This was a very progressive group of clergy who foresaw the race riots that were going to take place when Dr. King started helping the local civil rights community push for open housing. They were sort of hoping against hope that we could educate kids in a way that could counter some of the racist messages they were imbibing at home. I don't know whether we did any good, but it changed my life in every single way.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book

The crime novel has always been my favourite genre.

Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel

I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11

Hard to remember who is more dangerous: the people who are attacking our liberties overseas, or those who are suppressing them at home.