A Writer's Moment: 'A process of discovering'

A Writer's Moment: 'A process of discovering':   “Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what ...

'A process of discovering'

 

“Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.” –  Bob Shacochis
 

Born in Pittston, PA on this date in 1951, Shacochis is a novelist, short story writer, literary journalist and longtime creative writing professor at Florida State University. His most recent book is Kingdoms in the Air, a collection of his travel and adventure essays. 

 

Educated at the University of Missouri and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Shacochis jumped right into the creative writing world with a 1985 National Book Award-winning short story collection Easy in the Islands.   His novel Swimming in the Volcano also was a finalist for a National Book Award, and another, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction. 

 

“I'm asked all the time, 'Doesn't it feel great to finish the novel?',” he said.  “And the answer to that is, 'No.' It's sort of a loss to stop a 10-year project, which is an imaginary project in the sense that it's a work of my imagination.”

A Writer's Moment: 'No regrets, just success'

A Writer's Moment: 'No regrets, just success':   “I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” – D.H. Lawrence   Born in England on Sept. 11, 1885 David Herbert ...

'No regrets, just success'

 

“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” – D.H. Lawrence

 

Born in England on Sept. 11, 1885 David Herbert Lawrence said he had few regrets from his writing life, especially after rising from poverty as the son of nearly illiterate parents to become one of the best-known writers of the 20^th Century.   

 

Lawrence earned both renown and condemnation for such novels as Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover but also was lauded for his striking poetry and thoughtful short stories.  Away from the creative writing side, he penned many essays and countless letters, many gathered into several published volumes.

 

Among his most praised collections of short stories are The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, and The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, both massive best sellers.   Constantly at odds with British authorities and critics, he decided to travel and live around the globe, including time at the Kiowa Ranch in New Mexico where his ashes are interred and a memorial stands in his name.

 

“I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts,“ he mused shortly before his death from tuberculosis at age 44, “or my thoughts are the result of my dreams.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A joy full of excitement'

A Writer's Moment: 'A joy full of excitement':   “Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of th...

'A joy full of excitement'

 

“Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of the noble and the learned.” – Taylor Caldwell

 

Born in England this date in 1900, Caldwell emigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and spent many of her formative years living in poverty after her father died.  That experience, she said, not only shaped her values but also her expectations – to never again live in fear of want.

 

A writer even before leaving England (where she won a Charles Dickens Prize for young writers) Caldwell began her prolific professional writing career after earning a degree from the University of Buffalo.  Her first novel Dynasty of Death was an instant bestseller and established her as a major new writer.  Over the next 50 years – she died in 1985 – Caldwell published some 50 books under her own name and the pen names Marcus Holland, Max Reiner and J. Miriam Reback.

 

Noted for masterful blending of historical events with her own vivid imagination, she wrote such bestsellers as Dear and Glorious Physician (about Saint Luke), The Earth is the Lord's (about Genghis Khan), and Captains and the Kings.   Her books have sold upward of 40 million copies worldwide. 

She believed firmly in education and hard work.  “I wanted to acquire an education, work extremely hard, and never deviate from my goal to make it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'To cherish the earth'

A Writer's Moment: 'To cherish the earth':   “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.”  –  Wendell Berry   In Thurs...