated its 16th anniversary. 

A longtime Pasadena resident and a teacher in Sierra Madre, Tomaso says she wrote Frozen to help work through the anger and longing that her own narcissistic mother caused. 

Patch interviewed her to learn more.

Patch: Your book is a bit dark. Do people really hate their moms that much?  

Carla Tomaso: Some people hate their moms a lot for good reasons. I think it's a healthy-ish way to defuse all the despair and internalization of the negative feelings a narcissistic mother can engender in a child. For awhile at least. The hope, of course, is that the "child" can move through this anger to a "better" place, acceptance, forgiveness and all that. check out the many web sites for children of narcissistic parents.

Patch: Do you hate your mom that much?

CT: I did. Wow. For a good part of my life I had murderous fantasies. One of my books is titled MATRICIDE. This novel, FROZEN, helped me to move on by using sci fi, dark humor and yes, murder, to that "better" place I mentioned above. And lots of therapy.

Patch: What drew you to the idea of cryogenics? Walt Disney? 

Cryogenics came into my mind like a thunderbolt (see Frankenstein) several years ago as a way to engage a fictional mother and daughter in a bizarre dance of redemption.

Patch: So I hear you think Pasadena in the best place on earth to live. Is this true? 

CT: Well, more and more I love Pasadena. I can't believe I grew up here and still am engaged by the architecture, culture and people. Plus it's beautiful, full of natural places to dog walk and interesting restaurants. Where can you live and see the Rose Parade a few blocks away?

Patch: The protagonist in your novel is a lesbian. How has your sexuality shaped this character? 

CT: Well, not to be cliched, but I believe the narrator has always been looking for a mother, so maybe that's the answer to part of her issues with intimacy etc.

Patch: Why should locals come out to your book reading Wednesday at Skylight Books? 

CT: Skylight Books is near great restaurants and is in itself a wonderful, artsy, leftie bookstore with an art and architecture annex. Parking can be tough so come early and shop and eat. And, I'm charming and articulate and my writing is funny.

Patch: Frozen is your fifth novel. What's next for Carla Tomaso? 

CT: I'm starting to work on a play about a teacher and a student. Playwriting feels very different from writing a novel. Lighter and more active.

For more on the book, visit its Facebook page here. 

To purchase the book, which will be released November 12, visit Tomaso's website here.