Pictured: Peter Lovenheim and Tim Zaun
On Tuesday November 9, 2010 the Mandel JCC of Cleveland-Festival of Jewish Books & Authors welcomed bestselling author, Peter Lovenheim.
Lovenheim penned In The Neighborhood: Searching For Community One Sleepover At A Time.
In July, I wrote a book review of In The Neighborhood for the popular article marketing site, EzineArticles.com. I emailed Lovenheim to inform him of my critique; and he soon replied.
He told me that he'd be in Cleveland in November; and agreed to meet after his talk. Following is the best of our conversation. If you ever have the opportunity to hear Lovenheim speak or meet him, do it. You'll enjoy the experience.
Congratulations on your Books for a Better Life nomination which will be awarded next March, in New York City.
Thanks. My publisher, Penguin Books, forwarded me the link to their website. I wasn't even aware of the nomination.
Can you elaborate on Julia Roberts' Production Company buying the rights to In The Neighborhood?
Her production company, Red Om Books, has optioned In The Neighborhood for a film. They own the film rights now and are in the process of getting a script written that they like.
You were one of only seven contributors selected to celebrate the New York Times Op-Ed 40th anniversary via video. That's quite an accomplishment.
I went down to the New York Times to make the video for my website. While there, they informed me that, out of the seven people selected, I was the only one who submitted without a connection to the paper. The editor told me they receive 1200 op-ed submissions a week, so that was cool.
Who were you most influenced by while writing In The Neighborhood?
I probably got closest to Lou Guzzetta. I'm wearing his watch now. His children gave this to me after he died. I brought this on the book tour because I really like feeling close to him. I think we learned a lot from each other; and I miss him.
What tips can you offer writers of any genre?
You have to be willing to write a crappy first draft, putting down anything to get it written, because that's the hardest part. I tell my writing students, if you write something just once, that's not writing, that's typing. Writing is re-writing and that's where the craft comes in.
Understand that just about everything you read in a published book is a result of writing and re-writing. You shouldn't feel intimidated. I probably wrote 10 to 12 drafts of the chapters in my book, so what you're reading isn't what I originally wrote.
If you want to get something published, you have to be willing to get a lot of rejections, have trusted people read it and give you candid comments, and keep sending it out. Somebody will find it and recognize its value. That's how most things get published.
What three take aways do you hope to impart on readers of In The Neighborhood?
I hope that it reads like a good, entertaining, novel. That's what narrative nonfiction should be-compelling characters, a plot that makes you want to see what happens next, and a resolution that is satisfying, and allows you to take something away of value.
There are some wonderful people to meet in my book, like Lou, Patti and Grace. I feel really lucky that I was able to capture them on the page; and share them with other people who'd never have the chance to meet them otherwise.
Lastly, I hope the book raises some thoughtful issues that people can consider and apply in their own lives; and enrich their own experience of living in a neighborhood. We can all have emergencies and we can all need somebody real close at hand sometimes to help out. It's good for our society if we can learn tolerance by getting to know the people who live close by, but maybe have different ideas about things than we do.
