Thisbe Nissen's (this-bee ni-sen) parents met while on their hands and knees in some bushes outside a Manhattan apartment in the late sixties. They were both trying to get into a dinner party and the hostess, with a poor aim, dropped a set of keys from an upper story window. A scramble through the foliage led to dating, marriage and eventually a daughter. Thisbe Nissen steals that story from her family lore to kick off her first novel, "The Good People of New York." The book follows a fictionalized version of her parents, Edwin and Roz, from their first meeting through their daughter Miranda's tempestuous teenage years. Nissen told Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Curtis that while her father grew up in a small town in the Midwest dreaming of New York CIty, she grew up in New York dreaming of living someplace where she didn't feel anonymous. She now makes her home in Iowa City.