Recently, when I shared on Facebook that my mother banned me from her birthday after reading my new memoir, Licking the Spoon: A Memoir of Food, Family and Identity, dozens of friends piped up with variations on this sentiment: "That's why I'm waiting until my mother dies to write my memoir."

As part of my preparation for teaching at the Wild Mountain Memoir Retreat (http://www.http://bit.ly/SLis9R) this March, I came up with seven reasons not to wait.

1. You're a grownup -- and yet you're letting your mom send your writer soul to its room, not for an afternoon, but for decades? Seems like it would get in the way of you truly owning your adulthood.

2. Waiting means that a part of you is anticipating her demise. Not pleasant.

3. Mid-life is a powerful checking-in point. My book came out right before my 40th birthday. I'm really glad that I took the time to set down the bits and bobs of those first four decades. I have much more room in my memory suitcase as I embark on the second half.

Read the rest here: http://www.huff.to/W4dBBU

Licking the Spoon: A Memoir of Food, Family and Identity