My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet): My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet)

Dr. Gwyneth Berke has a perfect life...until one day she walks into her pantry, lets out a little scream of disbelief and begins the following list:

What to do when you find out that your husband is in love with your interior decorator, Brad (or, A Midlife Crisis Checklist):
--Get divorced (this is a must!)
--Quickly discover a lifetime supply of humor (this will also help with your children and your mentally deteriorating father)
--Stop sulking, show a little spirit and start a new life plan (also a must)
--Recruit your two very dear, newly single friends to help you with it
--Don't look back and enjoy the ride!

Toby Devens was born in Brooklyn, New York and by age five was performing as a singer and actress on stage and television. She "retired" at thirteen, to resume a happy, conventional childhood.

She was graduated from The American University in Washington, D.C. with a B.A. in English literature. At AU, she became the first female editor of the college literary magazine, was named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, and was elected Most Outstanding Senior Woman. In her senior year, she won first prize, feature division, in a national journalism competition sponsored by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

After a brief stint as the youngest writer on the public relations staff of AARP, she returned to Manhattan where she earned a M.A., also in English, from New York University. As New York editor for WHERE magazine, she gained experience in putting out a weekly publication and a few pounds reviewing restaurants and opening nights of supper clubs, as well as Broadway shows. She was a writer and senior editor at Harcourt Brace publications when she met her future husband interviewing him at a medical conference. The couple moved to Maryland, where Toby worked in corporate and health-related communications until the birth of her daughter, Amanda.

Toby Devens' first book, Mercy Lord, My Husband's in the Kitchen, was published by Doubleday in hardcover and Avon in soft. It received glowing reviews from People magazine, the West Coast Review of Books, the New York Daily News, and other newspapers around the country. Excerpts from the book were published as a McCall's center spread and later as a full page in the magazine. Her poetry, short fiction, and articles have appeared in such publications as Reader's Digest, Family Circle, McCall's and Parents magazine, among many others.

Most recently, she served as senior vice president for an international network of transplant banks, supervising public relations and media outreach for more than fifty transplant banks across the U.S. and abroad, from India to Greece, Slovakia to Egypt. Traveling extensively, involved hands-on, she had a front row seat to cutting-edge biotechnology and medical advances around the globe. Her writing related to medical issues has appeared in numerous professional publications and scientific journals. She continues to write and consult in the medical field.

She has lectured, counseled and taught in areas as diverse as drug abuse prevention, crisis intervention, and childbirth education.

The inspiration for My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet) emerged from her most recent sojourn into singlehood. She currently lives in a Maryland suburb halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.