Breen remembered a short story she had written a decade earlier, and she realized when re-reading it that it would work perfectly for the story the mother wrote in the book. "I read it and it was as if it had been written by someone else. Pure serendipity."

Breen's novel is peopled with diverse, interesting characters who initially offend each other and the teacher, but after they have engaged in several conversations and exercises in writing, they all begin to identify with each other.

According to Breen, that's the way her classes are.

"Sometimes people cry throughout the whole class. I even talked to my boss once and he said, 'People feel vulnerable when they go to a writing class' and he's right. I teach advanced fiction now and some of the people have been with me a long time. It's like a support group or a bunch of friends getting together."

Both Arabella and Breen talk in a light, witty, down-to-earth style. In the novel, Arabella subtly charms Chuck, a member of her class and starts to date him. Breen can't utilize the same charm toward men in her real class because she is happily married, and her husband is thrilled about her novel.

"I also speak the book out loud when I write. I'm not exactly Arabella, but there's enough of Arabella in me that if you know her you also know me," Breen said. Her mother had died by the time she wrote the book, so she gave her brother a copy to read to see if he saw the same mother that she did.

"He loved it. The fact that he validated it made me happy," Breen said.

Currently, Breen is at work on another novel about some teenage boys who are traveling actors. "My son was in such a group. I enjoy teenage boys. I think they're crazy and love hearing them talk. So far I've written a whole synopsis, something I've never done before. I've never known how a book would end before. But it feels easier because it's like taking a trip with a map.

Will her earlier books ever be published? "Hopefully some day," Breen said. "But I know that every writer has a bunch of 'learning books' in the closet that may never be published."

---

E-mail: dennis@desnews.com