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Lost in Jersey
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Lost in Jersey
A Killer Debut - No Write Time to Die
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Neal Lipschutz, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal and standards editor, discusses his transition to fiction writing with his debut novel, "No Write Way to Die," exploring characters from Brooklyn who take different life paths before their worlds collide.
• Neal shares his journey from Brooklyn to New Jersey and his 40-year career in journalism
• As WSJ's standards and ethics editor, he ensured content was fact-based and properly contextualized
• His debut novel is a suspenseful, rollicking ride
• We learn how his character development explores how people's backgrounds and early life decisions continue to influence them
• The book examines provocative questions about parental sacrifice and ethical boundaries
• Neal's favorite thing about moving to New Jersey is the ease of getting any book he'd like to read through the Bergen County Cooperative Library System
No Write Way to Die by Neal Lipschutz is coming out in July 2025!
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Introduction to Neal Lipschitz
Speaker 1Hey Janette , Hi Rachel , we just had a really great interview .
Speaker 2Yes , we did . It was with Neal Lipschutz . He's a former deputy editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal . He also served as the Wall Street Journal's standards editor , as well as the top editor of Dow Jones Newswire , and now this is his foray into fiction , that's right .
Speaker 1Okay , I read the book very quickly because it was very good . It's No Write Way to Die . It is his first book layered character development . We talk about this in the interview that we liked it . We told him right off the bat .
Speaker 2We're like we liked it .
Speaker 1He talks us a little bit about his journey into journalism . It was really nice to see somebody go from being such a fact checker , such a you know doing everything perfectly , to all of a sudden going straight into fiction .
Speaker 2Yes , it was really a fun , enjoyable read . It's exciting to see how he's having another career now and that he wants this to be a series . So this is the first installment .
Speaker 1It's coming out in July .
Speaker 2And then he hopes that the next one would come out a year from that and it's really just a fun conversation about writing , about journalism , about second careers and the tri-state area .
Speaker 1That's right . It's an interesting book and we recommend it , and we also recommend this interview . Please enjoy meeting Neal Lipschutz . Hi , Neal , it's so nice to meet you . Thank you for coming on the show .
Speaker 3Thank you very much for having me . I appreciate it .
Speaker 1We were excited when we saw that you know you had written this book , and then we started going well , he's got a very impressive background . We got to talk to him about everything in addition to reading your book , which is No Write Way to Die . That is your leap into fiction . But before that , we want to know , as we always do , your journey to New Jersey and also your journey to the Wall Street Journal and how you got into journalism and how you got into journalism .
Speaker 3Okay , thank you . I'll start with New Jersey .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 3So I got to New Jersey by meeting someone who , after some time together , we decided to get married , and she lives in New Jersey and has lived in New Jersey for a long time . And when we decided to get married it just made sense for me to move here to the house she already lived in , and that was about a decade or so ago .
Speaker 2Nice , okay , that's great . Where did you grow up ?
Speaker 3I grew up in Brooklyn , okay , and I lived in Manhattan shortly . I lived for a short period of time outside of Washington DC and then much of my adult life , I lived in Westchester County , north of the city .
Speaker 2Washington DC and then much of my adult life I lived in Westchester County , north of the city . Which now I'm understanding more about the book . I'm like Scarsdale , Brooklyn , Exactly Okay . I love it . Exactly yeah , it's such a- .
Speaker 3Definitely a Brooklyn influence . Yeah , I did grow up there near , you know , near the ocean , kind of in the southern part of Brooklyn , sort of Ocean Parkway , brighton Beach area .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's nice . Well , as we're going to probably pick up a little bit , as you tell us your story and your journey into journalism , we're definitely seeing the connections with your writing in this book . So that definitely is going to come up in a minute about the geography , but also about writing and getting into journalism . How did that come about ? How did you ? Get your self-fit to the Dow .
Speaker 3Sorry to interrupt .
Speaker 3From my earliest memories I always wanted to be a writer , and as a child that was fairly vaguely defined of what that meant . But still at quite a young age I was just a great fan of all the New York newspapers and it was obviously it was a pre-internet age and so , and it wasn't exactly the glory age of New York newspapers they were down , but there were still a few of them , plus the Village Voice , and it just struck me , as that was , again without real specifics , that was what I wanted to do . So I was fortunate in that sense to early on , you know , cotton on to what seemed a life path . So , you know , I went to New York University , I studied journalism I was the editor of the student newspaper , you know and really stayed the course in journalism for the next 40 plus years . And business journalism I fell into after college , without a plan , you know , by accident , and my first job was for a trade magazine in New York City that covered the pulp and paper industry , of which I knew nothing about when I started .
