A Writer's Moment: When opportunity knocks, answer!

A Writer's Moment: When opportunity knocks, answer!: "My dad was an adventurer; my mother a romantic.  When they met in college, both were creative writers; the writing was a bond." ...

When opportunity knocks, answer!

"My dad was an adventurer; my mother a romantic.  When they met in college, both were creative writers; the writing was a bond." -- Brian Herbert

Herbert, the son of science fiction author Frank Herbert (author of the Dune series) and Beverly Stuart (author of many romance novels and stories), was born on June 29, 1947 and despite those deep writing roots didn’t naturally gravitate to writing himself.

“I didn't actually get along with my dad when I was growing up,” Brian said, “so by the time I was in my 20s, I didn't think I was going to be a writer.”   But, luckily for the writing (and reading) world, he changed his mind and became as important a writer as his parents.  Now the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, he won several literary honors and has been nominated for the highest awards in science fiction. In 2003, he published Dreamer of Dune, a moving biography of his father and Hugo Award finalist. 

Brian’s other acclaimed novels include Sidney's Comet, Man of Two Worlds (written with his father), Sudanna Sudanna, and 22 Dune series novels co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson, the most recent being 2022's The Heir of Caladan.

He said he finally decided to get into writing at the urging of his writer wife Jan.  “My wife noticed that I wrote really good complaint letters about faulty products and that I could get anything I wanted out of these big corporations,” he explained; then jumping at the opportunity to get started.

"Opportunities are a tricky crop, with tiny flowers that are difficult to see and even more difficult to harvest." 

A Writer's Moment: 'Nourishing rejuvenation for the body'

A Writer's Moment: 'Nourishing rejuvenation for the body':   “When language is treated beautifully and interestingly, it can feel good for the body: It's nourishing; it's rejuvenating.” – Aim...

'Nourishing rejuvenation for the body'

 

“When language is treated beautifully and interestingly, it can feel good for the body: It's nourishing; it's rejuvenating.” – Aimee Bender

 

Born in California on June 28, 1969 Bender studied creative writing then took on simultaneous careers as a writer and teacher.  She teaches creative writing at USC and has produced half-a-dozen novels and numerous short stories.  Her most recent novel is The Butterfly Lampshade.  

 

She enjoys writing, she said, because “The human being's ability to make a metaphor to describe a human experience is just really cool.  I love to write about people in their 20s. It's such a fraught and exciting and kind of horrible time.”  

 

Bender is the winner of two Pushcart Prizes and her novel An Invisible Sign of My Own was named a Los Angeles Times “Pick of the Year.”  Her collection of short stories, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, spent several months on both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists.

 

While she’s had success with both novels and short stories, she prefers the latter.  “Novels are so much unrulier and stressful to write. A short story can last two pages and then it's over, and that's kind of a relief.  I really like balancing the two.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Always arrive on time!'

A Writer's Moment: 'Always arrive on time!':   “People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.” – Dorothy Gilman   Born in New Jersey on this date in 1923,...

'Always arrive on time!'

 

“People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.” – Dorothy Gilman

 

Born in New Jersey on this date in 1923, Gilman is best remembered for her Mrs. Pollifax series, a huge hit on the written page and the movie screen.   Begun in a time when women in mystery meant Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and international espionage meant James Bond or John Le Carre, her heroine became a spy in her 60s and might be the only spy in literature to belong simultaneously to the CIA and her local garden club.

 

Gilman first wrote children’s stories under the name Dorothy Gilman Butters and then began writing adult novels about Mrs. Pollifax, a retired grandmother who becomes a CIA agent.

 

Most of her books feature strong women having adventures around the world, reflective of her own international travel background.  But they also feature small town life and puttering in the garden, something she enjoyed doing – cultivating vegetables and herbs and again using that skill and knowledge in her writing.

 

Named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, she died in 2012 having authored dozens of books and myriad short stories and pieces for magazines and newspapers.  

 

Her advice to writers was always be on schedule in everything you do.   “If something anticipated arrives too late it finds us numb, wrung out from waiting, and we feel - nothing at all. The best things arrive on time.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Telling a good story'

A Writer's Moment: 'Telling a good story':   “When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls ...

