"The way you look matters far less than you think."

From the book, "What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self"

Introduction to Lisa Scottoline, novelist

Before she became a best-selling mystery writer, Lisa Scottoline was on a fast-track legal career. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she made time to help establish the Penn Women's Row Team while cramming four years of credits into three. After graduating magna cum laude, she went to Penn's law school, married, and landed a prestigious clerkship for a state appellate judge in 1981.

A demanding job as a litigator at Dechert, Price & Rhoads follwoed. By teh time she was pregnant with her daughter, fiver years, later, however, her marriage was failing. It ended shortly after her daughter was born, leaving Lisa, who wanted to stay at home with her baby, in a bind. A devotee of Grisham and Turow books, she speculated that readers might have an appetite for legal thrillers written by a woman. Much to the consternation of her parents, the spunky thirty-year0old decided to give herself five years of fifty thousand dollars in debt -- whichever came first -- to write and sell her first novel.

Five years later, she had five maxed-out credit cards and a completed novel, "Everywhere That Mary Went." The book sold to HarperCollins a week after Lisa began a part-time job clerking for a judge, and it was nominated for the Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Lisa, now fifty, has written twelve books, including the New York Times best-seller "Mistaken Identity" and "Moment of Truth." Her latest, published in March 2006, is "Dirty Blonde." Though her unusual career path took guts to pursue, Lisa's list of essential knowledge for herself at age twenty-five shows that she wasn't always so confident.

Dear Lisa,

Here are the ten things you need to know.

1. Your hair matters far, far less than you think.
2. In fact, the way you look matters far less than you think.
3. "Can I ask a dumb question?" is never a good thing to say.
4. In fact, asking permission to speak is never a good idea at all.
5. While we're on the subject, don't speak too fast because you're afraid of wasting your listener's time. Listening to what you have to say is the highest and best use of anyone's time. Even if your hair looks terrible.
6. And don't edit what you say before you say it. That would be you getting in the way of truth, and worse, of your heart.
7. You are already working approximately 25 percent harder than you have to to get the result you want. Chillax.
8. Don't hang out with anyone who doesn't understand why you're so wonderful, or who needs to be told, or who doesn't tell you at regular intervals or when you forget.
9. That little voice you keep ignoring is the only one you should ever listen to.
10. Love.

Lisa