How #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Susannah Cahalan Writes

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

#1 New York Times bestselling author, Susannah Cahalan, spoke to me about her writing process, witch candles, and stepping into the shoes of psychedelic pioneer Rosemary Woodruff Leary in her new biography THE ACID QUEEN.

Susannah Cahalan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. Her first book, Brain on Fire, has sold over a million copies and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Her second book, The Great Pretender, was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s 2020 Science Book Prize.

Her latest biography The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, “...chronicles the life of Rosemary Woodruff Leary (1935–2002), a prominent figure in the 1960s psychedelic movement and Timothy Leary’s wife from 1967 through 1976.”

Kirkus gave THE ACID QUEEN a glowing review, calling it a “well-wrought narrative that brings deserved attention to a lost figure in the counterculture,” and Publishers Weekly called it a “... stranger than fiction story [that offers] a vivid portrait of how flower power cracked up in the ’70s.”

Susannah Cahalan has been profiled in the New York Times, featured as an answer on Jeopardy!: delivered a TEDx Talk, and appeared as a guest on The Today Show, PBS, BBC’s Inside Science, and Fresh Air, among many others.

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In this file Susannah Cahalan and I discussed:

The throughline that connects all of her books

Synchronicities that led her to the life story of a psychedelic icon

How she used the research process to fully immerse herself in Rosemary’s persona

What she’s learned over the course of her writing career

Why you need to find time for “deep work” to get the pages

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

susannahcahalan.com

The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary By Susannah Cahalan (Amazon)

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (Amazon)

The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Stephen Koch

Susannah Cahalan on Facebook

Susannah Cahalan on Instagram

Kelton Reid on Twitter

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