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Susan Isaacs

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April 2011

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I was born in a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. Oh, you want the truth. Fine. I was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, I saw one of those ads: BE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER! Take our aptitude test. Since I had nothing else in mind, I took the test-and flunked. The guy at the employment agency looked at my resume and mumbled, “You wrote for your college paper? Uh, we have an opening at Seventeen magazine.” That’s how I became a writer.

I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, I was born in a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. Oh, you want the truth. Fine. I was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, I saw one of those ads: BE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER! Take our aptitude test. Since I had nothing else in mind, I took the test-and flunked. The guy at the employment agency looked at my resume and mumbled, “You wrote for your college paper? Uh, we have an opening at Seventeen magazine.” That’s how I became a writer.

I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, Elkan Abramowitz, then a federal prosecutor in the SDNY.

We were married and a little more than a year later, we had Andrew (now a corporate lawyer). Three years later, Elizabeth (now a philosopher and writer) was born. I’d left Seventeen to be home with my kids but continued to to do speeches and the occasional magazine piece. During what free time I had, I read more mysteries than was healthy. Possibly I became deranged, but I thought, I can do this.

And that’s how Compromising Positions, a whodunit with a housewife-detectives set on Long Island came about. Talk about good luck: it was chosen the Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, auctioned for paperback, sold to the movies, translated into thirty languages, and became a bestseller. I was a little overwhelmed by the success. However, it’s hard to rise to a state of perpetual cool and go to slick downtown parties when you’re living in the suburbs with a husband, two kids, two dogs, and a mini-van, I simply wrote another book… and then another and another.

About half my works are mysteries, two fall into the category of espionage, and the rest are…well, regular novels. In the horn-tooting department, nearly all my novels have been New York Times bestsellers.

My kids grew up. My husband became a defense lawyer specializing in white collar matters: I call him my house counsel since I’m always consulting him on criminal procedure, the justice system, and law enforcement jargon. Anyway, after forty-five years of writing all sorts of novels—standalones—I decided to write a mystery series. I conceived Corie Geller with a rich enough background to avoid what I’d always been leery of—that doing a series would mean writing the same book over and over, changing only the settings.

I also produced one work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen. I wrote a slew of articles, essays, and op-ed pieces as well. Newsday sent me to write about the 2000 presidential campaign, which was one of the greatest thrills of my life-going to both conventions, riding beside John McCain on the Straight Talk Express, interviewing George W. Bush. I also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. (My website has far more information about my projects than most people would want to know, but have a look.)

In the mid-1980s, I wrote the screenplay for Paramount’s Compromising Positions which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. I also wrote and co-produced Touchstone’s Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. (My fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II became the 20th Century Fox movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson. I would have written the script, except I wasn’t asked.)

Here’s the professional stuff. I’m a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award. I just retired (after over a decade) as chairman of the board of the literary organization, Poets & Writers. I also served as president of Mystery Writers of America. I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, the Creative Coalition, PEN, the Ameri ...more

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Susan Isaacs’s books

Average rating: 3.49 · 26,579 ratings · 3,071 reviews · 60 distinct works • Similar authors

	Shining Through 3.95 avg rating — 3,438 ratings — published 1988 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After All These Years 3.65 avg rating — 2,315 ratings — published 1993 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Takes One to Know One (Corie Geller, #1) 3.42 avg rating — 2,446 ratings — published 2019 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	As Husbands Go 2.95 avg rating — 2,788 ratings — published 2010 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Time No See (Judith Singer, #2) 3.68 avg rating — 2,066 ratings — published 2001 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Compromising Positions (Judith Singer, #1) 3.69 avg rating — 2,023 ratings — published 1978 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Any Place I Hang My Hat 3.24 avg rating — 2,200 ratings — published 2004 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Almost Paradise 3.72 avg rating — 1,577 ratings — published 1984 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lily White 3.57 avg rating — 1,430 ratings — published 1996 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Past Perfect 3.02 avg rating — 1,270 ratings — published 2007 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Height of delight

Height of delight for an author is being interviewed by the great @MegWolitzer��hilarious, brilliant, good-hearted. Thanks @LILitfest!

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Series by Susan Isaacs

Judith Singer (3 books)
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Susan Isaacs (Goodreads Author)

3.67 avg rating — 4,395 ratings

Corie Geller (2 books)
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Susan Isaacs (Goodreads Author)

3.50 avg rating — 2,817 ratings

Susan is Currently Reading

Susan Isaacs is currently reading

The Uncoupling

by Meg Wolitzer

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Apr 03, 2011 09:11AM

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Susan Isaacs wrote a new blog post Height of delight Height of delight for an author is being interviewed by the great @MegWolitzer��hilarious, brilliant, good-hearted. Thanks @LILitfest!
May 11, 2023 06:45AM · like
Susan Isaacs answered Goodreads's question: What are you currently working on? I'm now working on the third mystery in the Corie Geller series. It started with Takes One to Know One and the sequel, Bad, Bad Seymour Brown, will be published on May 2. Corie is a retired FBI agent – burned out in her mid-30s – who worked in New Yor See Full Answer
Mar 12, 2023 02:39PM · like
Susan Isaacs is accepting questions on their profile page.
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Quotes by Susan Isaacs (?)

“Keep in mind that the only person to write for is yourself.Tell the story you most desperately want to read.”
― Susan Issacs

tags: inspirational

17 likes

“I hate alliterative names. They suck.”
― Susan Isaacs, Compromising Positions

4 likes

“She has been excessively cheery. In a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, that is always a sign of a fairly severe depression.”
― Susan Isaacs, After All These Years

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The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3053	3254	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM
Pick-a-Shelf: Emily's YOU CHOOSE Challenge	11	60	Nov 01, 2010 12:16PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: Ellen's 2010 Booklist	6	113	Dec 31, 2010 02:46PM

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