Sandra Newman is the author of the novels The

Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done

and Cake, and the memoir Changeling.

She is also the co-author, with Howard Mittelmark,

of How Not to Write a Novel and Read This Next

(forthcoming in winter 2010).

    She was born in Massachusetts, but moved

to the UK at the age of 18. She has been employed

as a typist, a professional gambler, a professor, and

a hack writer of pornography. Afraid of rabbits, Ms.

Newman has been married three times. Recently

she has taken to wandering the highways and

byways of our land, in search of America –

hopeless really since the land is England and Ms.

Newman is on foot. If you meet her, she may

tell you what she has learned: the wisdom and the

whimsy, the key to a fulfilling relationship and

how to remove most stains. (Though, if it's red

wine, a little ghost stain will remain that may look

worse than the original stain. Also, the relationship

won't last.)