A Writer's Moment: The 'unacknowledged historians'

A Writer's Moment: The 'unacknowledged historians':   “In a certain way, novelists become unacknowledged historians, because we talk about small, tiny, little anonymous moments that won't ...

The 'unacknowledged historians'

 

“In a certain way, novelists become unacknowledged historians, because we talk about small, tiny, little anonymous moments that won't necessarily make it into the history books."  – Colum McCann
 

Born on this date in 1964, McCann is a native Irishman who now makes his home in New York City where he is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hunter College.

 

His work has been published in 40 languages and has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, and the Paris Review.  McCann has written 8 novels, including TransAtlantic and the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin.  He also has written 3 collections of short stories, including the multiple-award winning Thirteen Ways of Looking.  His newest book, Twist, is due out in March.

 

 “Every first thing is always a miracle," he said. “The first person you fall in love with. The first letter you receive. The first stone you throw. And in my conception of the novel, the letter becomes important. But what's more important is the fact that we need to continue to tell each other stories.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Payment is in the process'

A Writer's Moment: 'Payment is the process':   “No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.” – Irwin Shaw Born in New York City...

'Payment is in the process'

 

“No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.” – Irwin Shaw

Born in New York City on this date in 1913, Shaw grew up in Brooklyn where he studied writing at Brooklyn College, wrote his first successful stage play at age 21, and went on to become one of America’s most popular writers.  Over his long successful career he wrote 10 novels, 10 works for the stage, 15 screenplays, and a dozen short story collections.  He was twice honored with the prestigious O. Henry Award for his short story writing.  He also did a number of nonfiction works and had several of his stories made into successful movies, led by The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man.

 

The Young Lions, which starred Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, was based on Shaw’s own experiences serving as an Army Warrant Officer in Europe during WWII.    Blacklisted after standing up to the infamous McCarthy Commission in the mid-1950s, he returned to Europe and lived out his life there, dying in Switzerland in 1984.  

 

While Shaw often praised the work of his editors, he also said that “A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.”

“I haven't stuck to any formula,” he said.  “Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various in what I did.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'The greatest of the arts'

A Writer's Moment: 'The greatest of the arts':   “I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching mi...

'The greatest of the arts'

 

“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” – John Steinbeck

 

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Steinbeck, who was born on this date in 1902, has been referred to as “The embodiment of 20^th Century American writing,” cemented by his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.  Author of 27 books – 16 novels, 5 collections of creative short stories, and 6 wonderful books of non-fiction including one of my favorites, Travels With Charley – Steinbeck’s works can be found around the globe, published in virtually every language.

 His writings have sold in excess of 200 million copies and a remarkable 17 of them have been adapted into movies.

 

A native Californian who set many of his works there, he also did more to document the ravages of The Great Depression than any other writer.  Those stories, though, took their toll.  “In utter loneliness,” he wrote, “a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.”

 

Despite his many awards, he often questioned his own achievements.  “The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world,” he once said.   “And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's our job to touch the reader'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's our job to touch the reader':   “It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.” – Elizabeth George   Born on Feb. 26, 1949 in Warren, OH, George is best-known fo...

'It's our job to touch the reader'

 

“It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.” – Elizabeth George

 

Born on Feb. 26, 1949 in Warren, OH, George is best-known for her “Inspector Lynley” series of books set in Great Britain and often featured on PBS in America.   Her mystery-suspense novels highlight the crime solving skills of the titled and wealthy British Inspector Thomas Lynley and have earned her a devoted following in both Britain and the U.S.   She’s written some two dozen books in the series.

 

George’s work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, France’s Grand Prix de LittÉrature PoliciÈre, and the MIMI, Germany's prestigious prize for suspense fiction.  

 

A graduate of Cal-Riverside, she taught high school English for many years before starting to write and had her first major success with A Great Deliverance in 1988.  Her most recent Lynley book is 2022’s Something to Hide.  Also the author of a great self-help book, Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel, she’s been a much sought after guest lecturer at colleges, universities, writers' retreats and international conferences. 

