Caroline Leavitt's Blog, page 143

Is it wrong for James Patterson not to write his own books?

The answer to the above? Yes.
I just finished reading the NYT Magazine article about how James Patterson no longer writes his own books, but does the outlines and hires different co-writers. He does credit the other writers, and he probably does pay them handsomely, but the whole thing is coiled up in my stomach like bad diner food.
Because I'm a novelist and I know so many novelists, I'm well aware of all the adjectives that go along with being a writer--despair, anxiety, worry, fear...

Read This Book: My Before and After Life by Risa Miller

When a woman's father becomes suddenly very Orthodox Jewish, she's forced to confront everything she ever felt about belief, faith and family in Risa Miller's My Before and After Life. Miller, the author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights, agreed to let me ask her some questions-thank you, Risa!

I've read a few articles, notably one in the NYT, which label you as an Orthodox writer. Both your first novel, Welcome to Heavenly Heights and My Before and After Life deal with Jewish Orthodox Religion...

page proofs

I'm in the midst of looking at first page proofs. It's a terrifying time because everything is sort of set in stone and now is the time when you look at the pages and thoughts of "what was I thinking" get into your head. Jeff is helping me through them, but everything else seems to have stopped until I'm done. Stay tuned for more author interviews, though!

A conversation with Katharine Weber about writing, art and True Confections, her latest novel

Katharine Weber's life is a novel in itself. (Note: you'll want to buy and read her forthcoming memoir.) The author of Objects in the Mirror are Closer than They Appear, The Little Women, The Music Lesson and Triangle, and the granddaughter of famed songwriter Kay Swift, she has no college degree, never took a writing course, and yet has taught at Yale and Columbia. Her latest novel, True Confections is an uproariously funny, provocative and smart novel about belonging and family, racism...

Yes, I'm really working when I'm writing

Picture this scene. I'm in my twenties, deep in the middle of my very first novel, working at home, not answering the phone or emails or instant messages, when the doorbell rings. I'm wired, excited and nauseous, all at the same time, because I've been working so hard and I feel so completely over my head. I go to answer the door, thinking it might be a FedEx package I'm expecting. Instead, it's a relative. She's been out shopping and decided to take a break. "Thought I'd drop by!" she says, ...

Ten questions never to ask a writer

From novelist Mameve Medwed on Shewrites.com. I could not have said this better!

Process

I've spent six hours today writing my new novel, and the story seems stubbornly out of my reach, and the three decent lines I wrote today prove it. Sometimes, I think you need to take a leap of faith, to just desperately hang onto the character's coattails and let them take you deeper into the story, but it isn't always easy to be patient, to wait for the reveals. I teach writing and I edit manuscripts privately, and it's always thrilling for me to see my students' or my clients' work, sudd...

Read this Book: Alice I Have Been

Who isn't in love with the story of Alice in Wonderland? In Alice I have Been, Melanie Benjamin creates a hypnotic portrait of the real Alice and her tangled relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who immortalized her in his books. I'm thrilled to have Melanie here to answer questions about her novel.

Charles Dodgson photographed other little girls, but what was it about Alice in particular that haunted him so? Was it that she knew her power, and if so, what evidence is there...

Gail Godwin talks about Unfinished Desires

I'm completely honored to host a Q and A with Gail Godwin about her latest novel, Unfinished Desires. Her 30-year career spans short story collections, nonfiction, novels and librettos for ten musical works with her husband, the composer Robert Starer. Nominated for the National Book Award three times, and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an award for literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant, Godwin, to me, is a writer's...

The fine art of photography

For me, the thought of getting my book jacket photo taken was akin to root canal without anesthesia. It's been so difficult that I've had Jeff take shots and this year was planning on having Max take them, but when they did, the shots were grainy. They didn't look quite professional enough, so I bit the bullet and decided to hire someone. In the past, when she lived in NYC, I hired the fabulous Carol Seitz, but I needed someone in the area who was going to be great, sensitive and...