I began my writing career in 1989 by co-authoring several non-fiction titles with my husband, Lee, a certified financial planner. We co-wrote DESTINATION FLORIDA: THE GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL RELOCATION; 50 FABULOUS PLACES TO RETIRE IN AMERICA; 50 FABULOUS PLACES TO RAISE A FAMILY and RETIREMENT READY OR NOT (Career Press). In 2002, I went on to write for AvonBooks, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. In the past eight years, I have had four comic novels published including my debut, A LITTLE HELP FROM ABOVE, CLAIRE VOYANT, FATE AND MS. FORTUNE, and my most recent title, published in July, 2008, DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD.   I grew up as an avid reader- one of those flashlight-under-the-blanket children. My favorite authors included Sydney Taylor, Florence Laughlin, Beverly Cleary and anyone who wrote autobiographies. As a college student, I read everything by Sol Stein, and actually called him from my dorm room to tell him how much I loved "The Living Room" and "The Magician." As an adult, I grew to love storyteller novelists Irwin Shaw, John Irving, John Cheever, and later his daughter, Susan Cheever, Phillip Roth and Jeffrey Archer. But  it wasn't until reading Anna Quindlan's columns in the New York Times that I realized I wanted to become a writer.