Darling?

Despite the tangled lives these women lead, Schmidt's stories are tinged with hope, and even when the author is at her most biting you rarely suspect she has any contempt for her characters. Often her target is larger, like the cult status enjoyed by creative writing; in a Cape Cod workshop, one of the students carries a popular writing manual along with 'a collection of aromatherapy sachets for writers, with scents for lyricism, insight, courage'."Schmidt, Heidi Jon is the author of 'Darling? ', published 2001 under ISBN 9780312281786 and ISBN 0312281781.