Q & A
Favorite Movies: Meet Me in St. Louis and Groundhog Day. On rainy days, I love Little Women, the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder and Claire Danes.
Chunky or Smooth: Chunky. Smooth? Not an option.
Favorite Los Angeles hotspots: Walt Disney Concert Hall for music. Rèpublique for dinner. LA Grocery and Café for produce, cheese, and salmon. The Farmer’s Market on Larchmont.
Guilty Pleasure: Massages. Gel manicures. Chocolate. Chai lattes from Groundwork.
Favorite vacation places: Egypt. Costa Rica.
When you were a little girl, you thought you would grow up to be a…: I dreamed of becoming a concert pianist or organist. I practiced 2-3 hours a day from age 9 to about 15. The intensity of that commitment was daunting at times, so being a forest ranger also seemed like a fun alternative.
Favorite Music: Anything by Bach or Handel. Literally anything. Choral music. Also love 70’s and 80’s rock which surprisingly come up often on my teen daughter’s playlist.
Items on your grocery list: Sharp cheddar cheese, sliced. Cosmic Crisp apples. Together they’re heaven! Castelvetrano olives. Persian cucumbers. Hummus.
Midnight snack: No midnight snacking. But popcorn and chamomile tea are my go-to’s if I snack after dinner.
If you could spend an hour in the past, what would you do? I’d choose to go back to a time when my parents and grandparents were still alive, and my kids were very little. I’d view it all with a renewed sense of wonder, appreciating it in a way I couldn’t then.
Stress Relief: I walk over 6,500 steps daily, seven days a week, and take ‘Exercise Snacks’ throughout the day to avoid sitting for too long. I also do resistance training twice a week. When I start losing focus, I head to the BOSU Ball for 3-5 minutes of balancing while listening to the Yacht Rock station on Alexa. It’s an instant energy and focus boost.
How do you like your coffee? I hate coffee—the smell, the taste, everything else about it. I write characters who love it, but I’m a tea drinker. With a shelf full of teas and a tea set from Fortnum & Mason in London, I usually have 1-2 cups a day, even in summer.
Which do you prefer? Ocean, Lake, Desert, Mountain: All of them?! Living in LA, I’m within an hour of two of many options. Sometimes I’m in a mood for ocean, but other times the desert or mountains call to me. Impossible to choose.
Favorite Vacation Activity: Aside from being in a pool or on the beach, which are always my top choices, my favorite activity might be kayaking or whitewater tubing. The best experience, though, was a dog sled ride through the Finnish countryside under a full moon, searching for the Northern Lights.
Favorite book: Of all time? The Secret Garden has been a favorite for the longest. But Harlan Coben’s Trust No One and Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook were books that sparked my interest in writing novels. Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story is one I’m loving now.
Item you can’t live without: Since it’s an item, it can’t be my family, friends, or my cats. So…I’ll choose notebooks. Don’t leave me alone in a store filled with pens and notebooks! I will want to buy everything. I use them to jot ideas for stories and characters. Notebooks are no judgment zones where I can write anything and not worry if it’s a good idea or not.
Where do you like to write your books?: My first four novels were written in the basement since I didn’t have a home office. I could only write at night, as I was busy producing during the day. In 2020, I gave up my production offices and renovated a room attached to our garage that had once served as a workshop for Douglas Donaldson, a metalsmith and silversmith who was a leader of the Arts and Crafts movement in Los Angeles. The space still has its original 1920s wood shingle roof and two walls of windows overlooking the back garden, infusing it with incredible creative energy.
Describe your ideal environment to write: Quiet. Sunshine. By myself. No music. Just the sound of nature.
What are you reading at the moment? The Creative Act. This is a WOW book for me because it feels like the author, Rick Rubin, is speaking directly to me about fostering creativity in every facet of your life, reinforcing what I love to do.
Something readers might not know about the writing process: The amount of time that goes into research is staggering! I love this aspect of writing, especially the ‘rabbit hole’ moments that inevitably arise. What may seem like just a couple of sentences in a novel often comes from hours of research. For The Memory Collectors, for instance, I spent months researching the concept of ‘closed time loops’ to condense it into just a few lines. For The Space Between, which features an astronomer, Sarah Mayfield, as the protagonist, I dove into everything from black holes to nebulas to constellations to Trojan asteroids—all topics I’m intrigued with—to fully immerse readers in her world.
Kindle, paperback, audiobook or hardcover: Kindle app! I love having all the books I want to read on my phone, tablet, and computer—no need to carry anything with me.
How do you decompress after a long day? My days are long—starting as early as 8:00 am, with a brief break for lunch, and powering through until at least 7:00 pm. I often put in another 90 minutes to 2 hours after dinner. To decompress, I like to light the firepit in my backyard and soak in a few minutes of warmth and flames. Magical.
If I won the lottery, I’d…: If I won the lottery, I’d still write. I’d still produce television and films. Because I love the work and creating stories I’m passionate about. I’d also open a bookstore with a café, featuring adoptable cats and a section for cards and notebooks. I’d create sound-and-visual environments to evoke a rainy day in Paris or a snowy day in the mountains—perfect for reading. Because I’d won the lottery, I wouldn’t care if it lost money and could just do it for the fun of it all.
Readers would be surprised to know that…: I love scary movies, though not grim horror—I can’t stomach that for even a second. But thrillers like Signs or The Sixth Sense? I’m all in. I also enjoy Halloween activities like haunted houses, spooky corn mazes, and haunted hayrides. Honestly, anything haunted is fun!
What talent do you wish you had? Composing music feels like pure alchemy to me. I remember attending an awards event where Steven Spielberg sat at the next table. After the show, while many rushed to speak with him, I made a beeline for composer John Williams, who was also there. I’ve always believed—and still do—that composers are the true creative force behind any film or TV show.