Sawyer, Meryl (57 page)

"People often ask me where I get my ideas. Most of them come
from real life, from people I've met or places I've been. PROMISE ME ANYTHING
is about a girl's best friend-diamonds. The plot came to me when I read about
the disturbance in the diamond market during the Gulf War. I wove that real
incident around a passionate love story. To me, the heart of a good book should
be a romance.

"With A KISS IN THE DARK, I was inspired by a comment a
prominent attorney made at a party. What would you do if you were accused of a
serious crime? This is exactly what happens to my heroine. She learns more than
she ever wanted to know about justice in America—and finds true love.

"When I'm not writing, my husband and I like to sail from Los
Angeles to Catalina Island on our yacht with our three golden retrievers,
Abigail, Alexis and Dodger-Dog. I love to let the retrievers walk me along the
nature conservancy trails. Our favorite time is spring when the buffalo calves
aren't much bigger than my retrievers, and from the rolling green hills we can
see the gray whales migrating escorted by schools of playful dolphins."