I never want to be a role model.

Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.

I am single and childless, but I have lots of friends and I am an aunt to three lovely children.

A typical day for me is I get up at 6:00, the coffeemaker goes on automatically and the computer gets turned on. I pour a cup of coffee, listen to Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, and then I write.

My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it. After I write, I go to work at the bookstore.

If there is anything that I think I might use later, I underline it.

I love words; I love the way they sound. Once I've worked on everything else, the last drafts of my books come down to how they sound.