Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.

Sell my old clothes - I'm off to heaven

It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.

I have no respect for the right-to-life position. But when you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion. The Catholic Church may espouse its opinion on abortion to the members of its congregation. But they are in violation of separation of church and state when they try to proselytize their abortion politics on people who are not Catholics.