'Telling a good story'

 

“When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls.” – Kathryn Lasky

 

Born in Indianapolis on this date in 1944, Lasky was encouraged by her mother to become a writer “because of my vivid imagination.”  And while she didn’t start writing early, she started gravitating toward a writing career in her mid-20s while working in early childhood education – her love of kids and love of writing meshing nicely.  

 

To date, she has produced over 100 books, many of them written for children, including several “Dear America” books; The Royal Diaries books; and her 16-book Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.  Among her numerous writing prizes is the prestigious Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature.    

 

Also the author of books for Adults she said, “I can read a newspaper article, and it might trigger something else in my mind.  I often like to choose historical fiction things or subject matter I don't feel have been given a fair shake in history.”   Lasky’s most-recent bestseller is Night Witches, based on women pilots from the Soviet Union’s WWII 588^th Night Bomber Regiment.

 

“To me,” she said, “the most important thing is to tell a good story. If I can do that, I think that enlightenment, respect of nature, etc. follows.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Let each become an exploratory journey'

A Writer's Moment: 'Let each become an exploratory journey': “There’s a beauty in writing stories—each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason and...

'Let each become an exploratory journey'

“There’s a beauty in writing stories—each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason and that shape, there’s no feeling like it." – T.C. Boyle

 

Born in New York in 1948, Boyle excels at writing short stories, even though he’s also darn good at writing novels, having published 19 of them – his most recent being 2023’s Blue Skies.  His novel World’s End won the coveted PEN/Faulkner Award.  

 

But, it’s his short story list that’s most impressive and continues to grow.  To date, he has more than 150 in print and many more “in process.”   Boyle shares his writing skills at workshops and literary events and also taught English at USC for many years, founding their creative writing program in the process.

 

An advocate of the stream of consciousness style – he says start with a word or phrase and then just see where it might take you.  It’s also a great technique for overcoming writer’s block.  Just pick something and start writing.

 

“I have an idea and a first line – and that suggests the rest of it,” he said.  “I have little concept of what I’m going to say, or where it’s going. I have some idea of how long it’s going to be – but not what will happen or what the themes will be. That’s the intrigue of doing it – it’s a process of discovery. You get to discover what you’re going to say and what it’s going to mean.”

A Writer's Moment: Decreate, Create, Participate

A Writer's Moment: Decreate, Create, Participate:   “We participate in the creation of the world by decreating ourselves.”  – Anne Carson   Born in Toronto, Canada on this date in 1950, ...

Decreate, Create, Participate

 

“We participate in the creation of the world by decreating ourselves.” – Anne Carson

 

Born in Toronto, Canada on this date in 1950, Carson is a poet, essayist and professor who has taught at Montreal’s McGill University and at both the University of Michigan and Princeton in the U.S.   She holds the distinction of winning three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – the Guggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan.  For Saturday's Poem - on Friday; Why not?  :-)  - here is Carson’s,

 

     Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism

                         Sunlight slows down Europeans. Look at all those
                         spellbound people in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
                         sitting deeply. Where does a European go when he
                         is ‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
                         place—the old dazzler! It lies on the other
                         side of attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
                        It is A Sunday rather than A Saturday afternoon
                        there. Seurat has made this clear by a special
                        method. "Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
                         when we asked him. He caught us hurrying through
                        the chill green shadows like adulterers. The
                        river was opening and closing its stone lips.
                        The river was pressing Seurat to its lips.

A Writer's Moment: Tapping that 'Memory Vein'

A Writer's Moment: Tapping that 'Memory Vein':   “Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.” – Tobias Wolff Born in Birmingh...

Tapping that 'Memory Vein'

 

“Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.”– Tobias Wolff

Born in Birmingham, AL on this date in 1945, Wolff is both a writer and teacher. Among his most honored writings are the memoirs This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army, and his short story The Barracks Thief, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has had three other short stories win the coveted O. Henry Award, and his lifetime body of work was honored with a National Medal of Arts award in 2015.

 

A Vietnam veteran (Special Forces), he completed several tours of duty there before heading back to school to study creative writing and ultimately beginning his award-winning writing career.  Wolff said he had wanted to be a writer since age 14 but work and then the military always got in the way.  He has used many of his life experiences in his writing and is especially noted for the autobiographical elements in his stories -- tapping that memory vein, if you will.

Wolff started teaching creative writing in the late 1980s, first at Syracuse and then at Stanford. Dozens of successful writers can now trace their beginnings to classes and mentoring provided by Wolff, who has counseled and taught them in all genres. His own favorite genre, he said, is the short story.

