As Told To

"I look in the mirror and I see a storyteller trying to make a living," says Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, founder and editor-in-chief of StoryMade, a boutique storytelling studio, when asked if she sees herself as a journalist, an editor, a ghostwriter, or a content strategist. As the author of In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family, Rachel established herself as a leading voice on the future of family life and women's health issues. She has written for The New York Times, New York, O Magazine, Self, Wired, and Vogue, and she was recently honored with an award for excellence in feature writing by the Association of Healthcare Journalists for an article she wrote for Neo.Life entitled "Portrait of a Professional Babymaker."

Rachel joins us on the podcast to discuss her life and career, including note and comment on what it was like to grow up in a house surrounded by books (her father was the senior daily book review editor at The New York Times for over twenty-five years; her paternal grandfather was a noted bibliographer and the curator of rare books at Columbia University), but mostly to shine a light on her work helping individuals and organizations tell stories of their lives and initiatives in compelling new ways.

You can find Rachel at www.lehmannhaupt.com, or on Instagram at @rlehmannhaupt.

You can find StoryMade Studio at www.storymadestudio.com, or on Facebook and Instagram.

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George Vecsey has been writing about sports for the past 60 years—mostly about baseball, and soccer, and tennis, but also about hockey, and basketball, and football, and boxing. (Have we missed anything?) He wrote the Sports of the Times column for The New York Times for nearly 30 years, until his "retirement" in 2011, although he continues to contribute to the newspaper on a regular basis.

Like many of his sportswriter colleagues, he started "ghostwriting" on behalf of celebrated personalities as a kind of sideline pursuit. Perhaps his most successful collaboration was his work with country music icon Loretta Lynn. Coal Miner's Daughter, which was later turned into a movie starring Sissy Spacek. (There's a terrific audio version of the book, read by the actress you can find at Libro.fm) Among his other collaborations are books with tennis great Martina Navratilova (Martina), Cy Young-award winner Bob Welch (Five O'Clock Comes Early), country singer Barbara Mandrell (Get to the Heart) and Chinese dissident Harry Wu (Troublemaker).

He's also written several books of his own, including a distillation of the life and times of Baseball HOFer Stan Musial (Stan Musial: An American Life), and a compelling appreciation of the World Cup (Eight World Cups: My Journey Through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer). Oh, and he's also the author of Joy in Mudville: Being a Complete Account of the Unparalleled History of the New York Mets from Their most Perturbed Beginnings to Their Amazing Rise to Glory and Renown, which in addition to boasting one of the best subtitles on the sports bookshelf was also the very first hardcover book owned by podcast host Daniel Paisner, who counts his (now signed!) first edition copy as one of his most treasured literary keepsakes. So, you know, there's that...

Learn more about George Vecsey:

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"Nobody should ever take a band for granted," writes the justly-celebrated rocker, songwriter, actor, producer, activist and music impresario Steven Van Zandt in his wild ride of a memoir, Unrequited Infatuations: Odyssey of a Rock and Roll Consigliere (A Cautionary Tale). "Bands are miracles. They're rarely perfect, but if a band has that magical chemistry, it should not be fucked with… Every great band is a matter of individual eccentricities blending in different ways with unpredictable, inconsistent, occasionally glorious results."

Here at the As Told To office, we believe the same could be said for the pairing of subject and collaborator, and at the risk of putting our host and our guests out of business we humbly suggest that there are some artists who are meant to go it alone in the memoir-writing department. Little Steven, the shape-shifting guitarist of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes who helped to stamp the Jersey shore sound, is one of those artists. His memoir—published in September 2021 and due out in paperback in September 2022—puts a brilliant exclamation point on a singular career, and he does so in a deeply personal way.

"If this book was a song, you'd want to crank up the volume," writes the noted film critic and screenwriter Jay Cocks. "It's one of the best rock memoirs ever. It's got soul, it's got humor, it's got some tough truths and some wild stories all wrapped up in battle scars and telling memories you'd usually need a backstage pass to catch… It's so much fun you can dance to it."

Indeed you can. We know. We tried. We suggest you do as well, but tune in to this episode first as a kind of palate cleanser and walk around in Little Steven's shoes for a bit, as he talks about what it was like to roll up his sleeves and sit down to write about his coming of age in the music business, his political activism, his unlikely star turn in "The Sopranos," his leap of faith in producing and starring in "Lilyhammer" (the first-ever show to stream on Netflix), his pioneering work as programming director and rock 'n roll curator, and an activist streak that has lately led him to launch his Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and TeachRock, which seeks to re-imagine a new K-12 national curriculum that makes room in our schools for an interdisciplinary focus on the arts.

Oh, and by the way, check out Stevie's late-career renaissance and the kick-ass new music he's been putting out with Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, including last year's "Summer of Sorcery" live album and the expanded edition of "Soulfire Live!"—we've been playing those babies on repeat since Stevie agreed to this interview.

Chef's recommendation: listen to author read his memoir in the audio edition of the book, available from our sponsor Libro.fm (code: ASTOLDTO).

