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Arts & Entertainment

Plainview Author Debuts First Novel Nationwide

Caroline Bock's "LIE" was released Tuesday.

From a young age, Old Bethpage resident Caroline Bock dreamed of being a published author, but after entering a career in marketing and television, her lifelong goal was pushed aside - until now.

LIEBock's first novel, inspired by real-life hate crimes in suburban Long Island, inner-city Brooklyn and rural Pennsylvania, was released in bookstores across the country on Tuesday.

"I always had a split interest," said Bock, a graduate of Syracuse University. "I always wanted to be a literary writer- write novels, stories - but I also knew that I loved the media and television."

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After graduating from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Bock took a job with USA Network.

"I thought 'I'll just work here for a year or two and then go back to graduate school and be a real writer'," she explained. "Twenty years later, I was heading up the marketing and public relations department at Bravo, IFC and IFC Films."

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After several years, Bock felt the travel and hours that came with such a demanding career were no longer fit.

"I quit," Bock said. "I loved the job, but I had a three year old son at the time and I wanted to focus on my family and I really, really wanted to write."

After leaving her job, Bock soon ventured back to the classroom, pursuing her Masters in Fine Arts at the CUNY City College of New York. Shortly after completing her degree, Bock began work as an adjunct lecturer at the college - where LIE was first born.

"I started writing it in my class in November 2008 when there was a murder of a Hispanic man on Long Island named Marcelo Lucero," said Bock, who grew up in New Rochelle, where such crimes were a rarity. "He was beat up by a group of white teens. A similar incident happened at the same time in Brooklyn and Pennsylvania and I thought 'How could this happen here? How could you have this warped vigilante justice in these areas?'."

From these painfully real crimes, Bock wrote LIE, a devastating and realistic tale based in an unknown town on Long Island that starts the night after a main character, Jimmy, beat up two Hispanic brothers.

With such a controversial issue, Bock said she is not trying to moralize through her words, but she hopes her story will get people's thoughts roaring.

"The book doesn't tell you what to think," she explained. "I want the readers to really think about what's right and wrong for them. Would they tell the truth? It really lets you grapple with big issues."

LIE is now available anywhere books are sold and a teacher's manual written by Bock is available online. The debut author will be promoting her novel at the Book Revue in Huntington on Sept. 16 from 7-9 p.m. and Oct. 15 at the POB Lbrary from 3-4 p.m.

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