In an era of Netflix and social media, there is a limited window of opportunity to capture and hold a reader’s attention. The first page alone may determine whether a reader chooses a book or puts it down, never to pick it up again. Even then, the reader will only finish the book if the story is intriguing, engrossing, and entertaining. The commitment to stick with a book usually locks in by the twentieth page. In our upcoming dinner meeting, Donna Levin will share her wisdom on successfully drawing the reader through these two critical junctures: hooked on page one, committed on page twenty.
Donna has taught fiction writing for two decades, most notably at the University of California Extension at Berkeley, where she led the Novel-Writing Workshop. Many of her students have gone on to publish. She is the author of There’s More Than One Way Home, a best-selling “autism lit” novel that Booklist, in a starred review, called “a smart, wise and big-hearted book.” Her first two novels, Extraordinary Means and California Street, have been optioned for film. Donna has published two books about writing, Get that Novel Started and Get that Novel Written, both with Writer’s Digest Books. Get that Novel Written was translated into Italian and published by Dino Audino Editore.