Though Erica Jong's new memoir SEDUCING THE DEMON is getting much attention for its description of her one-night stand with Martha Stewart's ex-husband Andy (at the Frankfurt Book Fair!) she has bigger fish to fry, as she tells USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer. Because the next book brings back Isadora Wing, who's getting close to 60 and confronting some issues that never entered her mind in the midst of FEAR OF FLYING. Jong notes American fiction lacks female characters in their 50s or 60s who are "attractive, sexy and alive. I'd like to claim that territory."

It also helps that writers don't have to worry about looks in the way that actresses do, because a writer "can go on writing until they carry you out," which is what Jong plans. "I wouldn't know what else to do."