Grief is natural,' she said. 'Overcoming it is a matter of choice.

Just like ice, lives crack, too. Personalities. Identities.

If I write a character, instead of looking from the outside, like maybe a journalist would, trying to describe them physically and figuring out what kind of things they might be interested in or have in their house, I don't really do it that way. I try to feel what it would be like to be inside this person, to be them.

To start with, look at all the books.

She could become a spinster, like Emily Dickinson, writing poems full of dashes and brilliance, and never gaining weight.

girls forbidden to dance would only attract husbands with bad complexions and sunken chests.

It was possible to feel superior to other people and feel like a misfit at the same time.