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.

I think it always feels riskier and scarier to go after something you really love and want because the rejection and failure hurts more.

My mother has always been an Anglophile and taught my sister and me to love British history and literature.

To write convincingly, I think you must be able to relate, in some way, to what a character is experiencing.

I was actually born in Baltimore! Although I moved away when I was quite young and consider Chicago to be my hometown, Baltimore is sentimental to me, and I still keep in touch with family friends I knew as a little girl.

Darcy, the heroine of 'Something Blue,' is quite shallow and opinionated. At one point, she commented that she dislikes 'gingers,' i.e., men with red hair. I received several emails from fiery redheads who said they were offended by 'my' comments. I had to remind them that it is fiction.

My books aren't autobiographical.

I have unabashed Bieber Fever and routinely Google 'Justin and Selena.' They are so cute together.

I think exercise is critical to my writing and an essential way to recharge.

I've been obsessed with the Kennedys since I was a child, and Bobby Kennedy is, hands down, my favorite among them.