 Patricia Leavy, PhD is novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world's most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 50 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels. To write Shooting Stars Above, did you create entirely fictitious characters, or have you borrowed from real world people you know? They’re fictitious but we all borrow from life. As artists, everything comes through our filter. Did the concept for this book come to you in a sudden moment of inspiration, or was it something that developed slowly over time? When I was ten years old, I tried to write a novel. I don’t remember all the details, but it was a love story about two people who help each other heal. I wasn’t able to finish it at the time, hey, I was only ten. One night several years ago, I stepped out onto the balcony of my home office and looked up at the stars. Like a bolt, Shooting Stars Above came to, as a complete book, which was different than all my previous books. I wrote the first draft in only ten days, completely immersed in the story world. It was magical. I believe Shooting Stars Above is the novel I tried to write at the age of ten. I think the seed lived inside of me my entire life. It took years of writing other books to develop the tools to actualize that bolt of inspiration. Shooting Stars Above is the first title in the Celestial Bodies Romances? Did you always know it was going to be a series? No. In fact, when I finished writing Shooting Stars Above, I was incredibly depressed. The experience had been completely immersive. It was my favorite thing I’d ever written, and I loved the characters and longed to spend more time with them. Then the second story came to me a day later. After that it became clear it would be a series. There are six books written so far and we plan to release one every spring. If Shooting Stars Above were adapted into a film, how would you want the cinematography to capture its emotional tone? At the core, this is a story about darkness and light. It’s about learning to walk through the darkness in our lives so that we can find the light. In terms of the content, there are also emotionally heavy scenes as well as light-hearted moments that bring levity. I would love a film adaptation that captured the balance of darkness and light, and what that journey looks like and feels like. Much could be communicated with lighting, shadow, color, texture, and graininess. Did you write any scenes that were particularly difficult, either emotionally or creatively, to get right? The protagonist is in the lifelong process of healing from past abuse and there’s a long PTSD chapter. It was important to get that right, and I took it very seriously. There was also the issue of everything around it. Context is so important when addressing a sensitive topic. After this dramatic part of the book: When is it okay to bring some levity back into the story? When is it okay to bring romance back? The novel explores deep emotional healing—what role do you think literature plays in helping readers heal from their own past wounds? I think literature and art in general can play an enormous role in helping people heal from past wounds. It can help people feel less alone and feel that they are seen. It can also offer models of healing and hope. Tess, the protagonist in the novel is herself a novelist. She takes the pain from her life and transforms it into something inspirational to help others. I think that’s the real work of novelists. Do you believe in fate when it comes to love, or do you think we shape our own destinies in relationships? Both. Sometimes we meet “the right” person by happenstance, much like in the novel where the two main characters wind up in a bar alone because their friends cancelled on them last minute. Other times, we go searching for someone, for example with internet dating, which is how I met my husband. No matter how we meet someone, it’s really about who we are at that moment, whether our heart is open, whether we’ve done work on ourselves not only to recognize someone special but to be able to be someone special for them. Fate, kismet, and destiny all play a role, but we still have to do work on ourselves, or it won’t matter. What’s the greatest lesson Jack and Tess learn from each other that readers might take into their own lives? Love is not something we feel or say, it is something we do. We should all aspire to do love well—love in all forms—for our partners, friends, and humanity. Your books often resonate with readers on a deep level. Have any early readers shared insights about this book that surprised you? I’ve been deeply moved by what readers have shared with me. Many people have told me they found the book healing and comforting in ways they never expected from a romance novel. Others said it made them want to be kinder to their partners, their loved ones, and themselves. Many have also shared their personal stories of trauma and abuse. For a stranger to share their deepest pain with you is very humbling. One reader sent me a message on social media and told me she was raped as a teenager and she never told a soul. Reading the book set something free inside of her. She’s seventy-three years old. Do you see Shooting Stars Above as an escapist love story, a guide to healing, or something else entirely? Above all I see it as a love story. To me it’s a celebration of love in all forms, not just romantic love. Love of romantic partners, friends, chosen family, country, art. It explores love in all it’s textures, not just the happy parts. Love brings joy, excitement, pain, grief, comfort, warmth, affection, purpose. By looking at love in these ways, I do feel it’s also a story about healing. What do you hope lingers in readers’ minds long after they’ve finished the final page? Kindness matters. You can never be too kind. Healing is possible. It’s important to let love into our lives. When that love doesn’t come from people, it can come from a movie, a song, or even a novel. How does this book fit into the broader landscape of contemporary romance—what does it offer that others don’t? Many contemporary romance novels involve enemies to lovers, fake relationships that become real, miscommunication, and so on. There are often toxic relationships. Shooting Stars Above doesn’t have any of that. This is a book about good people. They are hurt, but they do not hurt others. They don’t play any games with each other. They love with everything they have. To me, these are aspirational relationships that show the beauty of true partnership and unconditional love in practice. As a writer I think a lot about what I put into the world. The messages I send. I feel good about how I’ve used my voice in this novel and in all my romances. Visit Patricia on her website:
