Caren Crane began writing women’s fiction to save herself from the dreary fate of life in The Office. An electrical engineer by training, she longed to create worlds where things were any color except cube-wall gray. She now spends her days wearing great clothes, eating sushi and sharing intelligent conversation with people she adores—none of whom ever took advanced level calculus. Well, that’s not strictly true. But she gets to hang out with those sorts of witty, fabulous people whenever she’s writing, which greatly encourages butt-in-chair time.

Caren lives in North Carolina with her wonderful husband and exceptional children. And unlike her heroines, she’s never seriously wanted her husband to die or considered trading him in for a younger model. She was a 2006 Golden Heart finalist in the Novel With Strong Romantic Elements category and is impatiently awaiting The Call from her future editor.

Check out the excerpts from Kick Start and CrossTalk and see what goes on in Caren’s brain. It’s not nearly as scary in there as her husband says it must be…