In the August 1996 issue of Seventeen Magazine , I wrote a story called “My Surprise Summer Love” which romanticized late night games of Questions my friends and I answered as we sat outside among a chorus of crickets. It described the coworker with the cute soccer butt beside whom I sliced deli meats at my morning job and my night job at the pizzeria where the uniform made me resemble a carrot (orange apron, green visor). During those dewy summer nights, we asked questions that ranged from...

First, they love bomb you. They tell you you're wonderful and beautiful. Then they engage in future speak, saying things like, "We'll...

In addition to writing lyrical, engrossing books readers will forfeit sleep over and gripping query letters that no agent or editor could...