I decided to be a writer at age 14. The books I loved made me want to draw love in the same way, to beguile and woo a reader away from the sensory world. I don't think of myself as an author but rather as a storyteller. I have only published two books because I got sidetracked into film. That career reached its peak with my directing a movie from my own script called "All I Wanna Do" [original title: "The Hairy Bird"] with Kirsten Dunst and Lynn Redgrave. The other peak was winning a second Academy Award for documentary. I worried that, when I eventually returned to writing novels, screenwriting would have ruined my prose style. I found that, instead, it had sharpened my ability to plot and shape a story. I felt more confident about constructing the intricate mystery of JANE WAS HERE and to keep readers turning pages. Because of several personal experiences with ghosts, as well as past-life flashbacks, I became interested in reincarnation and the paranormal. (I am currently writing about those experiences in an ongoing series on my blog - sort of a paranormal memoir. Please visit!) Over time I developed my own spirituality and rapport with the divine, and I drew upon all my beliefs when writing JANE WAS HERE. This makes the novel so much more than an entertainment to me. I am still trying to lift people out of this world!