Although I have relished the opportunity to spread my wings and explore these other possibilities, writing has won out in the end. Most of my work has been straightforward journalism, from my days as a young reporter to my twenty-five years as a health and gardening writer. However in the past few years I’ve mainly written stories from my own life. The path of self-revelation is not one I chose deliberately, or with any consideration of its inherent risks. I stumbled onto it naïvely when I first recounted my adventures as a lone woman in France for a travel memoir, Au Revoir. As my story developed and became more complex and difficult, so did the writing of the subsequent books, and the impact on my marriage was profound. I am certain there are very few husbands who would tolerate a wife writing honest accounts of her infidelities for anyone to read. Some days when I stop to think about it, I myself can barely believe that’s what I’ve done. I’m not only amazed by my own conduct, I’m amazed that David has weathered the storms of these last few years and that somehow our marriage has survived.
