Hi, I'm Laura Stasi.

I've been a podcaster for about four years now.

I've been a writer for many years longer than that.

Nonfiction is my specialty.

I'm so accustomed to a precise presentation of factual information

that I sometimes forget there can be

so much beauty in writing, even when we're telling it like it is, and especially when it comes

to romantic entanglements. Love in so many words. That's this episode of Dating While Gray,

The Grown Ups Guide, the Love, Sex, and Relationships.

Write what you know. Perhaps you're aware of this advice. But those who have succeeded in

the craft understand that the familiar is merely a jumping off point. Take Susan Call. She's the

author of seven novels, including one that's set in a bookstore. Susan herself handles events

at the indie Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. In Susan's latest book,

the main character is a woman with an empty nest and a crumbling marriage.

Susan has experienced both. Now, Susan's career was already launched when she went through a

great divorce. I asked her if this made the split feel less discombobulating. No, I was very

discombobulated. There's no way to be in a relationship for that long and not have it be a very jarring thing, even with adult children. It was very discombobulating.

How long were you married? That's a good question. 30, 32 years, I think.

Or we'd been together 32 years.

Yeah, we'd been together since college.

So probably married 28 years at that point.

The classic great divorce, I mean,

...