THE MOMMY HEIST – stand-alone with series potential 

Log Line: What if a private school’s fancy gala was robbed by the fundraising committee?

Main Character’s Names: Georgia and Lucy  

Stakes and struggles: Georgia, a neurodivergent single mom with two sons at a private school for learning disabilities and a daughter in and out of legal trouble, and a wealthy ex-husband who abused the legal system to get out of paying child support and threaten her custody, is facing mounting medical bills for her youngest’s treatments for a life-threatening disease, lawyer fees, and tuition, none of which she has the cash for. Lucy, another private school mom is being jerked around by an emotionally abusive and sexually predatory head master because she can’t pay the tuition or her other bills after she has lost her restaurant along with her husband, who has just been diagnosed with MS.  

Character’s goals: Desperate for money, Georgia and Lucy hatch a plan to infiltrate the school’s rich mommy group and steal from them during playdates and the exclusive gala fundraising committee meetings at their homes. Decked out in wealthy looking thrift store finds, they sit through their “new friends’” vlog filming and MLM presentations, dutifully sifting through piles of Lularoe leggings and sniffing essential oils while secretly staking out their homes. With the help of their kids, they manage to pilfer jewels and money lying around as the committee members offer their private jets and ski homes for the upcoming gala auction. But just when Lucy and Georgia are about to get away with enough loot to pay for lifesaving medicine for Georgia’s son, Lucy’s late mortgage payments, and their kids’ tuitions, they are caught. However, right before Lucy and Georgia are turned over to the police, the mommy group discovers that they now all have a new shared goal that requires all of them to work together for the sake of their kids, and themselves.   (shared goal is this: they found out that the school is shutting down after the school year and all the money they are raising is going to go to administration as bonuses). They get really, really mad at being used and plots to steal the gala money that they worked so hard to raise.

Themes: Friendship and finding friendship in unexpected places; Losing yourself in the role of motherhood; Finding yourself and coming out stronger; Fuck the patriarchy. 

Comp titles: BIG LITTLE LIES, by Liane Moriarty; FIRST WIVES CLUB, by Olivia Goldsmith; THE WINE CLUB, by Laurie Lisa; BAD MOMS: THE NOVEL, by Nora McInerny. Similar TV Shows and Movies: DEAD TO ME; GOOD GIRLS 

Book’s genre and category: Contemporary/Book Club Fiction  

WIP: Mystery/thriller

 Two timelines: Summer of 1988 and Winter 2018 (after Christmas)

Setting: small touristy Minnesota lake town with big golf/lake resort 

Clare had pushed the summer of 1988 out of her memories, the summer of working at the fancy golf and lake resort in her home town, the summer after she graduated high school and finally started dating her crush of the last two years, the cowboy a few years older who runs the barn at the resort, the summer where she was the happiest she had ever been and preparing to go to the U in the fall, the summer where her beloved younger brother was found dead in the creek on the forth hole.

 Recently divorced, Clare just wanted to get her family’s cabin cleared out and ready to sell, all while trying to avoid her home town as much as possible. But when she found possible new evidence in her brother’s unsolved death in her dad’s old boxes, her quick trip to the small northern Minnesota lake town goes up in the air, especially when her old boyfriend mysteriously shows up to help her figure out what had happened to her brother almost thirty years ago.

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