 

“Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Delve into all the opportunities'

A Writer's Moment: 'Delve into all the opportunities':   “I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up ...

'Delve into all the opportunities'

 

“I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up a new design.” – Richard Powers

 

Born in Illinois on this date in 1957, Powers is noted for exploring the effects of technology on writing.  “I think that if the novel's task is to describe where we find ourselves and how we live now,” he explained, “the novelist must take a good, hard look at the most central facts of contemporary life - technology and science.”

 

Powers partially grew up in Thailand where his father had a key position at the International School in Bangkok.  While there, he developed both writing and musical skills, becoming proficient in cello, guitar, saxophone and clarinet, studying voice and vocal performance, and immersing himself in reading, setting his path as a writer.

 

Among his best-known books is the wonderful Time of Our Singing about the musician children of an interracial couple who meet at Marian Anderson’s legendary concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.  In addition to showcasing his writing skills, the book shows off Powers’ knowledge of music and physics, explores race relations and looks at the burdens of talent.

 

Powers has authored 14 novels – including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Overstory; and the National Book Award-winning The Echo Maker.  His most recent book (out in 2024) is Playground, also nominated for a Booker Prize.

        

Now teaching at Stanford, his advice to his writing students is to delve into whatever opportunities arise.  “If you're going to immerse yourself in a project for three years, why not stake out a chunk of the world that is completely alien to you … and go traveling?”

A Writer's Moment: 'Write your own adventures, too'

A Writer's Moment: 'Write your own adventures, too':   “I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old co...

'Write your own adventures, too'

 

“I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old could write that well. I was even punished because my teacher thought I'd lied about writing it! I had always loved to write, but it was then that I realized that I had a talent for it.” –  Brian Jacques

 

Born in Liverpool, England on June 15, 1939 Jacques was reading by age 5, devouring  novels like Kidnapped and series’ like The Wind in the Willows.  His vivid imagination combined with his love of animals and study of their habits led to him regularly write about them by age 10, creating pieces like the one noted above.  Ultimately, he became a full-time children’s book writer.

 

Jacques authored nearly 50 books in his lifetime (he died in 2011) with 31 of them in his multi-award winning Redwall series.  The Redwall books portray an intricate animal-based world, ranging from peaceful mice, badgers, voles, hares, moles and squirrels to “bad guy” rats, weasels, ferrets, snakes and stoats – often caught up in battles for survival.

 

Barely alluding to the surrounding human civilization, the Redwall books are populated with animal “heroes” who write their own literature, draw their own maps, and share a world most humans might envy.

“Sometimes, I get ideas from dreams,” he said about his animal world.   “But mostly my stories are based on adventures that I, or my friends, actually lived.  Write yours, too.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Never rush the completion process'

A Writer's Moment: 'Never rush the completion process':   “To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a v...

'Never rush the completion process'

 

“To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream; he never saw it.” –  Joyce Carol Oates

 

Born in upstate New York on this date in 1938, Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. 

 

Her 1960s series of 4 novels – “The Wonderland Quartet” – were all finalists for the National Book Award with the third one, Them, winning.   The other three are A Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, and Wonderland.   Her book The Gravediggers Daughter won a National Book Critics Circle Award, and she earned O. Henry Awards for her short stories “In The Region of Ice” and “The Dead.”  Five of her books have been finalists for a Pulitzer, and she’s considered a “short lister” for the Nobel.  

 

Despite her remarkable and prolific output, she says she never rushes the completion process.   “My reputation for writing quickly and effortlessly notwithstanding, I am strongly in favor of intelligent, even fastidious revision, which is, or certainly should be, an art in itself,” she said.                                         

A Writer's Moment: 'Forget feelings; just write the poem'

A Writer's Moment: 'Forget feelings; just write the poem':   “The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion.   No poet ever talks about feeling...

'Forget feelings; just write the poem'

 

“The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion.  No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.” – Mark Van Doren

 

I wrote on Thursday about Van Doren, born on June 13.  A writer (in many genres), teacher, editor and critic, he considered himself a poet first and won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, joining older brother Carl (in 1939) as one of the few sibling combinations to win the award.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Van Doren’s,

 

                               Morning Worship

I wake and hearing it raining.

Were I dead, what would I give

Lazily to lie here,

Like this, and live?