Speaker 2Wow , pulp and paper .
Speaker 3Yeah , I learned pretty quickly , but I discovered that I like writing about and editing on business and economic subjects , so I pretty much stuck with it . I went from there to Washington for a couple of years for a wire service that wrote about business topics , and then on to Dow Jones and Dow Jones Newswires , where I spent , you know , a good chunk of my career before moving over to the Wall Street Journal . They're both owned by the same company .
Speaker 1Yeah , we were talking about that , about the transition from the Dow to the Wall Street Journal and that you know there was a were you just subsumed in that merger that you turned went to the Wall Street Journal .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean what happened ? At some point the company sort of brought the staffs of both those groups together . They had been separate . I was the top editor at Dow Jones Newswires for a while when we had quite a large independent news group that worked . You know , we worked together with the Wall Street Journal but had a separate group . And then at some point , you know , a dozen years ago or so , they came together and I then took on the role as standards and ethics editor at the Wall Street Journal .
Speaker 2So I have a question about what that entails . I did get to when we were doing some research . I did see a video that was online that's still online from a while ago that you talked about a case in India and you were over there and I found that so interesting about what that means with the standards and ethics , and then also how you get involved by trying to publish something if a government you're publishing it on isn't wanting it to be published .
Speaker 3Yeah , it was a very interesting role and I had a great group of people in that department who I worked with and a great group of attorneys at Dow Jones who are , you know , first Amendment attorneys and do a terrific job and great colleagues to work with . But yeah , I mean it had several different basic aspects to it . One was , you know , some of the more ambitious and sensitive articles we in the standards group reviewed pre-publication , even as they went through all the normal rigorous editing process as well , and then we did a lot of training with the lawyers . We did training of the staff , got to travel around the world because it's a global news organization , you know , talking to our colleagues about the standards , the high standards we wanted to pursue , and the lawyers talking about the legal aspects of doing journalism . And you know it was just a lot of advising people on different aspects of their , on different aspects of how to go about difficult situations in reporting , wherever it might take them . So it was kind of an endlessly fascinating role .
Speaker 1I'm curious about that . With the ethics in the . You know that you've had such a long career in dealing with editing and you know making the standard of what's going to be back checked as things have progressed over the last few years , and also considering the Wall Street Journal and it's , you know , connected to Rupert Murdoch and certain political things , how do you balance something like that ?
Wall Street Journal Career and Ethics
Speaker 1Is there a motto or some sort of deep set like tradition that you might use , or what is the default when you're questioning what to do ?
Speaker 3Well , you know again , when I was at the journal . You know , throughout my entire 40 years at Dow Jones , everyone I worked with worked independently and worked and aspired to the highest standards of journalism , making sure that everything that we did was fact-based , thorough , you know , committed to having the proper context , committed to making sure , as you said , before things were checked and double-checked , making sure , as you said , before things were checked and double-checked . That's the way we did things and that was , you know , our default , if you wanted to use that phrase , was that . You know , we want to make sure everything was as thorough and well-reported as possible .
Speaker 1But as the investigative journalism fell off , like in the 90s where you know , it kind of became less of a place that money was being put into and you saw less of it , did you see that shift in the ability to have that type of rigorous checking and fact checking investigation ?
Speaker 3No , not really , you know , not in any of my experiences . Where I worked , as we've discussed , you know I worked at one company for 40 years and saw no change there . Obviously , the broader landscape of journalism
Journey to New Jersey and Journalism
Speaker 3. Of course , once the Internet and digitalization came in , you know it opened up the field for any number of variety of people and with all sorts of different ways and desires to do things , to come in . But you know that is the broader phenomenon , not the phenomenon that I experienced during my career , right yeah .
Speaker 2And while you were working there , did you feel that you always had a book in you and did you always have ideas and writing them on the side ? And how did you get to make this book the first book ?
