Man Trouble began with a 2001 story in the New York Post. The story was titled, "Is Mogul's Lover a Phantom?" The Mogul, in this case, was my husband (then fiance, who is a businessman and a regular fixture in the newspapers) and the Phantom was me. The reporter hypothesized that I didn't actually exist, and had been invented by my husband's corporate PR department in an attempt to improve his image and fend off Mogul-hunting females. I wasn't quite sure what to think about this. It was funny, but also a little disturbing. I had always been shy of the press and tried to keep a low profile, but completely ceasing to exist seemed kind of... extreme.

So, I called my mother. "Mom," I said, "I do exist."

"Of course you do, dear," she said. "I know, because I gave birth to you. But maybe you should try to get out more."

She was right, and now I do get out more, and am even learning to do interviews. It was a helpful nudge, but the bonus came a few days later when I suddenly thought: Wait a minute, this could be a good idea for a book. And so Man Trouble was born. In the book, playboy billionaire Jake Berenger hires history professor (and novelist) Molly Shaw to spend a few months pretending to be his fiancee as he tries to upgrade his public image. Molly also spends part of the book wearing a platinum-blond wig and calling herself Sandra St. Claire--if this sounds confusing, you can find out how it all fits together by reading chapter one.

Despite the apparent parallels, and the speculation of the press, Man Trouble is not meant to be a roman a clef. I was never hired to improve my husband's image, and I don't own a blond wig. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) Anyway, considering that the eminent Wall Street Journal recently referred to me as a writer of "torch novels" (ouch) I suspect that I'm not the best choice for any businessman who wants an image upgrade by association.

Other Notes:

— I invented Bonny Mary Morgan, the female pirate, but she was inspired by two real women. Mary Read and Anne Bonny were first written about in 1724, in a book called A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, by Captain Charles Johnson. (There is an ongoing debate about whether this was actually a pen name for the writer Daniel Defoe.) Anne and Mary dressed in men's clothes, and sailed with (and fought alongside) Anne's lover, a pirate known as Calico Jack Rackham.

— Blackbeard the pirate was real, of course. His name has been recorded as both Edward Teach and Edward Thatch, and he actually did go into battle with smoldering hemp ropes stuffed under his hat and woven into his beard. I'm guessing that the combination of a hairy head wreathed in demonic smoke and a chest strapped with pistols and knives probably had a very demoralizing effect on his victims. I thought it would be amusing to name Ed Thatcher, the CEO of Atlas Group (who attempts a hostile takeover of Jake Berenger's company) after history's most notorious pirate.

MAY 2004
isbn 0-446-61284-7
Warner Forever