My inspiration for Callaway is a combination of people, like all my characters. I was basically turned off by so many random acts of violence that I had seen on television and read about in the news that I wanted a character that was not a victim. The fact that her best friend is a stuntwoman, and expert gun user who made her get handgun training, adds to that strength. I did take both training courses, beginning and advanced, that were offered by the L.A.P.D. myself, which is where I get most of my gun handling info. Callaway is a mid-thirties millionaire who was raised mostly by her father and has quite a bit of trouble in relationships due to both her money and her tendency to be a loner; it took a man like Evan to hang on when she pushed him away.

They are based more on men I had seen, who were so sexy and confident. Evan has a great deal of my man, Joseph, in him, but he's not based on a single person, more like all the qualities I love in men.

I certainly hope I'm not so much 'teaching' as 'inspiring' them to enjoy themselves!

No. While I admire soap writers for the difficulty of their task, what they write is melodrama and what I write is a combination of drama and humor. One thing I had trouble with on the soap was a lack of humor... it's just my nature, I guess. That's one reason I loved working with J. Eddie Peck... he was always funny on the set.

Oh, now, I don't know about naming the 'were nots.' But some of the people I liked to work with were J. Eddie, Jeannie Cooper was a delight, Eric Braden was also a real pleasure because of his presence and intelligence. I also quite liked Heather Tom who was the perfect soap actress. She could cry at anything, but do it with class.

Ronn and I were always competitive. Since we were on different shows it didn't cross over much, even though we worked in the same studio. Y and R had a split stage schedule and often I would be leaving for the day as he was arriving. He spent twice as much time to shoot half as much show. Our relationship now is amazingly good. Of course we have our differences, like any two people raising children together, but for the most part we get along very well.

Stage! Very few actors who have done all the mediums will tell you differently, as long as they are in it for the acting as opposed to the fame / money / exposure. There's just nothing like having an audience breathing with you. And, once again while I respect them, soap writers versus Shakespeare or Coward or Wilde or Mamet? Not much contest.

I've always loved literature best. Like all writers I was an avid reader since childhood and nothing else gives you the submersion in another world, another person's feelings, another relationship like a full-on novel. Yes, it's my career now and I love it.

Joseph and I have known each other and respected each other's theater work for many years, but only distantly. He asked me to play Lady Macbeth for a production he was directing and I jumped at the opportunity. We became friends during that production and continued to work together on other projects. He's the most honest, real man I've ever known. How could I not fall in love with a man who, when he found out my birthday was being ignored, gave me two cakes, and filled the room with gifts and flowers. I walked in the door expecting to work on a script and when I saw what he'd done, I burst into tears. I don't think I realized how much I missed being celebrated until someone actually did it.

You can't compare acting and parenting. Directing and parenting, yes, somewhat. My daughters are both magnificent people and I am honored to be their mother and treasure every moment with them. Acting for stage gives me a chance to expose them to a great deal of living art and history. They have seen so much classic and new theater and have a greater understanding and respect now of people working from a place of passion to create something that they love. I feel lucky to have added that to their lives. When I direct it's more time consuming and so I don't do that as much, though I do love it.

I live in the Angeles National Forrest and we are constantly visited by such an abundance of wildlife. The birds alone are amazing, but we also have bobcat, coyote, fox, and the occasional mountain lion.

The cover of Playboy was a modeling gig I booked. They hired me to shoot a cover. I flew into Chicago and shot several covers for them over the course of a few years. Only one ran in the States, but I believe others ran on European versions of the magazine. I quit modeling because I desperately needed to use my brain and be valued for something other than looks, that's a very unhealthy place to hold your self-worth.

Ty was an angel, one of the most friendly and eager to help people I've ever met. Desi was the little girl of the prop master on Y and R. He came to me and told me that his nine-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with a malicious form of cancer and would I visit her at City of Hope Hospital. I remember saying, "Me? Why would she want to see me? I'm not anybody special." But he said that the distractions would help, so and I went, and guess what? I wasn't special, but she was. We became great friends and over the next three years I was inspired by her so much that it changed my life. She died a week or so before Ed Scott, the exec producer of Y and R, came to my dressing room to tell me that they weren't renewing my contract, he was upset about it and thought I would be too, and he was shocked when I laughed. I said, "Is that all?" The gift of perspective is only one thing Desi continues to give me.

I love to cook, laugh with my family, and hike. I live in such a beautiful home that Joseph continues to make more wonderful for me and I look out at mountains and trees and the gardens I've planted. If I couldn't hear the wind in the leaves and smell fresh air, I think I would lose my sense of deep joy. I don't think people realize how their souls suffer when they detach from and/or abuse the natural world. We have to take care of it, respect it, and love it. What nature gives you back is a hundred times more valuable. In fact, I believe that without some kind of communion, you are only partially alive.

Write, write some more, be willing to let go of things that aren't working and be willing to write something that's bad. Never think about what other people will like, write what you want to read, and remember, only you have your unique voice and stories. Michelangelo said that he didn't create a statue from marble, he set it free. It's the same thing with words, you have it in you, and yes, you must learn to ply the chisel and the hammer, or in this case, punctuation and phrasing, but it is already there, inside of you. While you might not produce a David, or a Pieta, you will eventually make a thing of beauty, or rather a thing of language and expression will rise up from within you and you will set it free.