Speaker 3Yeah , no , I mean , for a long time I wanted to write fiction . You know , I did have , obviously , a long career in journalism and I enjoyed it very much and I feel very appreciative to have had it . At the same time , you know , I did have other , you know , things that I thought would be fun and interesting to do and over the years I had written some fictional short stories . But you know , given the rigors of both personal life and professional life , I didn't really have that much time to devote to it . And so when it really got to the point where I was ready for a new challenge and reached a certain age and a certain point in the career that I felt I could do something new , different , I sort of jumped at the opportunity .
Speaker 3You know I didn't see it as a traditional retirement , even though it is Same time . I saw it as a transition to doing a different kind of work , just obviously , you know , for myself at the beginning and now , hopefully sharing what I've written , and that I hope people discover it and appreciate it or enjoy the work . But yeah , it was something I've wanted to do for a long time and I feel very fortunate that I have the opportunity , and you know , to do it and the freedom to do it now , yeah , Do you have like a schedule that you follow , like wake up every morning , write X amount of pages , go for a walk .
Speaker 2Do you have a schedule ?
Speaker 3You pretty much almost named it right there . I just do it in slightly reverse order . Yeah , I get up , I try to go to the gym or take a walk , I try to get my exercise in first . I would say five or six hours a day I'm writing slash , revising , slash editing . It's a reasonably full-time job and now it's interesting in the run-up to the publication date for my first novel . You know I've also done some of what we're doing here . You know talking about it and trying to reach out in various ways to market , in the sense that there's so many books out and so many novels out . But you know , just to get the word out to a degree .
Speaker 2How do you like doing that part of it ? Is it hard ?
Speaker 3It's a little hard . You know it's funny being a journalist for so long you know being on and being an editor for a long time , you know sort of being on the other end of things , so it's an interesting transition . But it's been fun to meet new people for sure , and lots of interesting people so far and I'm sure more coming up when I do a couple of you know appearances at libraries and other things that I have scheduled .
Speaker 1Well , neil , what I will say is that you should keep doing this . Yes , we really enjoyed the book .
Speaker 3Well , thank you very much , I appreciate it .
Speaker 2We really enjoyed it . We both were saying how like we flew through it because I kept needing to know what was going to happen .
Speaker 1Yeah , you need to know . But the thing is , let's talk about this book now . We want to say there's some interesting thread lines . So the book is No Write Way , like as in writing , to die , but it's a pun on . I think you know . So did that title first of all ? Was that something you came up with towards the end or during the middle , or how did you come up with the title for the book ?
Speaker 3during the middle or how did you come up with the title for the book After the fact . After the fact , yeah , after the fact . I just had sort of you know , a sort of a working few words about it that I knew wasn't a real title while I was writing , and then it was really on until like it was not , until I got to the point where I had signed , you know , a publishing agreement with the small publishing company that is bringing it out that I said , well , you know you need a title , and I did think , with , like you say , with the play on the word write , by making it W-R-I-T-E , implying that at least one of the characters is a writer of some sort and that somebody dies . So it gets .
Speaker 1And you're trying to figure out who did it .
Speaker 3Yeah , and you're trying to figure out who did it Exactly so you get those two themes get incorporated in the title .
Speaker 1The writing is very clear , very crisp , very fast moving and the development of the characters is very layered and I really enjoyed the introspection of it all and the dialogue that's going on in the head and also amongst characters , the subtext too , like you could still read the subtext , but it was very like Jeanette said .
Speaker 2We found it was fast-paced clear what you were saying , but it had layers and I found it also like I could see it . It was definitely like I think this will be a series .
Speaker 1Yeah , I agree . And it was like , is this just easy ? Or , and then I was like his 40 years
Transition from Journalism to Fiction
Speaker 1of experience is showing . I was like you are crisply , you have eliminated fluff that I didn't need and you're getting to the point , but you're doing it so effortlessly . And I was telling Rachel that it has the geography of like people who like New York . You know that they were going to really enjoy that and they also .
Speaker 1There was some Tom Wolfe in there . You know this . You know Bonfire of the Vanities , you know the intrigue of the rich and you know getting caught up into something that's going to ruin the reputation and all of this and like the fixer and the fixer . And then , but there was this interesting thing you said in the beginning about your career journey and I'm wondering how much is reflected . Is that you said you wanted to go into business journalism , but there's a character in here that kind of takes the traditional route for success . And then there's the bohemian writer , the fictional writer , the one who's doing some . Is there something there and a reflection that you'd always wanted ? Like Rachel asked to do something instead of the facts and nonfiction .