 

Or better yet: birdsong,

Brightening and spreading --

How far would I come then

To be at the world's wedding?

 

Now that I lie, though,

Listening, living,

(Oh, but not forever,

Oh, end arriving)

 

How shall I praise them:

All the sweet beings

Eternally that outlive

Me and my dying?

 

Mountains, I mean; wind, water, air;

Grass, and huge trees; clouds, flowers,

And thunder, and night.

 

Turtles, I mean, and toads; hawks, herons, owls;

Graveyards, and towns, and trout; roads, gardens,

Red berries, and deer.

 

Lightning, I mean, and eagles; fences; snow;

Sunrise, and ferns; waterfalls, serpents,

Green islands, and sleep.

 

Horses, I mean; butterflies, whales;

Mosses, and stars and gravelly

Rivers, and fruit.

 

Oceans, I mean; black valleys; corn;

Brambles, and cliffs; rock, dirt, dust, ice;

And warnings of flood.

 

How shall I name them?

And in what order?

Each would be first.

Omission is murder.

 

Maidens, I mean, and apples; needles; leaves;

Worms, and planers, and clover; whirlwinds; dew;

Bulls; geese --

 

Stop. Lie still.

You will never be done.

Leave them all there.

Old lover. Live on.

A Writer's Moment: Making 'good use' of all life's materials

A Writer's Moment: Making 'good use' of all life's materials:   “I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for...

Making 'good use' of all life's materials

 

“I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for good material. It's not a comfortable truth, but it is true.” – Antony Sher

 

Born in South Africa on this date in 1949, Sher was an actor, painter and writer who twice won the prestigious Laurence Oliver Award for his stage portrayals.  He also appeared in many movies and on TV, and wrote numerous novels, essays, memoirs and scripts for both the stage and screen.   

 

Among Sher’s best-known books were the memoirs Year of the King and Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa; his autobiography Beside Myself; and the novels Middlepost, Cheap Lives and The Feast.  Among his many award-winning plays were Primo – also adapted as a film – and The Giant, portraying Michelangelo at the time of the creation of his masterpiece sculpture David.  His Year of the Mad King won the 2019 Theatre Book Prize from the British Society for Theatre Research.

 

Shortly before his death (in 2021), Sher was honored by Queen Elizabeth for his lifetime contributions to the arts and said that while he sometimes made his work look effortless, it was far from it.

 

“Every play I do, every book I write, every painting I paint, I struggle with.  I don’t know what it’s like for a project to come easy.”  

A Writer's Moment: 'The art of assisting discovery'

A Writer's Moment: 'The art of assisting discovery':   “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”  – Mark Van Doren   Born in Illinois on June 13, 1894 Van Doren was a Pulitze...

'The art of assisting discovery'

 

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren

 

Born in Illinois on June 13, 1894 Van Doren was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, writer and critic, and one of the nation’s leading scholars during a 40-year career as Professor of English at Columbia University. There he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman, Whittaker Chambers, and Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.  

 

He was the author of 12 books of poetry, 3 novels, and 17 nonfiction books – which included the definitive Mark Van Doren on the Great Poems of Western Literature.  Published in 1962, it is considered by most scholars to be one of the great resource books of the 20^th Century.   

 

Outside the classroom, Van Doren served as literary editor of The Nation magazine for many years and was an influential film critic there from 1935 to 1938.

 

“(Always) bring ideas in and entertain them royally,” Van Doren advised his students,  “for one of them may become the king.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Reading, and living, multiple lives'

A Writer's Moment: 'Reading, and living, multiple lives':   “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.”  – William ...

'Reading, and living, multiple lives'

 

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.” – William Styron

Born in Virginia on this date in 1925, Styron started his publishing career as a book editor right after graduating from Duke University in 1947.  But, it quickly became apparent to him that being an editor was not what he wanted.   So, he set about writing his first novel and three years later published, Lie Down in Darkness, a multi-award winning story about a dysfunctional Virginia family (who some thought reflected on his own growing up years). 

 

After a stint in the Marine Corps during the Korean War he wrote a short novel The Long March then moved to Europe in 1953 where he helped found the magazine Paris Review, still a celebrated literary journal more than 70 years later.

 

Styron wrote 15 novels, the best-known and most awarded being Sophie’s Choice, which also won an Academy Award for actress Meryl Streep after being adapted into a movie.  Winner of the National Book Award, it cemented his reputation as one of the 20^th century’s great novelists.  Despite his many successes, he battled debilitating depression and called writing a catharsis for overcoming it.    

