By HEIDI BENSON, San Francisco Chronicle

At 40, Sheila Malkind realized that 70-year-olds could teach her a thing or two. So she began questioning folks she worked with at Chicago's Department on Aging.
"I'd ask what advice they would give me about aging well," Malkind said. "They all told me: Live out your dreams."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Forget scones and Devonshire cream. Red meat is on the menu in the new generation of romance novels. According to fall book promotions, "the alpha male is back," paired up this time with a "kick-butt heroine."

Though she calls herself "a proud mono-tasker," Kay Ryan was making toast for her nephew while fielding calls about her appointment as 16th poet laureate of the United States.From now on, the 62-year-old poet and English teacher from Fairfax, Calif., will have to get used to the pace.

What to do when the godly guys aren't hot and the hot guys aren't godly? Save yourself.Such a quip isn't rare for the author of "Sexless in the City: A Memoir of Reluctant Chastity." But don't be fooled. She couldn't be more serious about her self-imposed abstinence.