A former editor and the spouse of megaseller Eric Van Lustbader takes the plunge with Hidden (Reviews, March 13).

Hidden is your first novel, and yet it feels so accomplished.

I'm not a kid. I wanted to write since I was a teenager, and I had the idea for the book over 20 years ago, when I retired from the publishing business. I was thinking historical, because historical was really hot then, and I was thinking about my own family history in terms of the rise of the labor movement of the '20s. I come from a socialist background: my father was a Lithuanian Jew from the Lower East Side who was very involved in the unions. But I put it aside and went on to another career in the Nature Conservancy. Then about six years ago this entire cast of characters appeared in front of me.

How did the theme of homosexuality evolve?

Nothing drives people like sexuality. The '20s were a time of wrenching change between the Victorian and modern age—a time of conflict between rectitude and the pursuit of happiness. It was a period when people were discarding faith and sexual mores and others were dearly holding on to them. And the issue of sexual healing interests me intensely, finding that intimate sexual connection—and what happens when that gets repressed and damaged. It's a personal theme for me. Six years ago, I was in my 50s, and I was ready to express myself—I felt like it was sitting in me for so long.

The research must have been daunting.

Google is my god. I spent exhilarating hours, combing hundreds of sites. I worked very hard so that no one could throw my book across the room! It took three years to write.

Why?

I got off to a slow start; it took time to build confidence. And it took a lot of time to separate myself from my husband, Eric. He is incredibly prolific; he writes 10 to 12 pages a day, and I can manage a couple of paragraphs. I can't compare myself to him—he has his own success. But we help each other: I am his first reader—we talk. He's a very feminine kind of thinker, astute psychologically. And sometimes we need to disappear emotionally. We give each other lots of room. We write in the same house—our offices are on separate sides of the house. Luckily, it's a big house.

You've just finished another novel?

I have to catch up with my husband!