As Told To

Bruce Weber has led a rich and varied writing life. He has been a fiction editor, a magazine editor, a national arts correspondent and theater critic, and a metro reporter…oh, and for good measure, a ghostwriter.

For many years, he wrote obituaries, weighing in with the final word on more than 1,000 notable deaths, which in his hands sprang from the page like notable lives, well and purposefully lived. Attentive listeners might recognize his voice, which was featured prominently (along with the rest of him) in the acclaimed 2016 documentary “Obit,” from director Vanessa Gould, which shined compelling light on the men and women on The New York Times obit desk.

A look back at his career reveals a writer with a gift for sharing other people’s stories in a way that is truly his own. “I don’t think it’s self-aggrandizing to say that obituary writing is important work,” he wrote in an op-ed piece upon his retirement from the paper of record in 2016. “An obituary is, after all, the first last word on a life, a public assessment of a human being’s time on earth, a judgement on what deserves to be remembered.”

Before his retirement, Bruce found the time to write a couple of books of his own, including the best-selling As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires, and Life is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist, as well as a book in collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Savion Glover (Savion! My Life in Tap). He is currently at work on a biography of the writer E.L. Doctorow.

Learn more about Bruce Weber:

• New York Times bylines
• Twitter

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Amy Ferris writes like a dream. About love. Also: strength, humanity, depression, aging, inspiration, resilience. But mostly about love. It's kind of her thing—a thing that led her to her first gig as a collaborator, a dual memoir from Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and Justine Simmons called Old School Love.

Amy's worked primarily as an essayist, an editor, a screenwriter and playwright. She's even published a young adult novel called A Greater Goode. She made a whole bunch of noise with the publication of her 2009 breakout book, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis, a wildly funny and yet achingly wistful collection of middle-of-the-night musings on life and death and connectedness. (Don't just take our word for it: The New York Times called it "poignant, free-wheeling, cranky and funny.")

The book helped to establish Amy as a voice of her generation and a leading champion of women and women's issues. She is the co-editor of anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom: Sharing the Stories That Kept Us Small, and editor of Shades of Blue: Writers on Depression, Suicide and Feeling Blue, a collection of essays that looked to shine meaningful light on the shadow of depression.

She is a founding board member of the Scranton, PA-based Pages & Places Literary Festival, a co-director of the Story Summit Writer's School, and a frequent guest at writer's conferences and workshops all over the world.

Follow her on Facebook, where she posts almost daily on the stuff of her life and the human condition. Oh, and love...a whole lotta love.

Learn more about Amy Ferris:

• Website
• Twitter

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“No one is born a celebrity,” notes collaborator Hilary Liftin. As the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including 13 New York Times best-sellers, she knows this as well as anyone. In addition to her work behind-the-scenes helping to pen best-selling memoirs from stars such as Miley Cyrus, Tori Spelling, Mackenzie Phillips and Tatum O’Neil, she’s also written three books of her own: Dear Exile, a collection of letters she exchanged with her college roommate while the latter was working for the Peace Corps in rural Kenya; Candy and Me, a memoir told through her lifelong obsession with candy; and the novel Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper, a fictionalized account of a life atop (and, alongside) Hollywood’s A-list that Cosmopolitan hailed as “a juicy faux tell-all about the price of fame.” “Every book is a puzzle,” Hilary says of her collaborative projects. “My authors have the pieces. I help put them together.”

Learn more about Hilary Liftin:

• Website
• Twitter

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Michael Jan Friedman is one of the most successful sci-fi and fantasy writers on the planet—although in Mike’s case we should probably specify the planet. Most of Mike’s early work centered in and around the Star Trek universe, as the writer of novelizations based on the show and its many spin-offs. He’s the author of the first “Star Trek: The Next Generation” hardcover, Reunion, which became a New York Times best-seller; and, co-writer of the acclaimed second-season “Star Trek: Voyager” episode, “Resistance.” He’s also written tie-in books for several other DC Comics and Marvel franchises, including the Aliens, Predator, and X-Men series, as well as more than 150 comics, most of them for DC, where he created the popular Darkstar comic book series.

