What inspired you to write your first book?
I've wanted to be an author since I was a little girl: I wanted to be Jo in Little Women. Life gave me a push in this direction when I was seriously injured in an auto accident -- including double vision -- and the only activity I was capable of doing to relieve my boredom was to sketch out my novel on a legal pad.
What excites you most about your book's topic? Why did you choose it?
I love watching people come into their own. I've known so may extraordinarily capable women who support everyone else in their lives -- admirably so -- but never get their own turn in the limelight. I wanted to create a series where a woman acts in the limelight. And I've always worked on community political and socio-economic issues, so they are a natural backdrop for my plots.
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