https://patricialeavy.com Join Patricia on Faceboook: www.facebook.com/WomenWhoWrite Follow Patricia on Instagram: www.instagram.com/patricialeavy Engage Patricia on twitter: https://x.com/PatriciaLeavy LINK for BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Stars-Above-Celestial-Romances/dp/1647428548
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 Serving in a great variety of roles as a game show host, producer, director, business executive, creativity coach and Associate Editor of the Guinness Book of World Records has enabled author Gene S. Jones to see life from multiple points of view, a vast array of experiences that helped him understand others while combining compassion and creativity with a great deal of business acumen. Fueled by decades of curiosity and an endless desire to learn the wisdom traditions of all world cultures, he now shares the profound lessons learned from more than 50 years of studying human nature. How did you decide which pieces of wisdom to include and which to exclude? What were your criteria for selection? This decision was one of the most challenging aspects of writing Consolidated Wisdom. In studying the wisdom phrases of the past 5000 years, there is an overwhelming number of quotes to sort through. If I wasn’t very strict about what quotes to put in the book, my book would probably have ballooned to over 1000 pages and lost its focus. One criteria that I did not use is whether I fully agreed with a quote or not. There are a number of quotes in Consolidated Wisdom that are not aligned with my philosophy of life, but at the same time, those quotes are most worthy of being presented to readers so they can make their own choices. What the selection process came down to was choosing quotes that felt like they had significance in our contemporary society. Was there one area or theme that emerged as particularly prominent or important to you during the writing process? Did you encounter any challenges or unexpected discoveries while researching and/or writing your wisdom books? To me, the key to writing any book is passion. It is essential to be passionate about your subject matter or else it will be very difficult to see the project through to completion. In my instance, the more I researched wisdom, the more fascinated I became with all the different wisdom traditions of the world. I’ve tried to touch on a number of them in Consolidated Wisdom. One of the most interesting topics to me is the wisdom of indigenous cultures worldwide, as the wisdom of those cultures is also very spiritual. That brings me to the other theme that emerged from my research: the fact that most wisdom traditions overlap with other wisdom traditions, and that most arenas of thought are connected to other arenas. For instance, the wisdom of sports also applies to business and the arts. This led me to feature the interconnectedness of different avenues of thought in Consolidated Wisdom. What do you hope readers will gain or take away from engaging with your book? Is there a particular action or change in perspective you hope they'll consider? My hope is that readers will take a number of wisdom phrases to heart and put them to good use. Ultimately, the ideal takeaway from my books about wisdom is for people to form their own Personal Wisdom Codes. By that, I mean adopting a number of quotes that form a code of behavior that matches their beliefs. This is not just something I recommend to others…it is what I have done for myself. After completing Consolidated Wisdom, I started reading through it in search of a dozen or so quotes that literally spoke what I believe in. I ended up with 19 quotes that I copied and assembled on a single page, thereby forming my Personal Wisdom Code. I now keep that list of quotes on my desk and review it almost every day, as it gives me guidance in how to deal with all situations I encounter. The following quote from Modern Wisdom sums up my goal in writing books about the subject of wisdom: To bring wisdom to the minds of others with the hope they will apply it to their daily activities in a way the enables them to make better decisions and therefore live happier more fulfilling lives. I call this type of wisdom actionable wisdom. The power of a wisdom phrase is determined by its ability to inspire productive positive action. For readers who are new to exploring wisdom literature or philosophy, where would you suggest they begin? Stay curious about all aspects of life…and read Consolidated Wisdom…then read Modern Wisdom! In all seriousness, I truly believe that everyone possesses a good deal of innate and/or acquired wisdom. Unfortunately, we often override our wisdom due to other circumstances and emotional states. So my ultimate advice regarding this question is to recommend that people seek out wisdom everywhere they go…in other words, to gain wisdom from experience…while also listening to their inner guidance without allowing outside influences to lead them astray. Wisdom is timeless, yet the world is constantly changing. How do you believe the wisdom presented in your book remains relevant in today's rapidly evolving society? First of all, the reason that great wisdom is timeless is because it is capable of adapting itself to changing times. This is why the quotes In Consolidated Wisdom from hundreds and even thousands of years ago are still relevant today. As I mentioned before, contemporary relevance is the key to wisdom being effective. My research while assembling Consolidated Wisdom taught me that wisdom IS timeless, but in order to be relevant in our modern world, the expression of wisdom has to match contemporary conditions and manners of expression. This is exactly what I’ve tried to do in Modern Wisdom: to express timeless wisdom in the language of our 21st century culture so it can be absorbed and put to good use. What are you working on now, and how does it relate to or expand upon the themes explored in your two recent wisdom books? I just started working on the Wisdom Lovers Workbook, which will be an interactive book that combines wisdom phrases with creativity training to provide readers with exercises that increase both their creativity and wisdom capacity. As a creativity coach, I’ve always merged creativity and wisdom Visit Gene on his website:
https://genejoneswisdom.com Join Gene on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GeneJonesAuthor Engage Gene on X (Twitter): @GeneJonesAuthor LINK for BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/CONSOLIDATED-WISDOM-ULTIMATE-QUOTATIONS-HAPPINESS/dp/0998324027 |
AuthorJane Ubell-Meyer founded Bedside Reading in 2017. Prior to that she was a TV and Film producer. She has spend the last five years promoting, marketing and talking to authors and others who are experts in the field. Archives
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Bedside Reading® is a Registered Trademark