A Writer's Moment: Seeing characters and stories 'everywhere'

A Writer's Moment: Seeing characters and stories 'everywhere': "With historicals, the research is half the fun.  Contemporaries are especially easy.  People are right out there in front of you; yo...

Seeing characters and stories 'everywhere'

"With historicals, the research is half the fun.  Contemporaries are especially easy.  People are right out there in front of you; you meet them every day.  You can concentrate wholly on the story and characters." – Heather Graham Pozzessere 

 Born in Miami, Fla., on March 15, 1953 Pozzessere has penned more than 150 novels and novellas, writing in the historical, romance, paranormal and suspense genres.  Also known under both her maiden name Heather Graham, and pen name Shannon Drake, she has built a faithful reading audience that ranges in age from teenagers to women in their 90s – “and men, too,” she said, “especially for my Civil War era books.”  Her most recent, co-authored with Jon Land, is Blood Moon.

 

Once an aspiring actress, Pozzessere has starred instead as a writer – awarded the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Thriller Writer's Silver Bullet for her charitable efforts.  She is founder of the Florida Chapter of the Romance Writers of America, and a member of Mystery Writers of America, Novelists Inc., and the Horror Writers Association.

 

A graduate of the University of South Florida and mother of 5, Pozzessere started writing in the early 1980s.  Her first book, When Next We Love, came out in 1983, and she followed it with a remarkable 12 more titles from 1983 to 1985.  She said she sees characters and stories “everywhere.” 

 

“I always feel a responsibility to the people I write about,” she said.  “I feel obligated to portray them in the way they feel is proper.”

A Writer's Moment: Inspiration from just one moon

A Writer's Moment: Inspiration from just one moon:   “The moon looks upon many night flowers; the night flowers see but one moon.” –  Jean Ingelow   Born in England in March of 1820, Inge...

Inspiration from just one moon

 

“The moon looks upon many night flowers; the night flowers see but one moon.” – Jean Ingelow

 

Born in England in March of 1820, Ingelow was a poet and novelist whose writing career began while she was still a teenager. Despite that, she didn’t achieve fame until publication of Poems in 1863, a book that ran through numerous editions with many of its poems set to popular music.  She followed that success with her best-selling children’s book Mopsa The Fairy, today included in A Critical History of Children’s Literature.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Ingelow’s,

 

                             The Warbling of Blackbirds

                        When I hear the waters fretting,
                        When I see the chestnut letting
                        All her lovely blossom falter down, I think, “Alas the day!”
                        Once with magical sweet singing,
                        Blackbirds set the woodland ringing,
                        That awakes no more while April hours wear themselves away.

                        In our hearts fair hope lay smiling,
                        Sweet as air, and all beguiling;
                       And there hung a mist of bluebells on the slope and down the dell;
                       And we talked of joy and splendor
                       That the years unborn would render,
                       And the blackbirds helped us with the story, for they knew it well.

                       Piping, fluting, “Bees are humming,
                      April’s here, and summer’s coming;
                      Don’t forget us when you walk, a man with men, in pride and joy;
                      Think on us in alleys shady,
                      When you step a graceful lady;
                      For no fairer day have we to hope for, little girl and boy.

                     “Laugh and play, O lisping waters,
                      Lull our downy sons and daughters;
                      Come, O wind, and rock their leafy cradle in thy wanderings coy;
                      When they wake we’ll end the measure
                      With a wild sweet cry of pleasure,
                      And a ‘Hey down derry, let’s be merry! little girl and boy!’”

A Writer's Moment: Just 'get those voices on paper'

A Writer's Moment: Just 'get those voices on paper':   “I think every fiction writer, to a certain extent, is a schizophrenic and able to have two or three or five voices in his or her body. We...

Just 'get those voices on paper'

 

“I think every fiction writer, to a certain extent, is a schizophrenic and able to have two or three or five voices in his or her body. We seek, through our profession, to get those voices onto paper.” – Ridley Pearson

 

Born in Glen Cove, NY on this date in 1953, Pearson has authored 30 suspense and thriller novels for adults and 20 adventure books for kids, the most recent being The Final Step in 2018.   His “Walt Fleming” and “Lou Boldt” series of mystery thrillers have earned him legions of adult readers, and his “Peter & The Starcatchers” and “Kingdom Keepers” series have an equal, if not greater, following among the younger crowd.  

 

Pearson studied at Brown University and the University of Kansas, and after becoming the first American to receive the Raymond Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship at Oxford University, he has spent most of his writing career in St. Louis, MO, where he also has been a tireless advocate for young people developing their own writing skills.   The Missouri Writers Hall of Fame presented him with its highest honor, The Quill Award, for his efforts.  

 

“My favorite novel is To Kill a Mockingbird because of its broad sweep, its tackling of big issues in ways that even young minds can make sense of, and for the heart of the characters, who span a wide range of ages,” he said.  “I re-read it every year.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Actually living in a book'

A Writer's Moment: 'Actually living in a book':   “Write like it matters, and it will.” –  Libba Bray   Born Martha Elizabeth Bray in Alabama on this date in 1964, “Libba” grew up in ...