Tell us about Joanna coming back?

"It has a lot to do with Lauren being a nervous wreck about being a mother and then add the fact that Joanna is her mother. I would say that the tone of the scenes are comic, at least to me, maybe not the booth [Control Room] but certainly to me. I found them funny. The chemistry on the set with Lauren, Joanna and Gloria is great."

Is Mom staying?

"Well, she moves herself in today. She takes over the apartment. The scenes are written in a very short and snappy way. The script is simplified to the essentials, real American essentials. Not a bouquet of flowers right now. Very direct. Very quick and easy to learn."

You made an appearance as Joanna on The Bold and the Beautiful. How was that?

"The day I was working on the Bold and the Beautiful, and this is in the book, my mother was working. Lee, Bill Bell, Flannery, Tracey, all called me to the set. To see them all there was quite surreal."

How does it feel to return as Joanna on Y&R?

"My personal history with Y&R goes way back to my mother. I am wearing her ring today. I feel very comfortable and very blessed to be here on this stage. I don't have the impact here that I have on Days of Our Lives but I am happy to be at either place."

Tell us about your new book…

"People are surprised that I am as candid and as funny as I am in the book and by how much my husband and I love each other. How that flows through it so completely. Strangers that don't know either one of us have read it and been very surprised. And people that have known about the Doug and Julie relationship are delighted with the book and aghast at the backstage stuff in it, because I put it all in! I couldn't think of any lines better than the truth. Bill Bell is all over the book. He had to be because he was all over our lives. If there was one fairy godfather coming down from heaven to do something for Susan, it was probably Bill Bell. He cast me, then he cast Bill Hayes and then he pulled my mother out of the bullpen of potential writers and said 'I believe you have talent. Let me train you.' Then he cast me in Y&R when Days fired me and gave me love and continued to be a friend to the three most important people in my life."

What's coming up next for you?

"My husband and I are writing another book, a period piece. My editor asked me to go on and keep writing because she said 'I think you have another career' which was more flattering then anything else she could say. I would say that it is a quarter written. My husband and I were just in London doing some research. In London, there is a theater library museum. It is not in London but just outside. You have to go through security then you get to go in and because we were published, we got to go in. You have to send down for it and then an hour later a big red box arrived, heavy with tape around it and you open it up and it's filled with playbills from 1795, 1803, 1807. I was like 'do I need to put on some gloves, and can I take a picture?' then they weigh box before they give it to you and they weigh it again, to make sure you didn't take anything. My husband and I didn't get up or drink any water for hours! We were there for 7 ½ hours. I was researching this period so I knew many of the actors names and then to read the good reviews for them."

To do list?

"I would love to live overseas. The proximity of the history and the level of awareness of all cultures are very interesting to me. On the subway, a young African American man looked at our jackets, which just happened to be Days of Our Lives jackets and said, 'you are very big in South Africa' and I said 'we are going there next March' and he replied, 'I am from there and it is very hot in March, you should go to Kenya. It is much nicer' It was just such an incredible experience."

Thanks, Susan!