Jane Heller is a self-described Yankee-holic and even though she is best known for her romantic novels, Heller took a special trip through the baseball world in the summer of 2007 to follow her beloved Yankees and find out what it means to be a true baseball fan. Her journey is chronicled in the new book, "Confessions of a She-Fan," available in bookstores now.

Heller's love for the Yankees was born out of a family tragedy.

When she was 6 years old, she dealt with the death of her father by following the New York Yankees. The ups and downs of the team and her devoted love of Mickey Mantle helped her get through some tough years.

"My first memories were that the Yankees was something that made people happy," said Heller. "Mickey Mantle was the guy. From as young as I can remember it was always, 'The Mick.'"

Heller even followed the bad Yankees teams from 1965 through 1975, a period she calls "The Horace Clarke Years." She reveled in the first dynasty years of the late '70's and early '80's, when the team made it to the World Series four times, winning back-to-back championships in 1977-78, and remained loyal through the down years between 1982-1994, when the Yankees slipped into mediocrity again.

But it was the next dynasty of the late '90's that the novelist became a total, all consuming, rabid devotee of the boys in pinstripes. The four World Series championships won by the Yankees in five years thrilled Heller, as her husband, photographer Michael Forester, would describe her as "Mrs. George," a female version of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who was so consumed with winning, that only a title every year would satisfy her.

"[Derek] Jeter says every year, 'If you don't win the championship, your season was a failure,'" recalls Heller. "Yankee fans need to learn that they can't win every year. Those of us who rooted for them back in the day remember that it's a faint memory. The team has gone through cycles of being a dynasty and then not being a dynasty."

The fear and frustration of the Yankees becoming a team of mortals who will not challenge for the World Series every year drove Heller to write an article early in the 2007 season that was published in The New York Times, announcing that she was divorcing the Yankees because they were breaking her heart. The reaction from the Yankees faithful was a firestorm of letters and e-mails mainly chastising her as a Bandwagoner. Heller felt a lot of those fans didn't understand that she was venting her frustration and would never leave her team, and the response also gave her an idea for a book that she pitched to Rodale Publishing, and "Confessions of a She-Fan" was born.

So with her husband in tow, Heller spent the second half of the 2007 season following the Yankees and their fans to every game, trying to find out what a true Yankees fan is.

"This was perfect," recalls Heller. "I told him, 'I'll go find out what a true fan I am and we can have a second honeymoon at the same time; after all, I've been ignoring you in favor of these 25 fantasy men.'"

Heller had thought that she would be granted a press credential and have access to the players and coaching staff. She quickly found out that wasn't the case.

"They don't give credentials to people who just write novels," said the author with a laugh. "As it turned out, it was really lucky, because what I was able to see from a fan's perspective -- sitting up in the nose-bleed section -- and surrounding myself with other fans was a far different story than had I sat in the press box. So, I was not with the players, I was with the fans and gleaning information from the beat writers in what I would call 'the traveling carnival,' -- we'd go into a new city and there they'd all be."

Heller got to know well the beat writers, who would give her insight into what was going on in the clubhouse, and she had her own undisclosed player on the team that served as her "Deep Throat," giving her the skinny on really what was happening to the Yankees during that period.

"It was an experience like no other," said Heller. "What I learned was I really wasn't the best fan. I saw true fans who would do whatever it takes to see their guys. I met fans of other teams who were disabled or in their 90's and showed up every Sunday no matter what, and I guess I was touched by all the different kinds of fans. My husband put it best and I quote it in the book: 'Being a fan is not about how loud you scream or how long you stand waiting in the rain for the tarp to come off.'

"I learned that there is a way to be a fan and root for your team without having to disparage others, and this was a lesson for me."

In the end, Heller's season of dreams with the Yankees brought her back full circle to the 6-year-old girl who lost her dad all those years ago, and the lesson she learned when the 2007 season ended for her and the Yankees. It also served as a catharsis for her and a lesson that baseball fans can learn from.

"What do I want them to come away with?" asks Heller. "I think it's to be a gracious winner and a gracious loser.

"The Yankees lost in the American League Division Series to the Cleveland Indians and I had a meltdown that night. I'm sitting there at Yankee Stadium, I'm the last one to leave, pretty much, and I was sitting their as the grounds crew was covering the mound with the tarp and I do a bit about how I never got to go to my father's funeral and it was like somebody being put in the grave.

"For me, it was really the sense of really painful loss, and I think we bring to baseball and to being a fan some parts of our lives that my be unfulfilled. I think what I had to learn was to put my being a fan into perspective, into a better balance with the rest of my life, and I think I've done that."

Jane Heller is also one of the top bloggers on MLBlogs.com. Her daily blog can be found at http://janeheller.mlblogs.com/.