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***The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished fiction genre writers for INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION. Contact CRC Blog via email at caccoop@aol.com or personal Facebook messaging at https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7
****Caroline Leavitt’s s WITH OR WITHOUT YOU is #96 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where
the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC)
focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction
writer wrote that specific excerpt. All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links
are at the end of this piece.
Has this been published? And it is totally fine if the answer is no. If yes,
what publisher and what publication date?
Algonquin Books Publication
(https://www.algonquin.com/) date for With or Without You is August 4,
2020.
What is the date you began writing this
piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of
fiction? Oh
my God, this is a great question. The idea for this started about 7 years ago,
but I couldn’t make it work, so I put it aside, wrote another novel (Cruel Beautiful World, Algonquin
Books) and then returned to this one. I wrote a detailed synopsis and the first
70 pages and it sold to Algonquin, and I had 3 years to write it!
Where did you do most of your writing
for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. I’m
so lucky in that we were able to buy a 3-story 1865 brick house in Hoboken bac
in 1990 (right) when no one wanted to live here and you could snag a brownstone for
100K! (They now go for 3 million…) Our whole top floor is our offices (my
husband is a writer, too.) I love my office love having a place to go that is
dedicated to work, love the deep blue soothing color, the books I love are
here, there’s a whole bulletin board of photos of loved ones, exercise stuff
and a couch to nap on!
What were your writing habits while
writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write
in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I go to work when I
wake up, which is usually 11 (We stay up until 1 or two watching movies. We are
both movieholics). We break for lunch, I
always work on the computer and sometimes I have music, but not always.
What scene/excerpt of the book was the most emotional for you to write? This scene/excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. Hmmmm, this particular book isn’t published yet so I cannot excerpt the scene, but the hardest scene for me was the opening, where 40-ish troubled rocker Simon and his longtime partner Stella are arguing about their relationship, drinking too much—and then they decide to share a pill the way they used to when they were first together and in their twenties—and it’s an action that changes everything. It was so hard to get it right!
Why is this scene/excerpt so emotional
for you to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing
this specific scene/excerpt? It
was really emotional for me because I felt all the emotions they were feeling.
What does it mean to have fame? What does it mean to lose it? Stella, just
turned 40, is desperate to have a child and afraid that time has passed—and
that was me when I was her age, so I knew that desperate kind of yearning and
it was hard to revisit it (Though I was able to have a child in my 40s!) (Right) I
always want people to be partnered, so it broke my heart to write a scene where
a couple I already loved was contemplating breaking up.
Were there any deletions from this
scene/excerpt that you can share with us? Attached
is a photo marked up by my editor, which is actually pretty mild (Right) ! The first big
difference is it is no longer called that title! I can tell you that my pages
are often so marked up that you cannot find the words! So originally I was going to have Stella fall
into coma and emerge with a gift of healing. I couldn’t make it work. Maybe I
didn’t believe it enough. But I showed it to my editor and he said, “Hmmm what
if she just has a dramatic personality change instead that threatens both of
them?” And as soon as he said it, I knew that was the way to go. (Plus, that
personality change often happens when people go into coma and comes out.
Amazing stories on that!
Other works you have published? MEETING ROZZY
HALFWAY.
Two sisters growing up in 1960s Boston, one of whom becomes mentally ill.
LIFELINES The daughter of a psychic tries to find her way.
FAMILY About a man with two families.
INTO
THIN AIR A 17-year-old young woman vanishes hours after giving birth to
her baby.
LIVING OTHER LIVES When a jealous
daughter of a man accidentally causes an accident that kills her father, his
grieving fiancé must drive her cross-country to be with her grandmother.
COMING BACK TO ME A man struggles to
take care of his mysteriously ill wife—and then her estranged sister comes to
help.
GIRLS IN TROUBLE A young woman gives up
her baby in an open adoption and then the adoptive parents vanish.
PICTURES OF YOU Two women get in a car
crash and one survives—one is a woman fleeing a terrible marriage, the other is
a mystery wife who is traveling with a suitcase and her young asthmatic son.
IS THIS TOMORROW Set in the Cold War
1950s, this is the story of a beautiful young divorce an her son, who come
under suspicion when her son’s best friend goes missing.
CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD Set in 1969, this is
the story of a teenager who runs away to a back-to-the-land hippie paradise
with her older high school teacher only to find it turning into a nightmare.
Anything you would like to add? If you are a writer, never, ever give up. It wasn’t until my 9th novel that I had any sort of success, and at that time, I thought my career was over!
ZZ
Caroline Leavitt is the New York
Times and USA Today bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, Pictures of You, Girls
In Trouble, Coming Back To Me, Living Other Lives, Into
Thin Air, Family, Jealousies, Lifelines, Meeting
Rozzy Halfway. Her 12th novel, With Or Without You will be published by Algonquin Books
August 4, 2020. Various titles were optioned for film, translated into
different languages, and condensed in magazines. Cruel Beautiful World was an Indie Next Pick and a
Best Book of the Year from Blog Critics and The Pulpwood Queens.
