December 10 2013
Caroline Leavitt on the Art and Craft of Writing the Perfect Book
From a fatal car crash and the death of a parent, to the drama of comforting a sick child and coping with infidelity, life’s greatest emotional challenges play out in the pages of Caroline Leavitt’s books.
These scenarios are the stuff of nightmares. But Leavitt’s engaging writing style, character development, and ability to write a book you can’t put down, make this title a must-read.
“I’m always obsessed with what pulls people together, and what tugs them apart, particularly families,” explains award-winning novelist, who we are sitting with today at the magnificent Pierre Hotel in Manhattan.
In this podcast interview you’ll learn:
- How Caroline got into the writing business
- How she mastered the art of being an author
- How she comes up with the characters and themes of her books — and how one character helped her overcome asthma
- Her advice for people who aspire to be bestselling authors
- Why you should never give up on your dreams
Download the podcast now!
To read more about Caroline Leavitt, read our Q&A on Be Inkandesent magazine.
About Caroline Leavitt
Caroline Leavitt is the author of eight novels: “Girls In Trouble,” “Coming Back To Me,” “Living Other Lives,” “Into Thin Air,” “Family,” “Jealousies,” “Lifelines,” and “Meeting Rozzy Halfway.” Various titles were optioned for film, translated into different languages, and condensed in magazines. Her new novel, Pictures of You, will be published by Algonquin Books in January 2011.
Her essays, stories and articles have appeared in Salon, Psychology Today, Cookie, New York Magazine, Parenting, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, Parents, Redbook, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and New Woman, as well in numerous anthologies.
She won First Prize in Redbook Magazine’s Young Writers Contest for her short story, “Meeting Rozzy Halfway,” which grew into the novel. The recipient of a 1990 New York Foundation of the Arts Award for Fiction for Into Thin Air, a 2003 Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellow Finalist, and a semi finalist in the Fade In/Writer’s Net Screenplay competition, she was also a National Magazine Award nominee for personal essay.
Caroline has been a judge in both the Writers’ Voice Fiction Awards in New York City and the Midatlantic Arts Grants in Fiction. She is an award-winning senior instructor at UCLA Extension, where she teaches “Writing The Novel” online, and she also mentors privately.
A book critic for The Boston Globe and People, she recently won a 2005 honorable mention, Goldenberg Prize for Fiction from the Bellevue Literary Review, for “Breathe,” a portion of her new novel, “Pictures of You.” Caroline has appeared on The Today Show, Diane Rehm, German and Canadian TV, and more, and she has been featured on The View From The Bay.
For more, visit Caroline Leavitt’s website, www.carolineleavitt.com.
