First novel arrives from Nancy Rommelmann

Those who know Nancy Rommelmann as a tough-ass reporter (and an LA Observed contributor) will be pleased to learn she has spent her Portland years well. Her first novel, "The Bad Mother," is set among street kids in Hollywood. "Several people have asked, how much research I did to write about these teenagers," she says about the book. "None. Or, not more than the osmosis that comes with driving Hollywood Boulevard every day for 18 years. But they are real to me, and have been for a long time." Cool cover, too, Plus: blurbs from some of her fellow LA Observed authors.

Also: Up in Portland, Rommelmann blogs today about women faking illnesses online in order to garner sympathy and attention from a potentially global audience, sometimes for years. This "Munchhausen by Internet" phenomenon came up in a way in her earlier pieces about the author JT LeRoy and about Laurie Recht, a mother who murdered her teenage daughter then killed herself.