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Meet Michael Shapiro like I first did on a trip to Kenya almost a decade ago and you’re immediately attracted to his zest for life and adventure. Heck, he guides his own raft down the tumultuous Colorado River for three weeks for a heavy dose of adrenalin. Once you get to know Shapiro, you also realize he doesn’t beat around the bush, asking poignant questions about your life, even taking the time to listen. These are the essential qualities of a great interviewer and Shapiro is one of the best as you’ll see in his latest work, The Creative Spark<\/em>. During the past decade, Shapiro has interviewed some of our brightest luminaries for the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> and other publications. They include authors David Sedaris, Barbara Kingsolver, and Pico Iyer; musicians Smokey Robinson, Lyle Lovett, and Jethro Tull lead singer and flutist Ian Anderson. He’s also spoken with director Francis Ford Coppola and comedian Joan Rivers. In these interviews, Shapiro digs deep to find the inspiration that transforms their visions into art. Buy the book directly from the independent bookstore, Book Passage,<\/a> and Shapiro will include a hand-written note. He’ll also be back on Monday, December 2nd at 7pm as part of Book Passage’s Left Coast Writers Salon and will be happy to sign books at that time. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stocking Stuffer No. 3\u2014The Creative Spark - Active Travels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stocking Stuffer No. 3\u2014The Creative Spark - Active Travels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Michael Shapiro like I first did on a trip to Kenya almost a decade ago and you’re immediately attracted to his zest for life and adventure. Heck, he guides his own raft down the tumultuous Colorado River for three weeks for a heavy dose of adrenalin. Once you get to know Shapiro, you also...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Active Travels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/activetravels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-27T11:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Home-Page-Top-Photo-add-Let-us-take-you-there-heading.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Jermanok\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Jermanok\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Jermanok\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/#\/schema\/person\/77b14e74586df26d3c691dca9cebca4b\"},\"headline\":\"Stocking Stuffer No. 3\u2014The Creative Spark\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-27T11:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-27T11:00:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874\"},\"wordCount\":238,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"ActiveTravels | get up & go!\",\"Recommended Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/activetravels.ibec.me\/archives\/6874\",\"name\":\"Stocking Stuffer No. 3\u2014The Creative Spark - 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Meet Michael Shapiro like I first did on a trip to Kenya almost a decade ago and you’re immediately attracted to his zest for life and adventure. Heck, he guides his own raft down the tumultuous Colorado River for three weeks for a heavy dose of adrenalin. Once you get to know Shapiro, you also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-default-site","category-recommended-books"],"yoast_head":"\n