I was concerned that she would be interested in the job so that she could work out her own demons.

We know we already have great parent involvement in Ralston. With the benchmarks and standards, we want to codify things and put some of our goals into a clearly defined order so we can see what we are accomplishing.

We're still studying different models from around the nation, seeing what works best. We think it's a great idea that's going to take off for Ralston.

For me, it was easy to work with him. He was so very knowledgeable, but he was ready to listen, and he did.

He was really a neophyte when I first read his work. The O'Neill had rejected it five times, but the sixth time one of my readers said he had improved a great deal. He had learned to write dialogue, and now he was learning to write confrontations between two people.

I feel really special. I went to a lot of work to feel this good. More work than I've ever gone through. More than my wedding day.