Speaker 3Yeah , for sure . You know , like I said , I've had an interest in writing fiction for a while and , by the way , really thank you very much for your comments . You know it's early on in the process . Not all that many people have read it . My adult children have read it , but of course they're going to say nice things I wish they have . But thank you , I appreciate it and I appreciate you reading it so closely too .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean your point about the two characters . I mean that was my first idea , for this was really actually , as I was saying , I was doing some short stories and it started out with an idea of a two-story , which was that these two men who reached kind of late middle age or who started out in the same sort of old Brooklyn neighborhood , didn't know each other , as you were saying , took kind of very different paths in life but perhaps under the veneer have some similarities and maybe not always very positive similarities in character , and that at some point they come into conflict . And then I thought about a couple other bigger ideas within starting with that , and then I said , gee , you know , I think this really has enough to be a suspense novel . That was the genre I wanted to try to write more form in .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 3So yeah , so I hope it achieved both things right . That it's as you were saying . Hopefully it's just a compelling , fast-paced story , but that ideas about how people choose to live and how they choose to be parents , the ethics and the morality how they choose to be parents .
Speaker 2The ethics and the morality how they choose to be parents is a big thing in there . Yeah , and I thought about that a lot , like when you would pose that question like what would you do for your kids ? Like where to what end ? Right , that's a fascinating question to think about .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean , that's one of the great things about this genre too , is that , you know , in my view , is that you get the freedom to create characters and then you place them in sort of excruciatingly difficult situations and see how they react . And to a degree , I think , people react based on the sorts of people they were before the crisis hit . You know , and I think that's probably what happens here . But I'm , you know , very happy that you found it without fluff , because I did , you know , I want to respect people's time , I want to respect , you know that , you know that the story moves and that is kind of the , you know , the great , one of the great things about writing fiction is that , at least in my view , there's this veneer that it's real , but it's not real , of course . And then so you can kind of condense things and heighten reality and make things move along at a pace and cut out to sort of , you don't need you know a lot of explanations for everything to make up our daily lives right ?
Speaker 1Yes , but you care the development of each character . I mean to say that there , you know , no fluff is . I want to , you know , clarify that is that you very well , you know , clarify that is that you very well you know define the characters and who they are . And there's so much depth into these . A lot of them are like in their midlife , and then you've got a young person . You've got different levels and all different . You know characters and they're really developed really well .
Speaker 2So it wasn't like all at once you set it up like I know that type . I think you know that type , but then you'll reveal something else about the family history or the background , which I always love to know . People's background I mean , that's why we have this podcast too is to ask where'd you come
Discussing "No Right Way to Die"
Speaker 2from , how'd you get here , what were you thinking Like , what influenced you and I liked being able to see that in the characters .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , no , that's a great point , and for sure I mean , some of my own favorite scenes actually are when either the characters reflect on or we go back to when they were younger . Yes , and see some of those early decisions , you know , early influences , and I think that's true of , you know , not everyone , but a lot of people .
Speaker 2A lot of people yeah .
Speaker 3Things that happen in those kinds of late teen , early 20s years can last , can stay with us Forever .
Speaker 2Forever . We could try to get over them forever , but it's really hard .
Speaker 1Was there a particular audience that you were writing this to that you thought would enjoy this book ? That's a great question .
Speaker 3No , not really .
Speaker 1You know , it's interesting to your prior point is it's a different book than if I was writing my first novel at 30 .
Speaker 3You know what I mean .
Speaker 2I'm doing it in a much later state in life .
Speaker 3So yeah , I think it comes out of the kind of totality of your experience combined with your imagination , you know , and broader that experience is , like you say , the more sorts of situations and more sorts of people you've met along the way or read about or whatever it is . It kind of all gets in there and then you get to imagine things and make them up and it all fits . But no , I wasn't thinking of a particular audience . I was wondering , I really don't know of a particular audience . I was wondering I really don't know . But you know , I was wondering if people who are similarly aged to most of the characters , if that would have a greater appeal or not . But I wasn't sure and wasn't really aiming for any audience in particular .
Speaker 2Who do you feel you relate the most to as the characters ? Oh , that's hard .
Speaker 1I thought about that too , rachel . I was like , who would I identify with ?