 

“Writing is no dying art form in America,” George said, “because most published writers here accept the wisdom and the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps.”

A Writer's Moment: '(Then) nothing can hurt him'

A Writer's Moment: '(Then) nothing can hurt him':   “Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us renew our faith and pl...

'(Then) nothing can hurt him'

 

“Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us renew our faith and pledge to Man, his right to be Himself, and free.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay.

 

Born in Maine on Feb. 22, 1892, St. Vincent Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry – only the third woman to win the award in that category – in 1923.  And just to show that she wasn’t a “one hit wonder,” she won the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry 20 years later.  

 

In between, she wrote plays, prose and many, many great poems earning accolades from many other writers, including fellow poet Richard Wilbur who noted,  “She wrote some of the best sonnets of the century.”

 

“A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down,” she said.  “If it is a good book nothing can hurt him.  If it is a bad book nothing can help him.”  

 

Here is one of Millay’s terrific poems,

 

Afternoon on a hill

I will be the gladdest thing
   Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
   And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
   With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
   And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
   Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
   And then start down.

A Writer's Moment: 'The music of words'

A Writer's Moment: 'The music of words':   “You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.”  – A. R. Ammons...

'The music of words'

 

“You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.” – A. R. Ammons

 

Born in North Carolina in February of 1926, Ammons was a writing professor at Cornell University where he also authored hundreds of poems up until his death in 2001.  Ammons’ Collected Poems, 1951–1971 won a National Book Award, and his Selected Poems is an excellent introduction to his works  

                  

“Poetry," Ammons said, “is the music of words.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Ammons’,

 

Eyesight

                                                                   It was May

before my attention

came to spring and 

 

my word I said

to the southern slopes

I've 

 

missed it, it

came and went before

I got right to see: 

 

don't worry, said the mountain,

try the later northern slopes

or if 

 

you can climb,

climb into spring: but

said the mountain 

 

it's not that way

with all things, some

that go are gone

 

A Writer's Moment: 'I used everything you gave me'

A Writer's Moment: 'I used everything you gave me':   “If you can't make it better, you can still laugh at it.”  – Erma Bombeck   Born in Ohio on this date in 1927, Erma Bombeck was pe...

'I used everything you gave me'

 

“If you can't make it better, you can still laugh at it.” – Erma Bombeck

 

Born in Ohio on this date in 1927, Erma Bombeck was perhaps the “most read” columnist in America and Canada in her lifetime, with more than 30 million readers per week in some 900 newspapers across the two nations. 

 

A self-proclaimed “chronicler of suburban life,” she wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns and published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers under titles like The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.   She died at age 69 after battling a lifelong kidney problem complicated further by a bout with breast cancer.  Even during treatment she found humor, once noting, “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.”  

 

Bombeck’s writing began at the University of Dayton where she worked for the school newspaper.  After college she wrote for the Dayton Herald but said “straight news” was not her forte'.  “I was terrible at straight items,” she said.  “When I wrote obituaries, my mother said the only thing I ever got them to do was die in alphabetical order.”   

 

Her writing popularity led to regular appearances on radio and television and even as a catalyst for the 1986 Rose Parade theme – “A Celebration of Laughter” – where she was named Grand Marshal.  Bombeck also wrote eloquently for human rights and against poverty, disease and hunger.   Her book I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer raised millions for medical causes and received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor.

While battling her own illnesses, she said she planned to write as long as possible.  “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Using history as the writing engine'

A Writer's Moment: 'Using history as the writing engine':   “Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.” – Alan Furst    Born in New York City on this ...

'Using history as the writing engine'

 

“Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.” – Alan Furst 

 

Born in New York City on this date in 1941, Furst is arguably the “inventor” of the historical spy novel.  And, he said he doesn’t write plots but rather writes around history and historical things to create his books.  “I use history as the engine that drives everything.”   

