Through the news studio window, the New York City streets and skyline glistened in the morning sunlight as Cary resident Amanda Lamb sat in the guest chair on “The Today Show.” She was on the show several weeks ago to be interviewed about her first book, Smotherhood, a book of humorous and honest essays about motherhood.

Lamb was relaxed and personable, answering questions from anchor Ann Curry and discussing the struggles of working mothers. The Sept. 10 appearance garnered tremendous publicity for the book, sending sales numbers upward.

Afterward, “Smotherhood” was listed No. 4 in the parenting category on the Amazon hit rankings. Lamb, the mother of two young daughters, is currently balancing her job and parenting duties with book signings.

Lamb is well known in the Triangle area because she has been a reporter for WRAL-TV for the past 13 years, covering mostly hard news and crime. But not many people know that Lamb is also an author with two books coming out in the next year. Her other book is a true crime story called “Deadly Dose,” which is about the Eric Miller arsenic murder and is told from the perspective of a veteran homicide investigator whose crusade for truth finally led to an arrest. The book will be released in June.

I met Lamb over a decade ago when she first came to a meeting of the local writers group I had been a member of for several years. At the time, I had two young sons, and she was yet to have children, although she and her husband were contemplating the decision. I remember her saying she really enjoyed sleeping in past 11 a.m. on the weekends and how she guessed they wouldn’t be able to do that any longer if they had kids.

I looked at her and said point blank, “Amanda, with kids, there’s no way you’d sleep past 11. You’d be lucky to make it to 8.” Her smile faded when I said this, but I figured I’d better level with her about the realities of parenthood. This news must not have been too dissuading for her because several years later, Lamb and her husband had their first child.

She has now seen some of those realities of parenting up close and personal. Along the way, she started to write about these experiences and eventually became a regular blogger on dot-moms.com, a Web site featuring 40 women from around the world who blog about being a mom.

Lamb started writing longer pieces about parenting and submitted them to the members of the writers group. The theme of a lot of her essays was the juxtaposition of her two different worlds: one world filled with reporting from murder trials in a courtroom or from a Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf coast, while her other world was consumed by potty training, setting up play dates, preschool volunteer responsibilities and Indian Princesses.

Our writers group members told her we thought there was definitely an audience for her essays. “Really?” Lamb asked. “You think so?” She began putting together the book, and her mother came up with the perfect name for it; the title “Smotherhood” says a lot in itself: Mothers love their children immensely, but sometimes, yes, to be candid, it does feel like we’re smothered by all the demands and expectations placed on us.

Soon Lamb had an agent, then a publisher, and then suddenly somehow, she found herself on “The Today Show.” When her publicist called her to tell her he’d booked her on the show, she admits she was overwhelmed. “That’s every author’s dream,” she said, “but believe it or not, I was a little nervous knowing the whole country, including my parents, would be watching.”

She said her mom and dad sent out hundreds of e-mails telling everyone to tune in and that they got a huge kick out of watching, particularly because they live in Pennsylvania and rarely get to see her on television. Lamb said her children, 7-year-old Mallory and 4-year-old Chloe, don’t know the difference between national and local TV so for them it was just another day at the office for Mommy. Then Lamb added, “Except for the fact that I was gone overnight in New York, which annoyed them to no end.”

Lamb’s honesty in “Smotherhood” surprises some people. Lamb said she says things out loud in the book that women think about but are afraid to say because women have been socialized not to say anything negative about motherhood. “It’s about those times,” Lamb explained, “when your kids are having meltdowns and you think about walking out the door, getting in your car and driving away, but you don’t of course.

“It’s about those times when they are driving you crazy and you do something that’s not politically correct — like let those balloons from the grocery store out the sunroof after your kids have hit them into your face while you’re driving one too many times.”

Lamb said there is a constant supply of material to write about with young kids. And with a possible “Smotherhood 2” on the horizon, she’s glad she has an endless source of inspiration for parenting anecdotes. Even if it means she doesn’t get to sleep in past eleven on weekends.

Book signings
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m. Cameron Village Library, Raleigh
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m. “Mothers and More” open house, Apex
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Cary Public Library
For information on Amanda Lamb’s book, go to smother hoodbook.com.