Speaker 3And I was like hmm , yeah , it's an interesting question . I don't really personally identify , I don't think , with really any of them in any sort of large percentage or totality . I was conscious when I was writing of the fact that you know , and not limited to a single character you know the characters do things that I think a lot of people would just find abhorrent at certain points .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 3And at the same time , I think all of them have certain aspects that one can empathize with . At the same time , you know so , and frankly that's attractive to me , that ambiguity you know , both about characters and about circumstances and about the decisions that people make , and then in retrospect say , huh , maybe it could have gone a different way .
Speaker 2I thought that was interesting too , that you did put in some self-reflection there later for Scott , like that . That it wasn't just you know . Yep , I made this decision and this is what it is it allows . It allows for you , like what you said , that ambiguity , and like we all have shades of gray or moments in life where we behave certain ways because of how we grew up and everything that's happening around us .
Speaker 3Yeah , exactly so that that I'm glad if that came across because I did as I said . There are definitely behaviors you know that are that they do , that are human . I hope one can understand what motivates them and that no one is all one thing or another .
Speaker 1Well , I mean , I think that what Rachel was saying early on about it being a series like the , there was something about the way it ended that I really liked .
Speaker 2I . I was upset . You liked it , I was that's why I liked it .
Speaker 1It's because it wasn't tied up in a nice bow . It wasn't the traditional ending which . I really appreciated that . It was kind of like well even my brain wanted , wanted , nice , yeah he wanted to be nice and I also loved how there were some characters that you you kind of were guessing like you thought you knew who was going to be the person .
Speaker 2It wasn't clear . It wasn't clear .
Speaker 1So I feel like there's also some stories to be told about some of the characters like and it could keep going , I mean are you going to ?
Speaker 2Are you going to write the same character ? Are you going to follow these characters in book two ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it is going to keep going .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 3So yeah , at least with some of the characters , without trying to give too much away about this one . But yeah , some of the main characters will carry on and we'll find a way to remain connected . But this book officially releases in July and the number two in the series , I hope , will release in July of 2026 . So a year from a year after the first one .
Speaker 1Great , great .
Character Development and Creative Process
Speaker 1Well , we'll do our best to get people to take notice of it .
Speaker 2And we definitely of it , yes , thank you .
Speaker 1We definitely enjoyed it and I'm really glad to help kick it off .
Speaker 2We always ask our guests to end with a favorite thing about New Jersey . Since you've only been here 10 years . You're such a newbie .
Speaker 3I'm a newcomer . This is fairly nerdy , but I really like this thing called BCCLS , if I'm getting it correct which ?
Speaker 2is the Bergen County .
Speaker 3Cooperative Library System . Yes , and what it is ? It's basically if you need or want to borrow a book or any other medium and your local library doesn't have it , you get connected to a large number of libraries in northern New Jersey and as long as one of those many , many libraries has a copy , in a few days , usually it will show up at your local library , and I just think it's been great . I've been a big user of it , I'm a big fan of libraries generally and so that's been like wow , that's real positive about living here .
Speaker 2It's so true . I love that . When I first , when we first moved to Montclair , I remember going to the public library with the little kids , excited to get our library cards , and then they told me , you know , go online , you could always just check on our website and to be able to get any book you want from anywhere . I'll say it's like coming from some town I've never heard of . Exactly , and like you said , it's there three days , you just go and pick it up .
Speaker 3It's a good way to learn New Jersey geography too , like you , said several libraries are from towns . I said , oh , I didn't know that place existed .
Speaker 1You're like that's far , Is somebody driving this book over just for me ?
Speaker 3for three hours .
Speaker 1They're taking a three-hour drive for this book .
Speaker 3Possibly . Anyway , I like that .
Speaker 1That's great . I love that . No one's ever said that Somebody has said the library .
Speaker 2They love the library , but that was very specific and I love it .
Speaker 3I love the library too , but yeah , that whole cooperative system is great .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's great . There's all these little hidden things to learn about on this podcast , so we love that . So thank you . Well , thank you so much for coming on Lost in Jersey . It's been a pleasure to meet
Future Plans and New Jersey Libraries
Speaker 1you . And maybe we'll see you at a book reading or promotion .
Speaker 3Yeah , I hope so . Thank you both very much . It's been great . It's a pleasure to meet both of you as well , so thank you .
Speaker 2This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian . You can find us on Spotify , iTunes and Buzzsprout . Thanks for listening . See you next week .
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