Steel Magnolia

But Steel has hope that she and Perkins will grow closer. She shows pictures of him while giving a tour of the third-floor living quarters. (The kids, who are in private school at the moment, live part-time with their dad, who lives a few blocks away.) ''He's cute, isn't he?'' she murmurs, staring at a photo of Perkins, a ruggedly handsome man. ''A little more substantial looking than the last one.''

Steel walks into her bedroom, which has an ornate four-poster bed and leads out to a solarium with views of Alcatraz. She writes in a closet-size office on the other side of the room. Her battered 1946 Olympia typewriter sits on a desk crowded with mementos from her kids. Seven manuscripts are in the pipeline, and Steel is working on a potential weekly TV series based on her novels.

All in all, Steel is optimistic. ''Having this happen told me who my friends were, and it strengthened my writing,'' she says. ''I thought I had failed my children when the family fell apart, but now I think that if I'd maintained the illusion of a perfect family they would have been unprepared for life as grown-ups. This way, the storm did hit and we're still standing.''

Steel is still talking as she leads the way to the front door. ''I saw a card the other day that said, 'When life throws you a curve, turn it into a home run.' That's what my books are about — and that's what my life is about.''

With that, Steel says goodbye and heads back up to her office — to write, presumably, her own happy ending.