Jeannette Angell began writing plays completely by accident. "I was working on a novel—Our Lady of the Dunes—and had come to a tricky place in it. I seriously didn't know what was going to happen next. So I procrastinated: I paced, I looked out at Provincetown Harbor, I washed my hair, and I picked up my copy of the Banner, in which Myra Slotnick was advertising her new play festival. Hell, I thought, I can write a play—anything to not be writing this novel! So I wrote Tokens of Affection in an afternoon, submitted it, got back to the serious work of writing fiction, and forgot all about it. To my surprise, it was selected; and once I had the opportunity to see and hear my words come alive on the stage, playwriting became a passion!"

Angell had the opportunity the following summer to take a playwriting workshop from Jeffrey Sweet at Artistic New Directions' annual improv and playwriting retreat in the Catskill Mountains, and used the time there to work on her first commissioned piece, The Pact. "Jeffrey took a lot of enthusiasm and managed to help me shape it," she says. "We worked hard every day, and every evening we sat and watched plays and dissected them. It was the best educational experience I've ever had—it taught me how little I knew!"