HOROWITZ, Laurie 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born 1960. Education: University of Massachusetts, B.A., 1982; attended law school.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Monica, CA, and Bitterroot Valley, MO.

CAREER:

Worked as a career lawyer in Boston, MA; Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, CA, began as secretary, became literary agent.

WRITINGS:

The Family Fortune, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Laurie Horowitz always knew she wanted to work in a creative field. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts in 1982, she went on to law school and worked as a career lawyer at her father's firm in Boston before finally deciding to make a major change. She moved to Los Angeles and resigned herself to starting over at the bottom rung of the ladder in order to become a literary agent. She started as a secretary at Creative Artists Agency, and eventually worked her way up to an agent position. Her job enables her to work with her favorite authors and their stories, often selling the film rights for the projects. In addition, Horowitz has begun writing her own novels. Her first book, The Family Fortune, is a take-off on the Jane Austen classic Persuasion. In Horowitz's version of the tale, heroine Jane Fortune breaks up with hero Max Wellman, a writer who has won a fellowship that her family sponsors. Wellman grows more and more successful while Jane suffers in single misery. "Horowitz has finely captured the bored silliness of WASP high society, creating a stylish portrait of an endangered species," according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. Amy Brozio-Andrews, in a review for Library Journal, called the book "sophisticated and funny, striking just the right note of romance, social commentary, and sibling rivalry."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2006, Allison Block, review of The Family Fortune, p. 27.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2006, review of The Family Fortune, p. 150.

Library Journal, March 15, 2006, Amy Brozio-Andrews, review of The Family Fortune, p. 64.

Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2005, Jason Anthony, "Many People Dream of Leaving Their Day Jobs to Write the Novel They've Been Carrying Around inside Them for Years," p. 12; February 20, 2006, review of The Family Fortune, p. 133.

ONLINE

Fiction Nation,http://www.fictionnationonline.com/ (September 25, 2006), review of The Family Fortune.

University of Massachusetts Web site,http://www.umass.edu/ (September 25, 2006), Ali Crolius, "It All Comes Down to a Good Story."*