In all, Mike’s written or co-written more than 70 books, including 11 New York Times best-sellers.

Somewhere along the way, to fill the spaces between comics and novelizations, he tried his hand at ghostwriting, most notably with the New York Times best-selling Hollywood Hulk Hogan, written with the famed wrestler, and Ghost Hunting, written with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of the Syfy channel’s “Ghost Hunters” series. He also became a New York City public school teacher, finding time to write in the evenings and on weekends—ticking yet another box on the checklist of a writing life.

Together with a group of seven fellow science fiction writers, he founded Crazy 8 Press, where he continues to publish his original fiction.

Learn more about Michael Jan Friedman:

• Website
• Crazy 8 Press
• Twitter
• Facebook

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Veteran journalist and author Robert Sabbag joins the podcast to share the story behind the story of one of the greatest books ever written about drug smuggling—Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade, a classic example of collaborative memoir that helped to establish him as one of the most esteemed chroniclers of his generation. No less an authority on these matters than Hunter S. Thompson hailed Sabbag on the book’s publication as “a whip-song writer,” leading our guest to a long career as a “whip-song” contributor to Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, Playboy, New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and other publications.

Along the way, he also found time to work as a true ghostwriter on a couple of notable business memoirs, and to write the books Smokescreen: A True Adventure, Too Tough to Die, and Down Around Midnight: A Memoir of Crash and Survival. Sabbag is the co-writer of the film “Witness Protection,” based on his New York Times Magazine cover story “The Invisible Family,” which was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture.

Join host Daniel Paisner as he visits with his longtime friend to discuss his classic debut effort—"one of the most dazzling and spectacular pieces of reporting I have ever read," according to the late screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron. How Robert Sabbag got that story is must-listening for all writers…and readers.

Visit Robert Sabbag's website

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"William Novak had the career I hadn't even known I wanted," host Daniel Paisner says of this episode's guest, who for a time seemed to have his have his hand in every major celebrity autobiography on bookstore shelves.

Starting with the publication of the genre-defining best-seller Iacocca, by Lee Iacocca—the best-selling book of 1984 and 1985—Novak embarked on a string of collaborations on some of the biggest books of the next decade, including Earvin "Magic" Johnson's My Life, Nancy Reagan's My Turn, Lt. Colonel Oliver North's Under Fire, and Tip O'Neill's Man of the House. In fact, Novak was so busy during this period that he actually turned down the opportunity to work with both Ronald Reagan and Nelson Mandela—an astonishing turn for a writer who candidly admits he was a little out of his element when he got the Iacocca assignment, as he struggled to realize that his job was not to write about Iacocca, as a journalist might, but to help the former Chrysler chairman "write the book about himself, based on how he sees himself."

Join us on this episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast as we visit with the writer who helped to bring the work of the ghostwriter out of the shadows and into the light.

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Joni Rodgers is known to readers and publishers as a novelist, ghostwriter and essayist with an eye for detail, an ear for language and a heart to match her subjects. She’s collaborated on best-selling books with Don Lemon (This is the Fire), Kristin Chenoweth (A Little Bit Wicked), Swoosie Kurtz (Part Swan, Part Goose), Elizabeth Smart (Where There’s Hope), Justin Bieber (First Step 2 Forever), Rue McClanahan (My First Five Husbands…and the Ones Who Got Away), and Ndaba Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela (Going to the Mountain), among others.

In January, 2022, she plans to reissue six books of her own, including the critically-acclaimed novels Crazy for Trying and Sugarland and the deeply personal (and, deeply funny) memoir about surviving cancer as a young mom, following a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 32—the best-selling Bald in the Land of Big Hair.

Joni’s always known how to hold an audience: she grew up on stage, performing in a family bluegrass band called The Dakota Ramblers, and after studying theater in college she thought she’d make her way in the world as a performer—acting, playing music, and doing voice-over work. The cancer changed that—and so, she started writing.

“Ghostwriting combines the craft skills I’ve gained as a writer with the collaborative spirit of my theater roots,” she writes on her website. “I use my Stanislavski training to capture the unique voice of my clients, structure compelling stories, and focus powerful messaging.”

