"I was pretty naïve," she explains. "The Writer's Guild demands seemed reasonable. I figured the two sides would come together fairly quickly."

She hung in there for a month, but when the studios stopped talks with the writers in early December, push came to shove.

"When the talks broke off," she says, "I had to do something to make money."

Dansby (a former director- for Guiding Light, Generations, Port Charles, and As the World Turns) has had a varied and enviable career. In addition to her soap work, she has held jobs at hospitals, Yellowstone Park, Carnegie Mellon University, and Sesame Street. Her book details her goal-setting strategies, and explains how visualizing your dream job can make it career reality.

"People always ask how I got started in television," Dansby says. "The truth is I followed a plan that's fairly simple." Her strategy worked. Dansby has worked for 20 years in television, as a writer, associate producer, and director. When not on strike, she works from her home in Atlanta as a breakdown writer for As the World Turns.

The book also reveals behind the scenes antics and anecdotes.

"Working with ambitious and creative people can get intense sometimes. I write about one actor who tried to get me fired, and one who delivered a letter to Oprah for me. In soaps, you run the gamut."

Dansby is thrilled with her career despite the difficulties of the past several weeks.

"I've hated to be away from my work, because I truly love my job," she says about the strike. "But people need to know they can have fulfilling careers, and be happy in their work. If (my book) can help get that message out there, it'll all be worth it."

Look for "How Did You Get That Job? My Dream Jobs and How They Came True" through Amazon.com.