I really try to focus on my books and readers.
It's a funny thing - when I'm crazed with work, spending time with my children relaxes me. Yet, at the end of a long weekend with them, the very thing I need to relax is a little work and time away from them!
I think it's important to try to be present with whatever it is you're doing. And if you can't be present, take a break.
Often I feel that projects overwhelm us when we look at how many hours are involved until completion. But just getting started is usually not that difficult.
A theme in a lot of my books - and in my own life - is making choices that you feel you should make, or what society wants you to make, as opposed to what is truly right for you.
I like to match what I wear to my book jacket - it's a little bit cheesy, but it's my thing.
My mother has always been an Anglophile and taught my sister and me to love British history and literature.
I never outline my novels before I write. I do have a vague sense of beginning, middle, and end at the outset of each book, but for me, writing has always been a very character-driven process.
To write convincingly, I think you must be able to relate, in some way, to what a character is experiencing.
For an interesting nonfiction read, I really enjoyed 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. I read it with my husband, who is a true introvert, whereas I am an introvert masquerading as an extrovert.
Like the rest of the planet, I'm absolutely dying to see Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' and am thrilled that Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in it - he's perfect.
'Something Borrowed' was initially titled 'Rolling the Dice,' but my editor said it sounded like a men's gambling memoir.
I write about messy relationships, and they put pastel covers on them, but I can't complain.
I find flawed characters much more interesting than perfect ones and enjoy the challenge of making readers root for them in spite of their unsympathetic path and destructive choices.
My books are all relationship-focused, so much of my inspiration comes from my own relationships and the issues and concerns that arise among my friends and family.
I think exercise is critical to my writing and an essential way to recharge.
I'm a huge Elizabeth Berg fan. Her novels are always charming, thoughtful, and filled with lively, three-dimensional characters.
I've been obsessed with the Kennedys since I was a child, and Bobby Kennedy is, hands down, my favorite among them.
My books aren't autobiographical.
I did read all my old diaries and was quite surprised by the overwhelming melancholic tone. I remember things being rosier than they really were.
