|
Patricia Leavy, PhD is novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world's most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 40 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels.
Q: What is The Location Shoot about?
Answer: Eccentric filmmaker Jean Mercier is shooting a film in Sweden over the summer where he lives in an inn with the lead actors. Before arriving in Sweden, we get a glimpse into the lives of the actors in the cast—each at a personal crossroads. Mercier invites his friend Ella Sinclair, a beautiful, free-spirited, provocative philosopher to join them for the summer. Hollywood star Finn Forrester is instantly enchanted by her and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, the film they’re all making is about the meaning of life. The subject of the film and the deep bonds the group builds over the summer push everyone to reflect on their own lives. When the shoot ends, each returns home, changed. The group reconvenes months later on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and we see the impact of their summer together. In the simplest terms, The Location Shoot is about love—romantic love and the love of life itself.
Q: When did you start writing the book?
Answer: I wrote it during the lockdown. I wanted to escape to someplace joyful, romantic, creative, and affectionate. Due to the pandemic, I was thinking about the big questions of life, and so my protagonist became a philosopher, and the film became about the meaning of life.
Q: What do you hope readers take from this book?
Answer: This novel has brought me tremendous joy, comfort, and a feeling of optimism, and I hope that’s what it gives readers too. I hope it makes people believe in love in every sense of the word and consider the crossroads they may be at in their own lives, with hopeful and brave eyes. This glorious and heartbreaking thing we call life is short, and we all reach the same inevitable conclusion, but there’s so much beauty too.
Q: What next for you?
Answer: I fell in love with Ella and Finn and wasn’t ready to let them go. I wanted to know how their relationship unfolds. My next novel, After the Red Carpet, picks up where The Location Shoot ends and will be released September 3. It’s available for preorder.
|