I knew I wanted to write about a woman who is frustrated by rude behavior and wants to stop it. But I had to find a way to do that and still keep her realistic, sympathetic, and complex. I first thought of making her a regular woman whose anger transforms her into a superhero but that didn’t work. Having done some late-night radio appearances, I knew from experience that it’s a wacky world and one that would serve as a good vehicle to get my character where I wanted her to go. She’d have a platform from which to act and a real reason to do so. Plus, talk-radio, as we know from recent events, can be volatile and rude itself! 

I’m a California-girl-turned-New-Yorker. I love this city and had wanted to live here since I was a child, perhaps because my parents are New-Yorkers-turned-Californians. So I came right after graduating from college intending to stay a year. Now, almost thirty years later, I’m still here. Though the city often gets a bad rap, I feel very strongly that New Yorkers are the most friendly, helpful, and considerate people in the country. How else could so many people live in such a small space so successfully?

I don’t live in the downtown neighborhood where Jeannie lives, but I find it a deeply romantic area. And yes, Moss’s oasis is at 100th Street and Central Park West. But, sshh, don’t tell anyone. I’d hate it to get too crowded. It’s a beautiful pond surrounded by lovely trees and walking paths that meander. Turtles sun themselves on the rocks, there are two waterfalls, and ducks and geese make it their home. 

Entitlement really bugs me. People who feel entitled to behave inconsiderately or above the law. The woman who believes it’s not necessary for her to stand in line at the grocery store so she cuts. The man who feels the door should be opened for him so he doesn’t thank you when you do it. Who do these people think they are? Hey, it may be good to be the king, but we live in a democracy! I have dreamed of giving tickets out to people who behave badly—$50 for not picking up your dog’s poop, $25 for talking on your cell phone in a restaurant—so when Jeannie does that, I feel total satisfaction. 

Characters are the most important part of my books. They drive the story, they define the action. They come from myself, people I know, people I observe, people I want to know. Often a character may have the bones of someone I know but becomes someone else when all fleshed out. Jeannie’s father, Lou, in this book is much like my father, in that he’s funny, he has an adventurer’s heart, and is great with a yo-yo, but that’s where it ends. When you’re writing and cooking up characters, your experiences and memories all go into the pot! 

I wrote Moss thinking of George Clooney the entire time, so if he’s available, he gets the job. Otherwise the characters are open for casting. I once wrote a screenplay about a woman trying to get fired so she could collect severance, but she keeps getting promoted. It was optioned by a small independent company but has yet to see the light of day. And The Dog Walker was optioned by Reese Witherspoon and Universal. I love movies, but for me, there’s nothing as creative, challenging, and wonderful as writing a book. 

It didn’t. It only made me annoying to my publisher, since I know everything, or think I do. But being a writer is nothing like being an editor or publisher. There are no meetings, you work all alone in front of your computer screen, you’re in your own head all the time, and you don’t get to go out to lunch every day! 

The only writing I’d done was a little while in college, and lots of marketing copy for other books while in publishing. But as an editor I read lots of books, some by experienced, brilliant writers and some very good ones by novices. So I learned that the difference between those people who write and those who don’t, is that they do. Of course, I feel that if I had started earlier, I’d be a better writer by now! 

The first book you write on hope and a dream. You’re not thinking about anything but the book, you’re exhilarated by the process of the work. Writing the second book I went a little crazy. There’s the whole cliché about book #2—harder to write, harder to sell, never as good. And no wonder! You so want it to be better and you become self-conscious. 

There are many contemporary writers who I love to read—Jeffrey Eugenides, Nicole Krauss, Nick Hornby, Sara Gruen, to name a few—whose books inspire me to be a better writer. But what really moves me are the writers I know who’ve gone through hell. Those whose books weren’t selling well, and still they wrote. Those who couldn’t sell a manuscript, and still they wrote. Those who are working moms who find time to write. Those who wrote three quarters of a book and then decided it wasn’t working, stopped, and wrote another book. Writing is hard enough. But having the courage to keep writing in the face of a million reasons not to inspires me. 

When I was an editor, I edited many suspense novels and thrillers. I enjoy reading them, especially when they have rich characters and complicated plots, and when I can’t guess the ending up front. It’s possible I’d write a suspense novel one day. Also, I enjoy reading historical novels, or novels with a historical element to them, like Water for Elephants or Middlesex. It’s just that all that history takes so much research, which is daunting. I work hard, but I’m lazy at heart.