It's no accident that so far, I've lived on the top floor of three walk-up buildings in Brooklyn. A friend of mine once compared me to a cat, saying I like to climb up high and feel like I'm the queen of all I survey. I often felt like that when I was writing Mama's Girl - I needed somehow to find a place, a perch that was high enough so I could look at this incredibly painful history...and write about it. I was afraid of digging too deep, that somehow I could lose myself in all the hurt - like so much quicksand. So I would find high places to curl up in like a cat - the loft in my apartment, the roof of my brownstone, even the kitchen counter.