I've been spending the past few weeks getting started on the manuscript of my new book, Hotel Florida, which explores three different love stories against the background (or sometimes in the background) of the Spanish Civil War. I was trying to describe this process to someone who isn't a writer, and I told this person that I'd been circling my subject, looking for a place to sink my teeth in -- a description that isn't too far from the way I felt: hungry, wary, and ready to strike.

I finally ...