Learn more about Stevie Van Zandt:

• Website
• Twitter: @StevieVanZandt
• Facebook
• Instagram: @Stevievanzandt | @littlesteven_ug

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"Basically, if there is a book in you that just has to come out, I'm your surgeon? Mid-wife? Sorcerer? Shrink?" notes prolific ghostwriter Valerie Frankel. "Whichever metaphor works for you, that's the best one ever."

Val knows what it takes to discover the story in a life well-lived—and, how to reach for just the right metaphor to ensure that the story lands in just the right way. As the author or co-author of over 50 books, including dozens written in collaboration with some of our leading performers, personalities, and change agents, she's emerged as one of publishing's leading ghostwriters, with five New York Times best-sellers to her credit.

She's also an accomplished novelist, memoirist and book-doctor—a writer who's been helping to shape our national conversation for the past twenty years.

That conversation started with a decade-long stint at Mademoiselle, where Val worked as articles editor, while building her freelance career as a contributor to Good Housekeeping, Self, Allure, Glamour, Parenting, and pretty much every major woman's magazine on U.S. newsstands. On the side, she found time to launch her career as a novelist, publishing her first novel, A Deadline for Murder, and a series of popular YA novels, including Fringe Girl and Fringe Girl in Love, as well as the critically-acclaimed memoirs It's Hard Not to Hate You and Thin is the New Happy.

One of Val's very first celebrity collaborations was with the iconic Joan Rivers—an outrageously funny primer on the ins and outs and nips and tucks of plastic surgery called Men Are Stupid... and They Like Big Boobs. (Such a great title!) She also helped to write two novels with Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who burst onto the pop culture scene with the MTV's ground-breaking (and head-scratching) "Jersey Shore" reality series (A Shore Thing, Gorilla Beach), as well as books with comedian Sebastian Maniscalco (Stay Hungry), "Dallas" star Linda Gray (The Road to Happiness is Always Under Construction) and "Real Housewife" Aviva Drescher (Leggy Blonde).

Most recently, Val made a bunch of noise with a series of books that shined meaningful light on what it meant to live and work in the orbit of our former president: Ivana Trump's Raising Trump, Omarosa Manigault Newman's Unhinged, and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's Melania and Me—all national best-sellers.

Learn more about Valerie Frankel:

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• Twitter

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Eugene Pack knows a thing or two about what it takes to write a compelling celebrity memoir – and yet he's never actually written one. As the creator and co-producer of the hit theatrical revue "Celebrity Autobiography," developed with Dayle Reyfel, he has pushed audiences to consider what it means to live a book-worthy life and how it is that readers have come to accept the wit and wisdom and worldviews of our most celebrated personalities when they are presented on the page.

The show has been staged in theaters all over the country, including runs on Broadway, on London's West End, and at the Sydney Opera House, with guest performers such as Kristen Wiig, Lily Tomlin, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Rudd, Billy Crystal, Maya Rudoph, Whoopi Goldberg and Martin Short helping to give hilarious voice to the so-called insights and dubious reflections of the famous and infamous. "Celebrity Autobiography" was awarded a Drama Desk Award for "Unique Theatrical Experience" when it debuted in New York to rave reviews, and it continues to delight audiences all over the world, drawing on an ever-changing slush pile of source material and an ever-evolving cast.

An accomplished playwright, Pack's short original comedies are featured on his uniquely-imagined and endlessly-entertaining podcast, "The Pack Podcast," performed by an assortment of talented actors, with proceeds going to the Actor's Fund, an organization that provides a safety net for performing artists and entertainment professionals. His full-length plays include "Columbus and Amsterdam," "Sharpies" and "The Poets of Amityville," as well as the autobiographical musical "To Be Loved," written in collaboration with Motown founder Berry Gordy. Pack is also an Emmy-nominated writer and producer, and the creator and executive producer of CMT's longest-running series, "Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team."

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Andrew Neiderman is perhaps the world's most prolific ghostwriter, and, the most widely-read. Since 1987, he's been writing under the pen name of V.C. Andrews, helping to sustain one of publishing's most successful franchises, following the death of Cleo Virginia Andrews in 1986. Andrews is best-known to millions of readers as the author of Flowers in the Attic, a surprisingly dark family saga that was first published in 1979—a book that now features prominently in many discussions on book banning and cancel culture for its graphic content and its focus on death and imprisonment and incest…not exactly the stuff of school libraries, despite the fact that the book has appealed to young readers for generations.

Neiderman, already an established and widely-published novelist in his own right, was hired by the V.C. Andrews estate to keep writing under name, and he went on to publish over 90 additional titles (including 2021's The Umbrella Lady and Out of the Rain) with no end in sight. He's also written nearly 50 books of his own, including The Devil's Advocate, the basis for the 1997 Taylor Hackford film of the same name, starring Al Pacino, as well as the stage adaptation of "Flowers in the Attic" and numerous screenplays. He is the author of the just-published The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story, a celebration of the life and career of the woman who has been his muse for more than 35 years.

Learn more about Andrew Neiderman:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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• Crazy 8 Press
• Twitter
• Facebook

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