  

After earning degrees from Oberlin College and Penn State, Furst returned to New York where he took writing classes at Columbia and worked at Esquire magazine.  After trying his hand at several novellas and a novel, which were modestly successful, he took a job at the International Herald Tribune in Paris.  It was there that he began working on his historical spy novels.  To date, he has written 15 of them -- known as the "Night Soldiers" series -- mostly set in the late 1930s and World War II and all loosely connected.  His most recent is Under Occupation.

Furst, who now lives on Long Island, said it takes him 3 months of research and 9 months of work to produce a book. “When I start writing, I do 2 pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days.”  His writing advice is to find a time, place and idea and make it your own.  Then do the research to make it believable.   “People know accuracy when they read it,” he said.  “They can feel it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Reflecting life as you see it'

A Writer's Moment: 'Reflecting life as you see it':   “I think that when you're writing fiction what you're doing is reflecting life as you see it, and putting down how you think and h...

'Reflecting life as you see it'

 

“I think that when you're writing fiction what you're doing is reflecting life as you see it, and putting down how you think and how other people think, and the sort of confusions that you don't normally like to admit to.” – Helen Fielding

 

Born in England on this date in 1958, Fielding is the novelist and screenwriter who created one of the most successful “characters” of all time – Bridget Jones.  And, Fielding said, it all came about because she was hung up on how to complete a different book on which she was working. 

 

“I was writing an earnest novel about cruises in the Caribbean and I just started writing 'Bridget Jones' to get some money, to finance this earnest work,” she said, “and then I just chucked it out.”

  

Bridget was an outgrowth of Fielding’s newspaper column about single life in London.  That led to Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones's Diary, named by The Guardian of London as one of ten novels that best defined the 20th century. There have now been 4 Bridget books and 4 movies.  The newest movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is just out in theaters and getting great reviews.

 

Fielding has earned numerous writing accolades and is listed as one of Britain's 500 Most Influential People.  The BBC’s “Woman’s Hour” included Bridget Jones as one of the 7 women who had most influenced British female culture over the last seven decades – the only one who was not a real person.  In a survey conducted by The Guardian newspaper Bridget Jones's Diary was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century and in 2024, The New York Times named it one of the 22 funniest novels since Catch 22.  

                   

“If we can't have comedy books written about aspects of womanhood without going into a panic attack about it, then we haven't got very far at being equal,” Fielding said.  “Comedy tends to come out of things which are quite painful and serious.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Fascinated with people . . . and what they do'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fascinated with people . . . and what they do':   “I don't know that I am fascinated with crime. I'm fascinated with people and their characters and their obsessions and what they ...

'Fascinated with people . . . and what they do'

 

“I don't know that I am fascinated with crime. I'm fascinated with people and their characters and their obsessions and what they do. And these things lead to crime, but I'm much more fascinated in their minds.” –  Ruth Rendell

 

Born in England on Feb. 17, 1930 Rendell created a brand of crime fiction that explored the psychological background of both criminals and victims.  In the process she became one of the world’s leading crime and mystery writers.

 

Rendell started writing in her late 20s and then just never really stopped until her death in 2015.   During that 60-year career, she wrote hundreds of novels and short stories, 24 featuring a Chief Inspector named Wexford, and some successfully adapted for television. 

 

She also wrote 30 stand-alone mystery and crime novels and 15 under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.  She won virtually every major mystery and crimewriting award and was honored with the title of Baroness by the Queen.  

 

“I have had quite a lot of prizes,” she said, “but I don't think it makes any difference to the ease or difficulty to the writing process.”

A Writer's Moment: 'You create - like a sculptor'

A Writer's Moment: 'You create - like a sculptor':   “I think most serious writers, certainly in the modern period, use their own lives or the lives of people close to them or lives they have...

'You create - like a sculptor'

 

“I think most serious writers, certainly in the modern period, use their own lives or the lives of people close to them or lives they have heard about as the raw material for their creativity.” – Chaim Potok

Born in New York City on this date in 1929, Potok’s very first book, The Chosen, ended up on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 39 consecutive weeks and sold more than 3.4 million copies. Not a bad first effort. Ultimately – up to his death in 2002 – he would write 20 books, many plays and dozens of essays.

 

Raised in a strict Jewish household and encouraged to read and study only orthodox Jewish writings, he said knew he wanted to take a different writing path after reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager.  He said Waugh was lifelong writing hero and role model after that. 

 

Potok produced his first fiction at the age of 16 and at 17 submitted his first story to The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work and softening “the sting” of rejection.   Less than 10 years later he had his first book on the market.   

 

Also an artist, Potok permeated his writings with the language of art.  One critic called him "The Michaelangelo of the written word."  He wryly answered that the only time he felt like Michaelangelo was when he was doing revisions.   

 

“I think the hardest part of writing is revising,” he said.  “A novelist, like a sculptor, has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Roads to good intentions'

A Writer's Moment: 'Roads to good intentions':   “Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry.     I was passionately addicted to it; it was my gr...

'Roads to good intentions'

 

“Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry.   I was passionately addicted to it; it was my great refuge through adolescence.” – Harry Mathews

 

Born in New York City on Valentine’s Day, 1930 Mathews was the author of many volumes of poetry and several novels.   He also worked as a translator of French language writings and was the first American chosen for membership in the prestigious French literary society Oulipo.  He wrote right up until his death in 2017, and among his best-known poetic works were Armenian Papers: Poems 1954-1984 and The New Tourism.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Mathews’,

 

                                        Shore Leave

All roads lead to good intentions;

East is east and west is west and God disposes;

Time and tide in a storm.

All roads, sailor’s delight.

(Many are called, sailors take warning:

All roads wait for no man.)

 

All roads are soon parted.

East is east and west is west: twice shy.

Time and tide bury their dead.

A rolling stone, sailors delight.

“Any Port” – sailor take warning:

All roads are another man’s poison.

 

All roads take the hindmost,

East is east and west is west and few are

                                                chosen,

Time and tide are soon parted,

The Devil takes sailor’s delight.

Once burned, sailors take warning:

All roads bury their dead.

A Writer's Moment: 'The hardest thing I know'

A Writer's Moment: 'The hardest thing I know':   “Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published nothing before my first...

'The hardest thing I know'

 

“Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published nothing before my first book.” – Kent Haruf

 

Born in Pueblo, CO, on this date in 1943, Haruf finally broke through the barrier in 1984 with The Tie That Binds, not only establishing his writing credentials but also earning both a Whiting Award and a Hemingway Foundation/PEN citation for excellence.

 

His novel, Plainsong, a huge bestseller published in 1999, is considered one of the best ever written about Western U.S. small town life.  And his last novel, Our Souls at Night, completed just before his death in 2014, was adapted into a popular film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

 

The son of a Methodist minister, Haruf first started writing in high school and further studied writing at Nebraska Wesleyan University and at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he earned his MFA.   All of his novels are set in the fictional town of Holt, CO, based on the small Western plains’ town of Yuma where he resided in the early 1980s.

 

“I write in a journal first, briefly,” he said of his writing process.  “Then (I) read something I've read many times before, for about half an hour, then rework what I wrote the day before.   You have to believe in yourself, despite the evidence.”

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Strengthening to see your past'

A Writer's Moment: 'Strengthening to see your past':   “It's always good to go home. It's strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you're part of a peo...

'Strengthening to see your past'

 

“It's always good to go home. It's strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you're part of a people.” – John Trudell

 

Born into the Dakota Santee nation on this date in 1946, Trudell (who died in 2015) was an author, poet, actor, musician and political activist who spent most of his writing life combining his poetry with traditional Native American music.

 

A leading spokesperson for the American Indian Movement, Trudell said he felt truth came from the arts.  “When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth,” he said, “the truth must come from culture and art.”

 

 For a look at some 25 years of Trudell’s powerful writings, check out the book Lines From a Mined Mind: The Words of John Trudell.  

 

As an actor, Trudell performed in many movies, including Thunderheart, On Deadly Ground and Smoke Signals.  He also served as adviser to the award-winning documentary Incident at Oglala, Robert Redford’s “real life” companion piece to the fictional Thunderheart and exploring the 1975 shooting of two FBI agents on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. 

 

A writer before he became a musician, Trudell once noted that “Every song I've ever written starts with the words.  I want the music to be . . . (an) extension of the feelings of the words, and not the words being the emotional extension of the feeling of the music.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Hungering for their stories'

A Writer's Moment: 'Hungering for their stories':   “Readers are hungry to have their stories in the world, to see mirrors of themselves if the stories are about people like them, and to hav...

'Hungering for their stories'

 

“Readers are hungry to have their stories in the world, to see mirrors of themselves if the stories are about people like them, and to have windows if the stories are about people who have been historically absent in literature.” – Jacqueline Woodson 

 

Born in Columbus, OH in February of 1963, Woodson has built her writing career around strong, emotional and optimistic stories, especially for young people.  Woodson said she dislikes books that do not offer hope and often uses that philosophy in her writing.  "If you love the people you create,” she said, “you can see the hope there." 

     

Woodson grew up in South Carolina and Brooklyn, NY and started writing in Middle School.   Among her best-known books are the Newbery Honor winners Miracle’s Boys, After Tupac and D Foster, and Brown Girl Dreaming (for which she also won the National Book Award).  

 

She’s written for all ages, authoring more than three dozen books ranging from Childen’s to adult and winning nearly as many major awards, including a MacArthur Foundation (Genius) Grant in 2020.   Her most recent title is The Year We Learned to Fly.

 

A one-time Young People's Poet Laureate and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature – both named by the Library of Congress – she said she consciously writes for a younger audience.

 

“I love writing for young people. It's the literature that was most important to me, the stories that shaped me and informed my own journey as a writer.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Never bored and always looking forward'

A Writer's Moment: 'Never bored and always looking forward':   “I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going to happen and it h...

'Never bored and always looking forward'

 

“I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals.” – William Allen White

 

Born in Emporia, KS on this date in 1868, White became America’s most renowned small town newspaper editor.   A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author, White became the spokesperson for Middle America and in the process made Emporia a “must stop” for politicos and celebrities seeking his counsel.

When I was researching my novel And The Wind Whispered, I was startled to find that White and his wife Sallie traveled to the Black Hills to spend time in Hot Springs, the setting for my book.   It was there that he first met Theodore Roosevelt – and thus their meeting and interactions became an integral part of my tale’s narrative.   

 

After my book’s publication, even though it is a historical novel and not a history book, per se’, I was invited to speak at Emporia State University and share my findings about the Whites’ 1894 trip to the Black Hills and how that became part of my story.   It was shortly after that trip that he purchased The Emporia Gazette, which then became his “home base” for the writing he did for the next 50 years. 

 

Shortly before his death in 1944, White wrote how grateful he was to have lived and worked in America.  He said he looked forward to every day regardless of what it might bring.  “I am not afraid of tomorrow,” he said, “for I have seen yesterday, and I love today!”

A Writer's Moment: 'A bridge across our fears'

A Writer's Moment: 'A bridge across our fears':   "Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.  It lays the foundations for a future of change...

'A bridge across our fears'

 

"Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.  It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before."  Audre Lorde

Born in February of 1934, Lorde’s powerful poems primarily deal with civil rights, feminism, and Black female identity.   She also wrote and spoke eloquently about battling cancer, a disease from which she died at age 58.    For Saturday’s Poem here is Lorde’s,

 

Coping

It has rained for five days
running
the world is
a round puddle
of sunless water
where small islands
are only beginning
to cope
a young boy
in my garden
is bailing out water
from his flower patch
when I ask him why
he tells me
young seeds that have not seen sun
forget
and drown easily.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Falling in love with imagination'

A Writer's Moment: 'Falling in love with imagination':   “I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It wil...