Her novel, Is This Tomorrow is a New
York Times and USA Today bestseller, a San
Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick/Editor's Choice, a Jewish Book Council
Bookclub Pick, a WNBA National Great Group Reads, a May Indie Next Pick, A Best
Book of 2013 from January magazine, on the longlist for the
Maine Readers' Choice Award, and the winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award.
Her many essays, stories, book reviews and articles have
appeared in Salon, Psychology Today, The New York Times
Sunday Book Review, The New York Times Modern Love, Publisher's
Weekly, People, Real Simple, New York Magazine, The San
Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and
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 New York Foundation of the Arts
Award for Fiction for Into Thin
Air, she was also a National Magazine Award nominee for personal
essay, and she was awarded an honorable mention, Goldenberg Prize for Fiction
from the Bellevue Literary Review, for "Breathe," a portion of Pictures of You. As a
screenwriter, Caroline was a Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellow Finalist, and is
a recent first-round finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab competition for
her script of Is This Tomorrow.
Caroline has been a judge in both the
Writers' Voice Fiction Awards in New York City and the Midatlantic Arts Grants
in Fiction. She teaches novel writing online at both Stanford University and
UCLA Extension Writers Program, as well as working with writers privately.
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. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, New York City's unofficial
sixth borough, with her husband, the writer Jeff Tamarkin, and has an acting
student son, Max.
INSIDE THE EMOTION OF
FICTION links
001 11 15 2018 Nathaniel
Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John
Hunter – The Veteran
002 11 18 2018 Ed
Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The
Antiquities Dealer
003 11 23 2018 Janice
Seagraves’s
Science
Fiction Romance
Exodus
Arcon
004 11 29 2018
Christian Fennell’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
The Fiddler
in the Night
005 12 02 2018 Jessica
Mathews’s
Adult
Paranormal Romance
Death
Adjacent
006 12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Ruby the
Indomitable
007 12 12 2018 Adair Valerez’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Scrim
008 12 17 218
Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy
009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road
of a Thousand Tigers
010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary
Romantic Fiction
The Other
Twin
011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To
Death
012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second
Story Man
013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full
Attention
014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA
015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced
016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal
Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy
Lost
017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult
ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest
Begins
018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream
Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel
Moscow
019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional
Fiction
Alligator
Alley
020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul
Collectors
021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist
Novel
The
Nowhere Man
022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s
Mainstream
Novel
Silk And
Ashes
023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s
Short Story
Collection
There Is
No Other Way to Worship Them
024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s
Short Story
Collection
Pasture
Art
025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s
Historical
Fiction
Beloved
Mother
026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s
Romance
Magical
Mistletoe
027 03 25 2019 Faith
Gibson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Rafael
028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s
Tall Tale
To The
Bones
029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s
Paranormal
Romance
Veiled
Visions of Love
030 04 05 2019 Marianne
Maili’s
Tragicomedy
Lucy, go
see
031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s
Mainstream
Fiction
The Exile
032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s
Speculative
Fiction
Rabid Dogs
033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s
Historical
Novel
The
Baker’s Secret
034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s
Fantasy
Arcadis:
Prophecy Book
035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s
Adventure/Fantasy/Romance
Rose of Dance
036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s
Literary
Fiction
Watch Me
Go
037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s
