How Academy Award-Nominated Screenwriter & Novelist Iris Yamashita Writes

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and debut novelist, Iris Yamashita, spoke to me about working with Clint Eastwood, her journey from Hollywood to publishing, and falling down the rabbit hole with her first mystery “City Under One Roof.”

Iris Yamashita has been working in Hollywood for over 15 years and was nominated for a “Best Original Screenplay” Oscar for the movie Letters from Iwo Jima (directed by Clint Eastwood).

Her debut novel is City Under One Roof, described as “Alice in Wonderland meets Fargo,” and, “The ultimate locked room mystery, [the novel] drops readers into an isolated, snowy town and is perfect for fans of Twin Peaks, Mare of Easttown, and Broadchurch.”

A Publishers Weekly starred review noted, “Unusual topography plays a major role in screenwriter Yamashita’s atmospherically charged debut….This distinctively original perspective on a ‘community of stragglers, oddballs, and recluses’ heralds the arrival of a major new talent.”

#1 New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box called the book, “A compulsive page-turner that’s both atmospheric and claustrophobic at the same time.”

Iris continues to work in Hollywood, developing for both film and streaming media. She has taught screenwriting at UCLA and the American Film Institute.

Stay tuned until the end of the show for a preview of the Audiobook, excerpted courtesy Penguin Random House Audio from City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita, read by Aspen Vincent, Shannon Tyo, and Anna Caputo.

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In this file Iris Yamashita and I discussed:

• How she kept her dream of becoming a novelist alive
• The reverse path from TV pilot to novel
• What her transition from the movie world to the book world was like
• Why nothing is precious
• Vomit drafting
• Finding flow state versus slow state
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita (Amazon)
• www.irisyamashita.com
• Iris Yamashita on Facebook
• Iris Yamashita on Instagram
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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