A freelance consultant and teacher, Shelly Lowenkopf’s clients include novelists, retired and active academics, and the humorist creator of one of the most popular television series of all time. Lowenkopf taught courses in short story, novel, dramatic writing, editing, genre fiction, and revision at the graduate level in one of the most prestigious writing programs in America at University of Southern California, where he was given a Lifetime Teaching Award. He has been a visiting professor at the College of Creative Studies, UCSB, since 2011.

Lowenkopf has had over 35 books published, along with short fiction, pulp novels, essays and reviews. His nonfiction book, The Fiction Writer’s Handbook: The definitive guide to McGuffins, red herrings, shaggy dogs, and other literary revelations from a master, is a guide to terms, concepts, and forms related to storytelling. Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night brings a number of Lowenkopf’s previously published short stories together in a single volume.

“The Fiction Writer’s Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf is one of those rare reading experiences – insightful, unusually useful, and wise.  If you’ve ever dreamed of writing, have begun to write, or a master looking for a fix, turn on your reading lamp and settle in for the night.  You’ll thank me.” – Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Spies

“Shelly Lowenkopf’s collection of short stories, Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night, is a celebration of the strength, the vulnerability and the absurdity of the human heart. In their need to connect, Lowenkopf’s characters are driven to the extreme: a man falls in love with his best friend’s dog; a waitress tries to understand a hook-up with a pianist by listening to music she doesn’t understand; a professor’s thwarted but hilarious attempt to make sure he won’t die alone. Lowenkopf’s delightful stories will leave the reader nodding and smiling in recognition.” —Melodie Johnson Howe (author of City of Mirrors)