1 Dancing With the Stars is killing her. ''I've spent the last five years writing; the most athletic thing I did was knit. Now I work out six hours a day!''
2 No, it's really killing her. ''I had a little breakdown yesterday; I stopped and couldn't go on! They sent me home.... I liked writing a book much more!''
3 Her debut novel — the tale of a 15-year-old model, out April 10 — is notabout her. Really. ''I did use my experiences; that is part of what writing is. But even if I had made the girl blond and French, people would still think it was me.''
4 She didn't use a ghostwriter. ''Oh, no! I started by taking fiction classes at [New York City's] New School. And then I kept writing.''
5 ''I didn't let my mother or husband [ex-Cars singer Ric Ocasek] read [the manuscript]. Only my fiction workshop, 10 of us reading, writing, and critiquing each other's work.''
6 Her literary agent didn't care who she was. ''She said, 'I'm not going to kiss your butt to take you as a client. People are going to take potshots at this book. It needs a firm rewrite.'''
7 ''I love to read — mostly fiction and memoirs. I'm starting to share books with my son Jonathan, who's 13. I keep encouraging him to read The Life of Pi.''
8 She's got a second novel in the works. ''I have a faint outline I'm trying to press the plot in, but first I need to become possessed by my characters, to be able to think in their voices.''
