'The adult version of a kid creating'

 

“Being a novelist is the adult version of a kid creating a make-believe world. But unlike a child, a writer of fiction has to come up with a structured story, one that has as much meaning for others as it has for her.” – Susan Isaacs

 

Born in New York City on Dec. 27, 1943, Isaacs began her writing career as a freelance political speechwriter while simultaneously serving as an editor for Seventeen magazine.  In her mid-30s she decided to veer away from journalism and speechwriting and try her hand at fiction.  Good move.  Her first novel (and first attempt at fiction), Compromising Positions, was chosen as a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and was a New York Times bestseller.

 

Since then she’s authored 17more books – her latest being 2023’s Bad, Bad Seymour Brown – numerous essays, screenplays, and a work of cultural criticism, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen.

 

In addition to writing books and screenplays, Isaacs is a noted reviewer having reviewed both fiction and nonfiction for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday.

 

But writing is her forte' and she said she loves the writing process.   “There are days where I lose track of time, of place, of everything else because I've been transported to another universe. “