There is no level of professional rejection that can compare to almost dying.

In high school, I decided that all of my female friends were stupid and traded them for guy friends. I loved horror movies and heavy metal and used these interests to become a 'guys' girl.'

I had a tightly knit group of female friends in elementary school - we called ourselves the Sensational Six.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but I imagine a lot of married and divorced people have insights to share about how they felt during their engagement.

Like so many others, I came to romance during the golden age of it - Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey and Jude Deveraux were at the height of their historical domination. Without those women, I wouldn't be a romance novelist.

I think marriage is a boring and fault-ridden contractual obligation.

Marriage has just never interested me.

But how can one criticise someone else's mother? One shouldn't, really... particularly as my first marriage failed.