Gayle Carline does not believe in perfect families. She does believe in tall tales, however, and is willing to stretch the truth until it’s paper thin. She’s been writing a humor column for the Placentia News-Times, a local paper affiliated with the Orange County Register, since 2005. Aiming for slice-of-life, Erma Bombeck-style stories, she tells tales about her husband, their son, and their various distractions, from pets to car repair. At first, she thought she was writing to entertain people. After she heard from readers telling her how much their lives mirrored her own, she realized why she was writing—to feel like part of a community. Her stories of gentle wit and family absurdities should be recognizable to every perfectly imperfect family everywhere.