I couldn't help but think, This car is taking me to a mental hospital and my mother is treating it like open-mic night at a Greenwich Village café.

And of course, the answer came to me in the same way Jesus comes to those who drink in trailers: as an epiphany.

I've learned how to turn the adversities in my life into enriching experiences. You can actually gain a lot from adversities and they make you the person you are today.

I felt deeply tricked. Stunned. And furious. I also felt my default emotion: numbness.

It terrified me to consider: What if, as a grown-up, I craved another body beside me as still as this one? What then?

When I first thought of being a writer I had visions of stacks of books in stores with my name on them, that sort of thing. But I never imagined this would be the reaction.

I've overcome a lot - sexual abuse, death of a loved one, bad parents and experienced life. My nature is such I not only survived all this but I have thrived. I've always been psychologically ambitious in that I've never been willing to settle emotionally for anything less then what's needed. I've wanted more then that from life.