 

 "I get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day,” he said.  “Let's face it, writing is hell.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Accepting the anesthetic with confidence'

A Writer's Moment: 'Accepting the anesthetic with confidence':   “A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. With a novelis...

'Accepting the anesthetic with confidence'

 

“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.” – Saul Bellow

Canadian by birth and later a naturalized U.S. citizen, Bellow attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University where he studied writing and English but earned degrees in sociology and anthropology.  The fact that he was an anthropologist probably is not a surprise for his readers who find anthropological references sprinkled throughout his many award-winning books.  

 

Born on this date in 1915, Bellow’s 3 best-known novels are Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Humboldt’s Gift.  For his work, he won every major writing award, including the Nobel Prize, the National Book Award for Fiction (3 times), the Pulitzer Prize (twice) and the National Medal of The Arts.     

 

“I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos,” Bellow said.  “(It's) a stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eve of the storm.  I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Going back to some basic theme'

A Writer's Moment: 'Going back to some basic theme':   “I think any writer keeps going back to some basic theme. Sometimes it's autobiographical. I guess it usually is” – Joe Haldeman   ...

'Going back to some basic theme'

 

“I think any writer keeps going back to some basic theme. Sometimes it's autobiographical. I guess it usually is” – Joe Haldeman

 

Born in Oklahoma City on this date in 1943, Sci-Fi writer Haldeman is best known for his novels The Forever War, The Hemingway Hoax and Forever Peace.  In 2009 he was selected for the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award, followed in 2010 by the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement.  He was inducted into The Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.

 

Many of Haldeman's works, including his debut novel War Year and The Forever War (his second book), were inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War, where he was wounded, and by adjusting to civilian life after returning home.   

 

“I think I would have been a writer, anyhow, in the sense of having written a story every now and then, or writing poetry,” Haldeman said.   “But it was the war experience and the two novels I wrote about Vietnam that really got me started as a professional writer.”   Now the author of 29 novels, half-dozen   works of short fiction, and a poetry collection, he also has edited several Sci-Fi anthologies.                  

 

Haldeman is noted for writing all his works by hand, using a notepad and fountain pen. “I like the physical action of writing down by hand,” he said. “And I don't just use it for writing my fiction.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'The scientific vs. the magic'

A Writer's Moment: 'The scientific vs. the magic':   "I grew up aware of two ways of looking at the world that are opposed to each other and yet can exist side by side in the same person...

'The scientific vs. the magic'

 

"I grew up aware of two ways of looking at the world that are opposed to each other and yet can exist side by side in the same person. One is the scientific view. The other is the magic view."  – Nancy Willard

 

Born in Ann Arbor, MI in June of 1936, Willard was a much-honored author of many of volumes of poetry and the first to win the Newbery Prize (recognizing the best in children’s literature) for a book of poetry for children.  She also wrote novels, short stories and literary criticism for adults.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Willard’s, 

 

                            The Vanity of the Dragonfly

The dragonfly at rest on the doorbell—

too weak to ring and glad of it,

but well mannered and cautious,

thinking it best to observe us quietly

before flying in, and who knows if he will find

the way out? Cautious of traps, this one.

A winged cross, plain, the body straight

as a thermometer, the old glass kind

that could kill us with mercury if our teeth

did not respect its brittle body. Slim as an eel

but a solitary glider, a pilot without bombs

or weapons, and wings clear and small as a wish

to see over our heads, to see the whole picture.

And when our gaze grazes over it and moves on,

the dragonfly changes its clothes,

sheds its old skin, shriveled like laundry,

and steps forth, polished black, with two

circles buttoned like epaulettes taking the last space

at the edge of its eyes.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer'

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer':   “The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.”  – Thomas Mann   Born in Lubeck, Germany on this date ...

'The task of a writer'

 

“The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.” – Thomas Mann

 

Born in Lubeck, Germany on this date in 1875, Mann was a journalist, novelist, short story writer, philanthropist and essayist whose creative writing career was capped by the Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

Author of the wildly successful novel Buddonbrooks – a  tale about a merchant family and reflective of his own childhood – he became one of the most outspoken critics of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.  Ultimately, he was forced to flee Germany, first to Czechoslovakia and then the United States.  After serving as a prominent anti-Nazi spokesperson throughout World War II, he became a naturalized American citizen and lived out his life in the U.S.  He died in 1955.

