A Writer's Moment: 'The habit that leads to writing success'

A Writer's Moment: 'The habit that leads to writing success':   “What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and ...

'The habit that leads to writing success'

 

“What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and write. I'm lucky I learned that habit a really long time ago. I credit my mother with that. She was an English teacher, but she was a writer.” – Luanne Rice

The prolific Rice, born in New Britain, CT on this date in 1956, has practiced what she preaches turning out three dozen bestselling novels.  Many of her books also have been adapted into successful movies or television series.  And she reaches a worldwide audience with translations in some 30 languages. 

 

Rice was first published (a poem in the Hartford Courant) at age 11, had her first short story published in American Girl magazine when she was 15, and began writing novels in her late 20s.  Her debut novel Angels All Over Town won several awards and established her as a major writing talent.  Among her most well-known titles are The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat, and Sandcastles.  Her most recent, Until Midnight, has just been released.

Rice said extensive research, creation of characters who are based on “real people she has met and been inspired by,” and her dreams all make up her stories. 

 

“While novels are fiction,” she said, “mine are usually very close to my heart.”

A Writer's Moment: "It's what belongs to literature'

A Writer's Moment: "It's what belongs to literature':   “God would not give us the same talent if what were right for men were wrong for women.” – Sarah Orne Jewett   Born in Maine in Septem...

"It's what belongs to literature'

 

“God would not give us the same talent if what were right for men were wrong for women.” – Sarah Orne Jewett

 

Born in Maine in September of 1849. Jewett was a novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near Maine’s southern seacoast and recognized as an important practitioner of American Literary Regionalism.

 

Educated in Boston, where she met many of New England’s leading writers while still in her teens, Jewett was first published in Atlantic Monthly in 1868 and went on to become one of the most-read short story writers of the 1870s and ‘80s.  Fellow author William Dean Howells said Jewett possessed “an uncommon feeling for talk — I hear your people.”

 

Best known among her 20 books (many still in print today) are A White Heron, which is a collection of her best short stories; A Country Doctor: and the children’s book Betty Leicester.  Many of her best poems are collected in the book simply known as Verses.  

 

Jewett, who died in 1909, said she often contemplated whether her works deserved recognition. 

 

“The thing that teases the mind over and over for years and at last gets itself put down rightly on paper,” she said, “is whether – little or great – it belongs to Literature.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder':   “Ultimately, theatre is about creating a sense of wonder, and I think wonder is achieved not by a kind of wide-eyed silliness but by being...

'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder'

 

“Ultimately, theatre is about creating a sense of wonder, and I think wonder is achieved not by a kind of wide-eyed silliness but by being available to that which is most unknown, inside the material and inside yourself.” – George C. Wolfe

 

Born in Frankfort, KY on this date in 1954, Wolfe is a playwright and director in both theater and film, and an occasional actor.  He won Tony Awards for directing Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and for the musical Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk.  Most recently he has directed the Eugene O'Neill revival The Iceman Cometh (with Denzel Washington) and the musical Gypsy (with Audra MacDonald).  He also was seen as an actor in the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada 2.

 

Wolfe started writing both poetry and prose while still in high school and first tried his hand at writing plays while studying at Pomona College in California.  He went on to earn his MFA in dramatic writing and musical theater at New York University before embarking on an award-filled writing, producing and directing career.  In 2013 he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

 

“Confidence," he said, "comes in going on personal journeys in a public arena and feeling as though you have a right to do that.  You have to give yourself permission to discover what you need to discover and not worry about how pretty the journey is.  If you're aware of the pretty, you're not going to dig into the mess.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The essence of ideas'

A Writer's Moment: 'The essence of ideas':   “Human history in essence is the history of ideas.” – H. G. Wells Born in England on Sept. 21, 1866 Wells has been called “The Father o...