I'm a soccer mom. I'm T-ball soccer karate homework keeping them on their schedules. I love being the snack mom when I get to bring the cut oranges. I have one of those coolers with wheels. I'm at every game every practice sitting on my blanket. I love it.

I always loved the idea of learning martial arts but it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I really started doing it and taking up karate.

My biography of Frank Sinatra is not paean to his music but rather an illumination of the man behind the music who once described himself as 'an 18-karat manic-depressive who lived a life of violent emotional contradictions with an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as happiness.'

My sensei was a British karate champion named Brian Fitkin. He was my mentor and because I had a hard relationship with my dad he became a father figure to me.