 

He relished his role as a writer but said he often struggled to find the right words to express his ideas. “I think,” he said, “that a writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

A Writer's Moment: Imagine That!

A Writer's Moment: Imagine That!:   “I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing.”  – Ken Follett ...

Imagine That!

 

“I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing.” – Ken Follett

 

Born in Wales on this date in 1949, Follett has carved out arguably the number one spot in the world as an author of historical fiction-thrillers.  Since the publication of his first book Eye of the Needle in 1978 he has sold a remarkable 380 million copies (and counting) achieving a rare three number ones in a row on the New York Times Bestseller List with his “Century Trilogy.”  His newest book, just on the market, is his take on the mystery of Stonehenge’s creation, titled Circle of Days.

 

Follett studied Philosophy in college but found himself gravitating toward Journalism.  After a postgraduate course in journalistic writing he joined the staff of his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo in Cardiff before becoming a reporter for the London Evening News.   In the mid-1970s he left journalism for publishing and was working as an editor at Everest Books when he wrote Eye, hoping it would be published so he could pay off a car loan.

 

That worked.  He’s now authored 44 books – and counting.  No more car loans.

 

Follett likes the process of combining his imagination with “real” people from the historical times he is depicting.  “I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation,” he said.  “I want readers to feel: ‘Okay, this probably didn’t happen…but it might have.’”

A Writer's Moment: 'Sharing gods, monsters and heroes'

A Writer's Moment: 'Sharing gods, monsters and heroes':   “Fairy tales are stories of triumph and transformation and true love, all things I fervently believe in.”  – Kate Forsyth   Born in Au...

'Sharing gods, monsters and heroes'

 

“Fairy tales are stories of triumph and transformation and true love, all things I fervently believe in.” – Kate Forsyth

 

Born in Australia on this date in 1966, Forsyth is the author of more than 60 books ranging from Contemporary and Historical Fiction to Young Adult and Children’s fairy tales, and Poetry collections.  She earned her most acclaim for her historical novel Bitter Greens, interweaving a retelling of Rapunzel with the true-life story of the 17^th century Frenchwoman who first shared the tale.  Her most recent book is The Crimson Thread, a retelling of the Minotaur’s myth but set in Greece during World War II.

 

A journalist by training, Forsyth is the direct descendant of Charlotte Barton, author of Australia’s first known children’s book.   Like her famous ancestor, Forsyth also has authored a number of children's books, including The Gypsy Crown. Dragon Gold and the heroic fantasy series Rhiannon's Ride.    She’s earned Australia’s top award for children’s literature 5 times and the Australian Fairy Tale Society Award “for her inspiration and contribution to Australian fairy tale culture.”

 

Forsyth’s work in journalism has included writing and editorial positions at Hair and Money Watch and authorship of numerous freelance articles for magazines and journals like Vogue Australia, Black+White and Australian Collections.

 

“Storytelling,” she said, “is as old as speech. It existed before humans first began to carve shapes in stones and press their hands upon the rocky walls of caves. When our ancestors crouched about the campfire at night, they told each other tales of gods and heroes, monsters and marvels, to hold back the terrors of the night. Such tales comforted and entertained, diverted and educated those who listened, and helped shape their sense of the world and their place in it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The emotion of all ages'

A Writer's Moment: 'The emotion of all ages':   “My opinion is that a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own.”  – Thomas Hardy   While Hardy wrote...

'The emotion of all ages'

 

“My opinion is that a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own.” – Thomas Hardy

 

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898 on his 58^th birthday.  Born in Dorset, England on this date in 1840, he initially gained fame as the author of novels, including many that are still selling, and are still being made into modern day movies, like Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

 

Hardy wrote to examine and challenge the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England.  He criticized beliefs, especially the ones relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused unhappiness, making him a popular advocate for ordinary people.

 

A prolific writer, he produced 20 novels, dozens and dozens of short stories, several plays, and 15 volumes of poetry – a medium in which he could share ideas and explore new causes even in his later years.  He literally composed poetry until his final breath, dictating his last poem to his wife while on his death bed in 1928.

 

Time changes everything,” Hardy wrote about his willingness to try new things, “except something within us which is always surprised by change.”