Whitney: I always wanted to be a writer, even when I was a little girl. And then in a misguided fit of pragmatism, I went to law school. I figured it was a more secure and certainly more lucrative profession. But I absolutely hated practicing law, and the day in, day out grind of legal work was all the motivation I needed to start writing.

I wrote three complete books, all terrible and all rejected, before I wrote Pushing 30.

Whitney: One good thing did come out of law school . . . I met my husband there! I’m now happily married and we have an adorable nearly one-year-old son, Sam.

But my work is not at all autobiographical. I have never dated an older man, nor did I engage in a relationship with my best friend’s ex-boyfriend, overseas or otherwise.

Whitney: Oh, I’m all over the place. I enjoy chick lit, mysteries, comedies, literary works, historical dramas, thrillers. I don’t read much in the way of horror, science fiction or non-fiction.

Whitney: At the beginning of every book, I buy a plain, narrow ruled composition book, and use it for brainstorming. I’ll map out characters, write down snatches of dialogue, maybe briefly outline a scene I want to use. Then from there I start putting together a rough draft. It’s never a straight shoot – I’ll write a few chapters, and then stop and go back and move things around, or clean up the text. When I have a complete draft, I’ll go over it again and again, editing the book at least a dozen times. Then I give it to my husband, and he edits it. And then I send it off to my editor, and she sends it back with suggested revisions. By this time, I’m usually so sick of the damn thing it’s painful to go over it again, but I’ll usually soldier through another pass or two. I know it’s done when I literally can’t stomach the thought of reading it one more time.

Whitney: No, I did not set out to write chick lit. My first version of Pushing 30 was much more serious – it was originally about a young widow who met an older widower at a grief support group, and they fell in love despite the age gap. I just couldn’t get the tone right – it seemed too maudlin and depressing to me. So I decided to approach the same basic characters, but from a lighter, more comedic approach, and the story immediately came together.

To be honest, I don’t like the term “chick lit,” although I frequently use it myself. I think it’s a bit demeaning. Books written by and about young men struggling with love and careers are not lumped together under a similarly silly title; they’re just called “fiction.”

Whitney: Pushing 30 and True Love (and Other Lies), and my third book that I’m currently writing (entitled She, Myself and I) are all fundamentally stories that center on the growth of the protagonist. Ellie in Pushing 30 needs to learn to lead her own life, and not the one her parents expect of her. Claire in TLAOL has to overcome her self-doubt and low self-esteem. The most effective way to do this is to figure out the character’s thought processes, which makes writing from the first person the most natural way to approach the story.

Whitney: I love Claire. She’s the kind of woman everyone wants to be friends with. She’s smart, and loyal, and funny as hell, in a sarcastic, self-deprecating kind of way. I could picture her so clearly while I wrote the book. All comedy has some over-the-top moments, and there are certainly some of those moments in TLAOL, but part of what makes the scenes work is Claire’s wry, cynical view of the world and her life.

Tina: Chick Lit in itself concentrates on the heroine of the story, but Jack Harrison is a wonderful witty character, did he try for a more predominate role?

In Pushing 30, it was important to keep the love interest, Ted, as something of an enigma. Ellie’s inability to know what he was thinking or feeling was one of the hurdles she had to overcome in her journey.

For TLAOL, I wanted to try something different. I wanted Claire’s love interest to be as funny and smart as she was, which was an important part of what draws them together, but I wanted him to be more confident and open than Claire. She’s so guarded and cautious in her approach to love, she needed to have a romantic interest who was willing to cross that gap for her.

Whitney: Maybe this speaks to my wasted youth, but, sadly, no. No research was required. I think that part of my brain is still parked in 1985.

Whitney: My husband and I went to London right before I began work on True Love (and Other Lies) – in fact being there was part of the inspiration for the book. I also lived in London briefly when I spent a semester in college studying there. I hate to admit it, but I don’t spend much time researching, other than my research assistant, Mr. Google, helping me find little things as they occur to me. I don’t have the patience for it. I’d never make it as a biographer.

Whitney: Sure! Here are the first few paragraphs:

At the advanced age of thirty-two, I’ve learned enough about the world to have developed a well-established set of personal rules by which I live my life. Here is the first one: the whole concept of a One True Love Who Completes Your Soul is total bullshit.

I don’t mean love in general, of course – I love my parents, my sister, a few assorted friends, and Churchill, the English bulldog I had when I was growing up. I’m talking about the fairy tale, Prince Charming, marriage as a happy ending, love-at-first-sight kind of thing. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a brand of snake oil concocted by the online dating and wedding industries for the sole purpose of bilking millions of unsuspecting women out of their hard-earned money. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any role models to look to who’ve actually sustained long-term love, much less successful marriages. My parents, and most of my friends’ parents, were of the generation who believed strongly in the power of divorce and re-marriage as an alternative to buying a sports car to cure a mid-life crisis.

You could call me cynical, or jaded, or even a little bitter, and I wouldn’t argue with you. It’s not as though I arrived at my philosophy on love when I was thirteen and still thought I was going to marry the lead singer of Duran Duran. No, it took years and years of bad dates, horrible set-ups, and one real bastard of an ex-boyfriend for me to come to my senses.

Which is why I never imagined I would meet someone on an airplane. I mean, how random would that be? After all, in real life lovers are not brought together by a quirk of fate, or by some random act that realigns the universe; most people who get together meet through friends, or work, or something equally mundane. Those syrupy tales of two halves of one heart reuniting are just Hollywood fiction, usually starring Meg Ryan, and marketed to women in my age, gender and marital status demographic. But I have always refused to buy into the hype, just as I refuse to transform my pin-straight hair into Meg’s adorably scruffy, Sally Hershberger designed coif.

So when I boarded the American Airlines flight from New York to London, my battered old knapsack slung over my shoulder (I never can pull off that glamorous world-traveler look – really, I’m only one small, scary step away from completely throwing away my dignity and embracing the butt pack), the last thing I was expecting was romance. In fact, I was fully prepared for a boring, six-hour trip full of bad food and uncomfortable seats, and – if experience was any guide – a small child sitting behind me, screaming the whole way.

Whitney: I’m currently working on my third book, entitled She, Myself and I. It’s about three sisters, all at different points in their lives. Paige, the eldest, is getting over a rough divorce, following her husband’s shocking announcement that he’s gay. Sophie is coping with new motherhood. And Mickey, the youngest, just out of college, has decided that she doesn’t want to go to medical school as planned, and can’t bring herself to tell her parents.

Next up is a fourth chick lit book, and I’m mulling over an idea for a Young Adult book.

Whitney: Writing is a tough business to break into. Not impossible, but difficult. I wrote three full books that were summarily rejected by every agent and editor I sent them to before I wrote and published Pushing 30. In my experience, you have to work hard, have a thick skin and keep slogging away. The ones who get published might not necessarily be the most talented, but with rare exceptions, they’re the most determined.

“Inside the Author’s Mind”

Whitney: Chocolate

Whitney: My truly least favorite word is probably too naughty for your website, but it refers to the female anatomy. A close runner up would be moist.

Mid-century modern design

Whitney: Low-waisted jeans

Whitney: Other than what I’m writing, I’d love to try writing a Young Adult book.

Whitney: Science fiction

Whitney: It would be a toss up between Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde – just for the entertainment factor – and we’d dine at the Grill Room in the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans.