All of us at Quill Driver Books are deeply saddened by the unexpected death of Dr. Carolyn Kaufman, author of “The Writer’s Guide to Psychology.” We give our heartfelt condolences to Carolyn’s family, friends, and colleagues. Carolyn died of a brain aneurysm on Saturday, September 7. She was only 40. Carolyn was an exceptional writer at the very beginning of her career, and the world has lost both her and the many wonderful books she was planning to write.

Carolyn’s life and work was stimulated by the constant cross-pollination of her two areas of expertise, writing and psychology. As a young writer and student, Carolyn studied psychology to improve her character-development skills, and as a professional psychologist, professor, writing coach, and journalist, she used her knowledge of psychology to help other writers create living characters and realistic stories. Carolyn believed that scientific accuracy made stories more alive, more touching, and more human.

Carolyn was a dedicated teacher, both as a professor of psychology at Columbus State Community College and as a writing coach and mentor to her fellow authors. She shared her unique knowledge of how psychology relates to fiction in numerous magazine articles, her blog, Archetype Writing , the writing blog QueryTracker , and her blog on the Psychology Today website. Her greatest achievement was her book “The Writer’s Guide to Psychology,” a unique reference guide that shows fiction writers how to use psychology not just to be clinically accurate, but to create deeper and richer art.

Carolyn was also a consummate professional and a pleasure to work with. She gave generously of herself to the writing community, and there have been many tributes to Carolyn’s memory from her friends in the blogging world, including posts on QueryTracker , Before It’s News, and The Word is My Oyster .

As a writer and teacher, Carolyn touched many lives, and we hope that her work will continue to help new writers write great stories. We will miss her.