If relationships were hard, mariage was even harder... it seemed like most couples struggled. It went with the territory. What did Nana always say? Stick two different people with two different sets of expectations under one roof and it ain't always going to be shrimp and grits on Easter.

I want her to be smart and kind... and I want you to fall in love with her, because you shouldn't spend the rest of your life alone.

And suddenly she knew exactly why Catherine had fallen in love with him. It wasn't that he was unusually attractive, or ambitious, or even charming. He was partly those things, but more important, he seemed to live life on his own terms.

In all love stories the theme is love and tragedy, so by writing these types of stories, I have to include tragedy.

You know how gossip is. It's the toxic waste of small town

I'd like to be remembered not only for my body of work but also for specific novels. Ideally, I want to be remembered in the same way as Stephen King, who defined and exemplified excellence in the horror genre in the late 20th and early 21st century.

That he would love her no matter what she told him, and that he was the kind of man who loved her already and would love her forever.