It's not that I'm apolitical... In my youth, I was a freelance political speechwriter, which taught me a lot about writing fiction, I must add.
I am married to a happy camper. He's a criminal lawyer who thinks people are inherently good and will befriend him. His father, at 93, is the same way.
There are so many different worlds in Long Island. That's why it's so fascinating. Between Great Neck and Montauk, there are 10,000 worlds.
I was always the weirdo who wanted to have an egalitarian service in synagogue and felt I was always going against the grain.
I like to show ordinary people reacting to extraordinary circumstances. It's an opportunity for adventure, and I like women to have adventures. There's been far too little of it with women.
I love being a grandparent. I'm one of those you want to avoid - I pull out the iPhone and say, 'Hey, wanna see my camera roll?'
My first novel, 'Compromising Positions,' was a whodunit. The protagonist was a Long Island Jewish housewife who turns private investigator. But she was Jewish the way I was: lighting Sabbath candles but envying her Protestant and Catholic friends' December decorating options.
We joined a Conservative synagogue. I began learning through engagement, rote and reading. Suddenly, I belonged... well, to the extent that a novelist can ever feel she is part of a group; we may be part of a minyan, but we're not fully merged into the community.
Just as you can accept Miss Marple going to tea with the vicar, there's no reason why Long Island can't have a universality to it.
I must have been yearning for some Jewish content beyond my genetic makeup because soon after my 21st birthday, I noticed I was no longer dating WASPs.
