A: Living it! One of the things that make people so interesting is how they choose to spend their time. Some people read, some people surf and some people collect beer cans. All of these things tell you something and it’s great fun for me to imagine exactly what details reveal. I grew up being fairly shy and always observant and for me that was excellent training for writing characters. The books I enjoy the most tend to be written in a very casual confessional way.

There was a waitress who worked in a restaurant in my hometown. I was having lunch with my sister one day and we were talking to this woman and she said she’d never been out of Reading, PA. "Never?" we asked, not quite believing it. "Well, once I went to Pottstown. I didn’t like it," she said. She was seemingly content. Whether she is happy or not is not the point of course, it’s just an amazing story that in the era of cars, planes and the internet that a person wouldn’t be slightly curious about what lies 15 miles north, or 50 miles north of where they are standing. These are the kinds of characters I adore.

It’s important to me that the things characters say seem like things people might really say. Combined with details such as naming one’s car or obsessively collecting bread ties that makes characters feel real to me. If I read dialogue that doesn’t ring true, it starts to negate the whole story.

Q: What is the novel writing process like for you? Do you belong to a writing group? Where do you get your ideas?

A: I don’t belong to a writers group, and now that you mention it I don’t think I’ve ever been invited to join one. Should I be worried?

I write alone, now. I spend half days either in my office or at a writers room at the local library. Getting away from the office can be very helpful if I’m in a slow phase of work. I really enjoy the solitude of the work and always have.

My ideas mainly come from my experiences and then twisting them beyond recognition until they almost start to look familiar to me again - if that makes sense. Or they come from seeing a person walk down the street and something about that person makes such an impression on me that I can’t let the image go and need to "write" a history for them and turn them into a character. The character of The Cadaver from Girls’ Poker Night was based on a woman I saw in a coffee shop regularly. There is a piece in GPN where a man is standing by the side of the road with a bed sheet and on it painted I heart Beth - for weeks I thought about that guy and what he could have done to Beth that would make him stand on the side of a highway with a sign on a bed sheet. I couldn’t not write about it. Even now I want to track him down and find out what was going on.

When I wrote for the Letterman Show my day was divided into time spent writing alone, and time spent in a writers room. It’s extremely entertaining to spend a half a day in a room with the worlds funniest writers. I always seemed to get a whole lot more written while in my office alone though - but so much of that has to do with me and my personality than it does with a group structure. Certainly the opportunity to bounce ideas off of people, or enhance an idea is incredibly valuable.

Q: In Girls’ Poker Night, Ruby likes the word "cinematic." Will either of your novels be made into films?

A: Gosh, I hope so! I had a great experience making a television pilot with Tracy Pollan. It was incredibly exciting to write a script and see what chain reaction that set into motion.

There is a wonderful street in the West Village of NYC called Perry Street. I lived near Perry Street for many years and whenever I walked down that street I would imagine a scence being shot there. Then, eventually one morning I was walking down that same street at 5:30 a.m. and I was watching the camera crew laying track down for the rolling camera and I was just blown away that I wrote a scene where my character Anna (played by Tracy) is walking down the street and suddenly they’ve shut down Perry Street to film and inconvenience neighbors. It was wonderful!

Q: Who are your literary influences? What do you enjoy reading for fun?

A: I’ve always loved comedy. Certainly Dave Letterman was an influence. I am a huge fan of Woody Allen both his books and movies. Growing up I had a very worn copy of Phyllis Diller’s Housecleaning Tips, and as an 8-year-old I found it to be hilariously funny.

For fun I read fiction. I think Richard Russo is probably one of my all time favorite writers. He’s just amazing. Tim O’Brien is great. I love short stories and have always enjoyed Ellen Gilchrist. I read Carol Shields, John Updike, Henry Miller, Richard Yates, Tennesee Williams. I just returned from vacation and read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book. I also read poetry. I was a student of Franz Wright’s at Emerson College in Boston. Picking up a book of poetry and getting the chance to read it and absorb it feels like such a luxury - it probably means I’m on a vacation.

Q: Risk-taking is a theme in your novels and you play out the idea in terms of games like poker. Do you enjoy playing poker?

A: If you can learn to take risks it seems to me you really can’t have a single regret.

I did play poker for a while. It was especially fun to get a group together before Girls’ Poker Night was published, because my friends had read galleys of the book and they were all excited. Now, I have a daughter and I view those games slightly differently. I think they are a wonderful excuse to get friends together because when life gets busy it’s hard to get that time with friends. I can remember when I was little and my mother had a regular bridge game. I’d be in bed when they played at our house and I could hear their cackling laughter up in my room. That’s probably what poker is about - an excuse to be with other people and hopefully laugh.

Q: What upcoming projects are you working on?

A: I’m working on another novel, and the paperback version of Ask Again Later will be published on January 29th, so I’m also focusing on a short tour of readings and signings.

Interview Date: Fall 2008
Profile and questions compiled by Reader's Club