Science
Fiction/Horror
The
Whispering House
038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s
Historical
Fiction
Murder By
Any Name
039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s
Historical/Fantasy
The
Woodstock Paradox
040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s
Literary/Crime
She Lies
In Wait
041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s
Historical
Fiction/Mystery
Peccadillo
At The Palace: An Annie Oakley Mystery
042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s
Time Travel
Romance
Follow Me
043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s
Inspirational
Christian Romance
Rosa &
Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi
Chronicles
044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s
BDMS/Interracial
Romance
On The
Edge
045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s
Mystery
The Soul
of Cole
046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s
Historical
The Last
Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli
and
Coco
Chanel
047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s
Suspense/Thriller
The
Graceland Conspiracy
048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s
Domestic
Suspense
The House
on Fire
049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s
Domestic
Suspense/Family Drama
Tell No
One
050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Short Story/
Crime Fiction
“No Good Deed” from Down to the River
051 06 19 2019 Rita Dragonette’s
Historical
Fiction
The
Fourteenth of September
052 06 20 2019 Nona
Caspers’s
Literary
Novel/Collage
The Fifth
Woman
053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Shadows in
the Mist
054 06 28 2019 Brian Moreland’s
Horror
The
Devil’s Woods
055 06 29 2019
Epic Fantasy
Wings
Unseen
056 07 02 2019 Randee Green’s
Mystery Novel
Criminal
Misdeeds
057 07 03 2019 Saralyn Ricahrd’s
Mystery Novel
Murder In
The One Percent
#058 07 04 2019 Hannah Mary McKinnon’s
Domestic Suspense
Her Secret
Son
#059 07 05 2019 Sonia Saikaley’s
Contemporary
Women’s Literature
The
Allspice Bath
#060 07 09 2019 Olivia Gaines’s
Romance
Suspense Serial
Blind Luck
#061 07 11 2019 Anne Raeff’s
Literary
Fiction
Winter
Kept Us Warm
#062 07 12 2918 Vic Sizemore’s
Literary
Fiction-Short Stories
I Love You
I’m Leaving
#063 07 13 2019 Deborah Riley Magnus’s
Dark
Paranormal Urban Fantasy
THE ORPHANS
BOOK ONE: THE LOST RACE
TRILOGY
#064 07 14 2019 Elizabeth Bell’s
Historical
Fiction
NECESSARY
SINS
#065 07 15 2019 Lori Baker Martin’s
Literary Novel
BITTER
WATER
#066 08 01 2019 Sabine Chennault’s
Historical
Novel
THE
CORPSMAN’S WIFE
#067 08 02 2019 Margaret Porter’s
Historical Biographical
Fiction
BEAUTIFUL
INVENTION: A NOVEL OF HEDY LAMARR
#068 08 04 2019 Hank Phillippi Ryan’s
Suspense
THE MURDER
LIST
069 08 08 2019 Diana Y. Paul’s
Literary
Mainstream Fiction
THINGS
UNSAID
070 08 10 2019 Phyllis H. Moore’s
Women’s
Historical Fiction
BIRDIE
& JUDE
071 08 11 2019 Sara Dahmen’s
Historical
Fiction
TINSMITH 1865
072 08 19 2019 Carolyn
Breckinridge’s
Short Story
Collection
KALIEDESCOPE
& OTHER STORIES
073 08 21 2019 Alison Ragsdale’s
Emotional Women’s
Fiction
THE ART OF
REMEMBERING
074 08 22 2019 Lee
Matthew Goldberg’s
Suspense
Thriller
THE DESIRE
CARD
075 08 23 2019 Jonathan Brown’s
Mystery/Amateur
P.I.
THE BIG
CRESCENDO
076 09 02 2019 Chera Hammons Miller’s
Literary
Fiction w/ suspense, concern with animals & land management
Monarchs
of the Northeast Kingdom
077 09 09 019 Joe William Taylor’s
Literary
Mystery
The Theoretics of Love
078 09 15 2019 Linda Hughes’s
Romantic Suspense
Secret of the Island
079 09 19 2019 Max Elliot Anderson’s
Middle Grade Adventure/Mystery
Snake Island
080 09 22 2019 Danny Adams’s
Science Fiction
Dayworld: A Hole In Wednesday
081 09 24 2019 Arianna Dagnino’s
Social/Historical/Adventure
The Afrikaner
082 09 29 2019 Lawrence Verigin’s
Thriller/Suspense
Seed of Control
083 10 05 2019 Emma Khoury’s
Fantasy
The Sword And Shield
#084 10 07 2019 Steve McManus’s
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
SEVEN DEVILS
#085 10 08 2019 Sheila Lowe’s
Mystery/Psychological/Suspense
with Scientific Bent
PROOF OF LIVE
#086 10 10 2019 Jess Neal Woods’s
Historical Fiction
THE PROCESS OF FRAYING
#087 10 11 2019 Karen Odden’s
Historical
Suspense
A TRACE OF DECEIT
#88 10 14 2019 Kate Maruyama’s
Love, Loss
& Supernatural
“HARROWGATE”
#89 10 17 2019 Sherry Harris’s
Mystery
“LET’S FAKE A
DEAL”
#90 10 18 2019 Linda Mooney’s
Science
Fiction Apocalyptic/ Post Apocalyptic
“THE TRUNK”
#91 10 19 2019 Jayne Martin’s
Flash Fiction Short Story Collection
“TENDER CUTS”
#92 10 22 2019 Janice Cole Hopkins’s
Inspirational
Romance
“IT ALL STARTED AT THE MASQUERADE”
#93 10 29 2019 Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s
Short Story Collection
“THE SHADOWS
BEHIND”
#94 11 01 2019 David Henry Sterry’s
Fiction:
Sexual Violence
“THE TENDERLOIN WARS”
#95
11 03 2019 Jay Requard’s
Dark Fantasy/Horror
“DEATH
& DUST: THE PALE SAND ADVENTURES”
#96
11 04 2019 Caroline Leavitt’s
Fiction
“WITH
OR WITHOUT YOU”