A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence': “Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish .” ...

'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

“Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” – John Jakes

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1932, Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became the bestselling American Bicentennial Series in the mid-to-late 1970s.  The books have sold an amazing 55 million copies and still are in print.

 

He also published several other very popular works of historical fiction, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted into an ABC-TV miniseries.

 

Jakes started writing while studying at DePauw University and wrote nearly the rest of his life. He died just short of his 91st birthday in 2023.  The author of 55 novels, he also penned 4 major works of nonfiction, including award-winning books on famous war correspondents and “Famous Firsts” in sports.

 

Known for his meticulous attention to detail, Jakes said, “Research is one of the best parts of doing what I do: I learn something new with every novel.  I always begin by reading general studies about the period . . . find events or specific subjects that interest me . . . and then weave many independent pieces of research into the final story.”   

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music':   “At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language....

'It's the rhythms and the music'

 

“At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language.  Rhythms and the music of it are very important. But the difficulty is that poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty.” – Tobias Hill

 

A multi-talented writer of fiction, poems and short stories, Hill was born in London on March 30, 1970 and died of brain cancer in 2023.  He won awards for all his writing efforts, which included 4 volumes of poetry, 4 novels, a short story collection, and a children's book in just 20 years of writing.  

 

For Saturday’s Poem from his award-winning Midnight in the City of Clocks (influenced by his experience of life in Japan), here is Hill’s,

 

         October

She meets the train

at Burning Stone station,

                        red leaves in her pocket

and the river from the mountain

green as an eye.

 

The sun keeps rhythm

                        through the pines. The train beats time. She tells me that

her name translates as Three Eight Sweet One,

Sickle-Hand, and that her town

is famous for carrots, and that

 

The moon has no face in Japan,

but the shadow of a hare,

                        leapt from the arms of a god.

 

Later, under the sod-black trees

she hides her face against the wind

and asks me to teach her to kiss.

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do':   “I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.”  – Elizabeth Hand   Born in Yonkers...

'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

 

“I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.” – Elizabeth Hand

 

Born in Yonkers, NY on March 29, 1957 Hand studied drama and anthropology in college and considered a stage acting career before getting into writing. Since 1988, she has lived in coastal Maine, the setting for many of her stories, and Camden Town, London, the setting for her several of the historical fantasy novels.  She’s written more than 30 novels and dozens of shorter works. 

 

While Science Fiction and Fantasy have been her primary focal point, she said she didn’t read much Science Fiction as a kid.  A self-proclaimed “total Tolkien geek,” she started reading Samuel Delany, Angela Carter and Ursula LeGuin in high school, starting her along a path toward her own works.  Her first novel, Winterlong, came out in 1988 and her most recent, A Haunting on the Hill, in 2023. Haunting was her third winner of the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychological Suspense – the other two being Generation Lost and Wylding Hall.

 

Hand also writes television and sci-fi movie spin-offs and serves as a regular critic and reviewer for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

 

“I never think about genre when I work,” she said.   “I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction . . . suspense.   Genrés are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers know where to shelve a book.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity'

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity':   “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. (The) problem is to find that location.”  – ...