To Cris (#43): What a lovely comment from your friend about my books being like rays of light. I shall treasure the memory of that.

To Andreina (#49): I was reading a book by a favorite author of mine a number of years ago. It was a romance and I knew it would have a happy ending, but it was so terribly dark and painful that I had to stop reading before finishing it. I decided then that I wanted readers to feel good when reading my books even if my characters have to suffer for a while. I wanted reading to be an enjoyable experience. There is too much darkness in the world of the news media. It is good to escape into a love story. Some readers, I know, love my older, darker books. Some tell me they are too painful to read. It is a matter of taste, I suppose.

To Stefania (#51): I created Wulfric, Duke of Bewcastle, and the Bedwyns in A SUMMER TO REMEMBER entirely as a haughty, cold family to give the heroine a hard time. But as soon as I created them, they leapt off the page at me and tried to take over. I had to do a lot of rewriting in the course of that book to keep them in their place. Finally I decided that I must give them all books of their own. And since Wulfric was the most fascinating, he was going to have to go last! So no, I didn't create him as a future hero, but I knew as soon as he was created that he was going to be one!

Mary Balogh