My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

When I was 12 years old, I read Nancy Drew mysteries and biographies of Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale and books about girls who love horses or go to nursing school. I belonged to the Girl Scouts and got A's in school and rarely disobeyed my parents. I still kept a collection of Barbie dolls in my room, and I almost never spoke to boys.

Before I had children I always wondered whether their births would be, for me, like the ultimate in gym class failures. And I discovered instead... that I'd finally found my sport.

My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer?

The word NO, carries a lot more meaning when spoken by a parent who also knows how to say yes.

There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets.

I compromised my ability to tell my story, at the most basic level.