KR: I have always felt a strong desire to see the world. I remember graduating high school at 16 and entering UWM. My parents were very proud of me and ... just as disappointed when I quit my studies before graduating. When I think about it now, it was all part of the plan and I saw the road so clearly: nothing was going to stop me from realizing my dream. I began to work three jobs to make enough money to go to New York. As soon as I had a little money saved up, I bought a one-way ticket to New York. I remember leaving with my grandmother's old green suitcase with tape covering a hole!

New York was not my kind of town and I must admit I still don't like it that much. I survived - barely -- about six months before I finally got a job doing photographs for a catalog, which earned me enough money to buy a one-way ticket to Paris. I was still 18 years old, I didn't know where I was going, where I would sleep or what I would do and, I didn't speak French. But I loved Paris and I was finally in Europe so although I was living the bohemian life, I was very happy.

The road has not always been smooth, but it has been interesting and since I'm still here talking about it, one can conclude that all turned out for the best.

And how did you come to write this novel?

Having studied Creative Writing many moons ago, I have always dreamed of writing a novel but I just got sidetracked with real life for a long time. Many times it's what you yearn for most in life that fills you with the greatest fear of failure. I finally got over that fear and, in fact, I am now finishing the first draft of my second novel and I have ideas for many more!

The idea for this specific novel, which deals with a very sensitive subject -- artificial insemination -- came to me in a very turbulent time in Italian history about infertility assistance. You see, until 2003 there were no laws for this practice in Italy; it was a total free-for-all. I found this shocking and, to make matters worse, the law they finally came up with was incomplete and unfair to the Italian women. This not only surprised me but it angered me, also. At the same time, four of my very dear girlfriends were trying desperately to have a baby; each of them lived in a different European country and each of them had to resort to IVF. That is how I became familiar with the anguish and sorrow that goes along with this quest.

My book talks about an Italian-American woman from Milwaukee, Sandra Caputo, who, after graduating from University, goes to live and work in Milan, Italy during the late '70s, '80s. She is very powerful and successful in her career but not so in her personal life. She decides she wants a child, and is not aware of the lawlessness in Italy regarding reproductive assistance clinics. She is fortunate to get pregnant on the first try.

She then decides to return to the United States to raise the child. As intelligent as she is and as strong-willed, she never musters up the courage to tell her daughter how she was conceived and, as they say in Italian, "lies have short legs." Sandra lives an apparently idyllic life back in her hometown, Milwaukee, with her daughter, Sonia, and her mother. As a high school graduation gift to Sonia, her grandmother -- who is also in the dark about the truth behind Sonia's birth -- gives her and Sandra tickets to go back to Italy. And this is where the story really begins.

Are you looking for a U.S. publisher?

Of course it would be my dream to publish it in the language I wrote it in. Even though my Italian is fluent, I still prefer to write in English. I do not as yet have a publisher in the United Stares but my agent is working on it now. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

How was the response to it in Italy?

The response was excellent, I'm pleased to say! I have opened a Web site with many of the quotes about my book, interviews and articles that were written. I'm sorry they're all in Italian. Anyone who has lived in Italy knows that it is very difficult to change your career and be accepted. The Italians rarely change their profession. It's a cultural thing, where as in the United States, one can be a professor one day and grow a rose garden the next and be accepted and praised for his or her courage to change. In Italy, it is not so that is why I have very pleased that the Italian public has accepted me as a novelist now.