Did I always want to be a writer?

No. The truth is I became a writer by accident. Honestly, I didn’t plan to be a writer at all. No way, José.

Did you write a lot when you were a kid?

Yes, all the time. I kept a daily journal. In fact I couldn’t fall sleep until I had written about what happened to me each and every day. You see, I wanted to be a famous actress. I thought a diary would help me remember everything so I could tell my fans all about my exciting life. The only problem was – not too many exciting things happened to me on a daily basis or even yearly. Besides, I was very shy. So I started to exaggerate every now and then. Then I just started making things up that I wished would happen. I swear, no animals or humans were hurt by these tiny little white lies.

True or false: Did I really swim the English Channel with a rose in my teeth?

Boy do I want to say true, but the answer is false. No, I never swam the English Channel with a rose in my teeth. And double no, I never swam in the English Channel at all. Actually, I have a fear of swimming.

True or false: Did I ever have a pet stegosaurus?

False, but I had a lovely cat called Fluffy. She could at times get quite nasty and resemble a stegosaurus.

True or false: When you were young, did you meet your favorite actress, Marlo Thomas, and were you invited to talk with her in her Broadway dressing room?

True! It was a magical moment to find out she was such a nice person.

Were you an avid reader as a child?

Oh, yes. I was the shy kid, the one with my nose always in a book. I carried a book with me everywhere. It started as a security blanket so I would have something to do rather than talk to someone. But it didn’t take long for me to know and love the characters. Nancy Drew, Harriet the Spy and Jo March were always close by. If you look in my tote bag today, you’ll probably find a book there.

Do you still keep a diary?

Yes, but now I call it a writing journal. In this journal I let my imagination soar and I write down all kinds of amazing things that I hope to someday write about.

Did you ever become an actress?

Yes, for many years. Alas, I never became famous and no one asked for an exclusive interview about my childhood.

You said you were shy. Why would a shy person want to become an actress?

I was drawn to acting because I loved becoming characters that did amazing things I wouldn’t have the nerve to do. I could be Joan of Arc one day and Cleopatra the next. It was so much fun trying on all these characters but all the lines were written down for me and my fellow actors were all in on this make-believe charade.

You still haven’t told us how you became a writer by accident.

Oh, yes. It happened while I was still a professional actress. I often got cast in children’s plays and I loved doing them because children made the best audience. One day I was cast in a play that was being presented by a small local theatrical company. During rehearsals, I found it increasingly difficult to follow the plot. I complained to the director about how poorly the script was written. “I could write a better play than this,” I told him. “Great,” he said. “I need a new play. We start rehearsals in three months. Can you have it by then?” Oops! I thought that I’d put my foot in my mouth that time. I couldn’t tell him that I’d never written anything besides journal entries and a few poems. Besides, I didn’t have a clue how to write a play – but I’ve always liked a challenge. So I sat down and started to write. I finished “Zachary and the Princess” on time and I had a lot of fun doing it. I was hooked! I discovered that it was even more fun to play with characters on paper than it was on stage. During the next few years, I wrote several children’s plays but as much fun as it was, I found that there isn’t a big market for them. So I enrolled in writing classes and began to write short stories – some of them were published in magazines. But I’m not a big short story fan. I love novels so I wanted to write a book. As I said, I love a challenge. After several rejected books and years of studying my craft, I wrote Kissing Brendan Callahan. Here is an example of how I still like to embellish reality: Coming to a theater near you, Kissing Brendan Callahan – the movie – starring Leonardo DeCaprio and Ann Hathaway.

Kissing Brendan Callahan has a lot of humor in it. Have you always been a funny person?

No. I used to be very serious. And I wanted to be a serious actress playing all the tragic characters. In fact, I never considered myself to have a great sense of humor. Until I worked with a summer stock company in Hartford, Ct. I auditioned with a monologue from Hamlet (it was Ophelia’s monologue – the one before she goes off to commit suicide. What’s more dramatic than suicide?) We were doing a series of children’s plays that ran in repertoire over the summer months. I was cast as a villain, an evil step mother, among other dramatic roles. On the first day of rehearsal, the girl playing all the comic roles didn’t show up on time. So the director asked me to read her parts since they were never in the same scenes as my darker characters. So I did and I had fun doing it since it wasn’t for real. It’s not like I was funny. Right? Wrong. The director recast the shows right on the spot. She thought I was funny! I was flabbergasted. Me funny! Ever since then I’ve been exploring my humorous side. I’m so happy that actress showed up late.

I’ve written a seriously funny book for middle graders