'Falling in love with imagination'

 

“I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.” – Alice Walker

 

Born into a sharecropping family in rural Georgia on this date in 1944, Walker has authored 17 books of fiction, and a dozen each of poetry and nonfiction.  She is the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her multi-award winning novel The Color Purple.   

 

“I started writing as a child. But I didn't think of myself actually writing until I was in college (at prestigious Sarah Lawrence in New York),” she said.  Right out of college she dived right into the writing world, working for Ms. Magazine while also devoting copious amounts of time to the Civil Rights Movement.  Her first book of poems, Once, was published in 1968 and her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, came out in 1970.   

 

Influenced by the work of Zora Neale Hurston, Walker is credited with bringing renewed attention to Hurston's writings and helping revive the popularity and respect Hurston first received during the 1920s.   And ’s Walker’s continued to be a tireless advocate for social justice.

   

“I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear,” she said.  “That is our duty.”

A Writer's Moment: Simply 'born a writer'

A Writer's Moment: Simply 'born a writer':   “Every reader re-creates a novel - in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobody else has read it....

Simply 'born a writer'

 

“Every reader re-creates a novel - in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobody else has read it.” – Susan Hill

 

Born in Scarborough, England on Feb. 5, 1942 Hill is the award-winning author of dozens of “mostly ghost stories.” Among her works are The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award – a really cool award that can only be used for foreign travel to do more research for your writing.  She has won numerous prestigious literary awards and in 2020 was named Dame Commander of the (Order of the) British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her services to and impact on English literature.  

 

Hill's novels are written in a descriptive gothic style, relying on suspense and atmosphere to create impact.  In 2005 she had the wonderful idea of creating a series of crime novels featuring detective Simon Serrailler, beginning with The Various Haunts of Men.  Subsequently, she has written 14 of these terrific crime mysteries with an infused “chill” factor, the most recent being A Change of Circumstance.

 

Saying that she thought she must have been born a writer, she has authored 32 novels, 10 nonfiction books, 6 short story collections, 13 children’s books and 5 plays.

 

 “I was never really good at anything else,” she said of her writing skills.  “I had no other option.  I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote.  Otherwise, I was unemployable.” 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Over Perform; Over Achieve'

A Writer's Moment: 'Over Perform; Over Achieve':   “I believe in the concept of ‘over-performing.’  I believe anyone can achieve their goals in life if they over-perform, and that means you...

'Over Perform; Over Achieve'

 

“I believe in the concept of ‘over-performing.’  I believe anyone can achieve their goals in life if they over-perform, and that means you have to work ten times harder than anybody you see.” – Stephen J. Cannell

 

Born in Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 1941 Cannell was one of television’s most successful writers and producers who also became one of the country’s best mystery writers before his death in 2010.  

 

Because he was dyslexic, Cannell learned to do “great dictation,” which led to his scripting more than 450 shows and producing 1,500 separate episodes of the nearly 40 television series he created.  Among his biggest successes were The Rockford Files, 21 Jump Street and The Commish.

 

He began writing mystery novels in 1996 with the best-selling The Plan.  And in 2000, he introduced the character Shane Scully, a streetwise LAPD detective who followed his instincts and played by his own rules to catch criminals.  By the time of his death, Cannell had featured Scully in 10 best-selling novels. 

 

Also an occasional actor, Cannell participated in several “art imitating life” segments on the show Castle, appearing as himself in poker games with the fictional Richard Castle and other real life mystery writers James Patterson and Michael Connelly.  Once, Castle’s detective partner Kate Beckett joined them and “won” their poker showdown, much to the writers’ dismay.

 

Cannell said having a support system of family or fellow writers is a huge asset for anyone wanting to be a writer.  “My parents were always encouraging and told me they were behind me, whether or not I made it.  And my wife (Marcia, his high school sweetheart who was married to him for 46 years) was always there for me –  through successes and failures.”  Although the latter were few and far between.