Justine Sharp is one of my favorite characters. Flawed through and through, she remains a fighter, a woman who places her role as a mother ahead of all else, but who dreams of having true love in her life. My other favorite character was her ex-husband, JT. Yes, the man was a snake, a philanderer of the worst sort, but otherwise Justine's best friend in the whole world. I've read a lot of lesbian fiction - and admittedly written it myself - in which men are depicted as the scum of the earth. I know that model resonates with some readers, but it seems cliché, a too-easy solution for a writer to justify why the women in their stories aren't fulfilled in their marriages to men.

I wrote the first draft of this story in 2003, a time of serious unrest in Israel. I depicted Carly's family as happy to have her leaving the violence of Jerusalem for a safer assignment in Madrid, one of my favorite cities in the world. While the book was in edits in March of 2004, al-Qaida staged a series of train bombings throughout Madrid, killing 191 people. My last-minute revisions reflect our changing world.