Anna DeStefano loves surprises, emotional rollercoaster rides, and the truth central to all fiction. Read on ...

MB: What or who inspired your novel?

AD: The concept for "The Prodigal's Return" came to me several years ago when I was watching TV footage about a teenager who'd gotten behind the wheel drunk and caused an accident that killed her best friend.

She'd lived most of her life since in the same small town both teens grew up in, just a few blocks away from her friend's grieving parents -- who'd once thought of her as a daughter. She'd never once since the accident spoken to them in person. She felt awful. They felt awful. Years of pain had come and gone with no chance for closure or healing.

What would that be like, it got me wondering -- to still live in the community that knew you before you did something you, and many others, thought was unforgivable, to every day face that kind of collective judgment, without ever letting yourself say you're sorry?

After all, what good would sorry be to anyone? What you did was reprehensible. Inexcusable.

Except -- what if redemption isn't just about you? What if, while refusing the second chance you don't deserve, you ended up destroying more lives than just your own?

Pretty deep stuff, I know. That's the kind of challenge that moves me. You might say I'm twisted that way.

But don't worry -- you'll have fun while you explore your inner angst, well, that is if you find dry humor and quirky characters with more than there fair share of sarcasm and sass fun.

To keep the reader on her toes, I come at my stories from three or four different points of view, wrap everything up in a killer romance with an ending that pays off big time, and create an emotional roller coaster you'll hopefully love to ride.

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

AD: I love surprises, and the thing that surprised me most in this book is the relationships between the lead characters and their fathers.

These fathers came to life in amazing ways, and their scenes with their grown children are some of the most poignant, and at times the funniest, parts of the book. And when I finally got the dads in a room together, the result was priceless. No wonder they had such great kids.

MB: Who is the most heroic person you know?

AD: Anyone who takes time out of her own chaotic life to be kind -- genuinely, unselfishly kind -- to someone else.

You don't have to save lives or souls or defend countries or pass laws or give away millions to charity to be someone's hero. See people for who they really are, find out what they really need, then do whatever you can to help. You'll change their lives forever

MB: Who's your romance hero: dark, brooding bad boy or white knight in shining armor?

AD: Dark, brooding alpha males have my vote every time.

I've tried writing sweet beta guys. But before I make it to the end of chapter 1, their scars are inevitably showing. A man's flaws are what interest me -- the reasons for them and what's underneath the surface that still hasn't healed.

I like my white knight to have seen the hell he's saving the heroine or the world from. He's lived it, survived it, and he could go there again if he had to. But he'll be damned if someone he cares about is going to suffer the same fate -- even if there's no way he'll admit how much he cares while he's charging to the rescue on his trusty stead.

MB: Answer the question you wish an interviewer would ask.

AD: No, I don't find myself secretly wishing I wrote a different type of book. Romance rocks. I write about relationships, about how our relating to other people affects not just our lives, but the world around us. Show me a work of fiction that doesn't revolve around at least some part of that central truth.

Romance takes the concept a little further -- dare I say, makes it a little more fun. The fact that readers find what I write entertaining as well as inspiring is a gift I'm grateful for each and every time I hear from a fan.

Will I ever write for another publisher besides Harlequin? Tough to say. Harlequin publishes everything from category romance to mainstream thrillers now, doing a bit of chick lit, paranormal, fantasy, women's fiction and a whole lot more in between.

If they'll still have me, I could see myself happily writing "those" kinds of books well into my golden years.