Could you tell us about your trajectory when it comes to place and where you've made homes?

Well, I was born in New Jersey, in Trenton, New Jersey, which I've always thought of as the wrong place for me.

And as soon as I was in charge of my own life, which I would say would have been about the end of high school, I started moving west.

I went to college in Ohio, which wasn't very far west, but it was on the way.

And then after college, I moved to Colorado and went to graduate school in Utah.

But my big relationship with place... came when my first book, Cowboys Are My Weakness, sold for just a little bit of money, but it was the first time I had a little bit of money.

And my agent, when she sent me the check, there was a letter inside it that said, don't spend it all on hiking boots.

If you're not lost at 25, something's wrong.