Susan Shapiro, a Manhattan journalism professor, has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Newsweek, Salon.com, Daily Beast, The Forward, Village Voice, People, More, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. She's a columnist for Writer's Digest, co-editor of Food for the Soul, and author of the nonfiction books Only as Good as Your Word, Lighting Up, Secrets of a Fix-Up Fanatic and Five Men Who Broke My Heart, which was optioned for a feature film. She recently sold two novels Overexposed and Speed Shrinking which debuts August 3. She lives with her husband, a TV/film writer, in Greenwich Village, where she teaches her own "instant gratification takes too long" writing method at the New School, NYU and in private workshops and seminars.