I always wondered what it was like to be just a normal kid growing up in trying times or during a great moment in history.

When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls.

I loved to read, and if I could've been a professional reader, that's probably what I would've wanted to be!

My mother was a great advocate of women's rights, a member of the League of Women's Voters and lifelong member of Planned Parenthood and an advocate of a woman's rights in terms of reproductive issues. She was also a founding member of Common Cause in the state of Indiana.

Love has been defined, analyzed, explained and excused. It has been the cause of wars, feuds, heroism, martyrdom, inordinate passion, and beautiful friendships. It pulls two people of opposite temperaments together into a married state and permits them to live happily. It makes friends understand each other without the necessity of words.

Now I'm a wife and a mother of two. It's a really different role. I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage, because that's what it's like to be together for so long and go through what we've been through. I can't really have that relationship with them anymore.

Haywire' is full of different kinds of love songs. It's definitely country and a little something for everybody. I feel like the subject matter goes a little deeper about love and relationships.

I am a big, confident, happy woman who had a loving childhood, a pleasant career, and a wonderful marriage. I feel very lucky.