Knowing there's one thing I still haven't told you: I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen.

Remember: A best-selling book usually follows a simple rule, It's a wonderful story, wonderfully told; not, It's a wonderfully told story.

What problems?" "Well for starters.. you're an evil duck killer.

I mean, if the relationship can't survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?

Where does a story truly begin? In life, there are seldom clear-cut beginnings, those moments when we can, in looking back, say that everything started. Yet there are moments when fate intersects with our daily lives, setting in motion a sequence of events whose outcome we could never have foreseen.

I think that setting a novel in a small town taps into a sense of nostalgia among readers. People tend to believe life is different in small towns, and frankly, it is different.

I read over a hundred books a year and have done so since I was fifteen years old, and every book I've read has taught me something.