Together with her husband, the multi-media artist Gary Rodgers, she runs the Westport Lighthouse Writers Retreat, on the Pacific Coast, adjacent to Washington’s Westport Light State Park.

Connect with Joni Rodgers:

• Official website
• Westport Lighthouse Writers Retreat
• Facebook
• Instagram

“Don’t make it out, make it better.”

That’s a line from podcast guest D. Watkins, offered in the book trailer for his book of essays We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America, in which he gives voice to the voiceless and shines meaningful light on what it means to come of age in East Baltimore, in one of America’s poorest black neighborhoods.

It’s a line you might hear as well from D.’s NBA legend Carmelo Anthony, himself a product of an uncertain, unforgiving environment–the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Baltimore.

In the future Hall-of-Famer’s just-published memoir, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope, an immediate New York Times best-seller, D. helps his celebrated co-author share his story of finding a way out of no way at all, sounding the call for social justice and offering a guidepost for readers looking to pull success from struggle.

More than any other athlete’s memoir in recent memory, the book offers a perfect pairing of author and subject, as D. brings his own perspective to Anthony’s hard-won experience.

An editor-at-large for Salon, D.’s work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. He is the author of the New York Times best-sellers The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir and The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America.

Connect with D. Watkins:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Website

Laura Zigman is one of our leading voices in contemporary fiction. She’s the author of five novels, including her genre-defining debut, Animal Husbandry, which enjoyed a second life on the screen as the Hugh Jackman/Ashley Judd starrer “Someone Like You,” as well as her most recent novel, Separation Anxiety, which is currently being developed as a limited television series featuring the actress Julianne Nicholson.

Laura’s novels are known for their wit and insight, as she shines compelling light on women and families on the edge, but many of her most faithful readers are probably unaware of her work as a collaborator—most notably with the comedian Eddie Izzard, Texas state senator Wendy Davis, and matchmaker Patti Novak.

Over the years, she’s leaned on her ghostwriting assignments as a way to fill the spaces between novels—and, to sharpen her instincts as a writer as she seeks ideas and inspiration for her fiction. In this episode of As Told To, she tells host Daniel Paisner that she sees herself as storyteller, whether she’s helping to craft someone else’s story or working in service of her own.

“It’s a very delicate dance,” she says of the tug-and-pull that often surfaces between collaborator and subject. “You have to learn how to handle people. You have to give it back to them sometimes. You have to find that balance between being in service to them and their story and pushing back a little.”

Here’s where you can find Laura online:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Website

“Each author is different, and each book a puzzle we figure out together,” Lisa Dickey writes, of her work as a collaborator.

In the course of her career as one of publishing’s most sought-after ghostwriters, Lisa has put together over 20 such puzzles, alongside a rich and varied list of high-profile clients, including first lady Jill Biden (Where the Light Enters); Illinois senator and Iraqi war veteran Tammy Duckworth (Every Day is a Gift); Cissy Houston (Remembering Whitney); and Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi (The Time of My Life).

She has also written books with California Governor Gavin Newsom; legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock; and former Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black, among others.

“I’m a storyteller at heart,” Lisa writes, “and I feel incredibly lucky to have helped some of the most intriguing, accomplished and eminent people in the world tell their stories.”

She’s not kidding about the “storyteller at heart” piece of the puzzle, because in addition to her collaborative work Lisa is also a “brilliant, real and readable” writer in her own right—at least according to no less an authority on such matters as former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, weighing in on Lisa’s Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia, a look at the lives and beliefs of contemporary Russians, based on interviews she conducted with the same subjects over the span of 20 years.

Here’s Lisa on how learning to speak Russian has informed her work as a writer: “When you start thinking about how [you are] going to express yourself in this other language, you start to really understand how language is put together… and how the native language that you speak affects the way that you think and the way that you express yourself.”

Lisa’s feel for language finds its way into her collaborative work as well, as she translates the innermost thoughts of her subjects onto the page in such a way that their stories ring true.

Check her out on stage at the Moth Grand Slam.

Facebook: @lisadickeyauthor

Twitter: @lisawritesbooks

Website: http://lisadickey.com/