A Writer's Moment: 'Letting People Know Who You Are'

A Writer's Moment: 'Letting People Know Who You Are': “I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when yo...

'Letting People Know Who You Are'

“I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when you're being a squeaky wheel, you're also really letting people know who you are.” – Aimee Bender

Born in California on June 28, 1969, Bender splits her time between her writing (short stories and novels) and teaching about the process, primarily at the collegiate level.  Known for her surreal stories and characters, she's been published in magazines and journals ranging from Harper's, McSweeney's and The Paris Review to inclusion in a number of anthologies.  Her short story, Faces was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist – for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense. 

Bender earned her undergraduate degree at UC-San Diego and a Master’s from the creative writing MFA program at University of California at Irvine where she started her writing career.

In addition to her numerous stories, she has authored half-a-dozen books (out in 16 languages), including The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, a collection of short stories, and The New York Times bestseller and award-winning novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.  Bender has received two Pushcart Prizes for her writing. 

“Novels are so much unrulier and more stressful to write,” she said.  “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.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: 'The Zest of Creating Things New'

A Writer's Moment: 'The Zest of Creating Things New': “True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.” – Antoine de Sainte-Exupery ...

'The Zest of Creating Things New'

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.” – Antoine de Sainte-Exupery

Born on June 29, 1900, French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator de Sainte-Exupery became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the U.S. National Book Award for his nonfiction book Wind, Sand and Stars.  Based on his years as a barnstorming postal aviator in the 1920s and ‘30s and his 1935 attempt to win an air speed contest from Saigon to Paris, the book is autobiographical, gripping and lyrical. 

De Sainte-Exupery developed a terrible habit of reading AND writing (on a yellow, lined notepad, no less) while flying, often paying little attention to the world around him as he buzzed through the relatively uncrowded airspace.  That bad habit might have led to his crashing in the Sahara Desert during the air race, and later to the crash that resulted in his death during World War II. 

                                              Despite the amazing Wind, Sand and Stars, he probably is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince and his lyrical aviation story Night Flight.  The Little Prince, now in print in over 250 languages and dialects, posthumously boosted both his worldwide writing reputation and his national hero status in France.

“Perfection,” he wrote,  “is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Reaching Out To All

A Writer's Moment: Reaching Out To All: “Poetry should be able to reach everybody, and it should be able to appeal to all levels of understanding.” – Peter D...

Reaching Out To All

“Poetry should be able to reach everybody, and it should be able to appeal to all levels of understanding.” – Peter Davison

Born in New York on this date in 1928, Davison grew up in Boulder, CO where his father – a noted Scottish poet – taught at the University of Colorado.  A graduate of Harvard with a writer-filled class that included John Ashbery, Robert Bly and Robert Creeley, Davison earned a Fulbright Fellowship to Cambridge University where he started his own writing career.   After Cambridge he combined writing with editing and eventually joined the staff of Atlantic Monthly, where he served as Poetry Editor for 30 years.  

      Davison (who died in 2004) employed a “natural” voice in his poems, writing poetry of reminiscence and conservation on subjects ranging from youth to aging to women.  For Saturday’s Poem (and for the season, of course), here is Davison’s,

Peaches

A mouthful of language to swallow:
stretches of beach, sweet clinches,
breaches in walls, bleached branches;
britches hauled over haunches;
hunches leeches, wrenched teachers.

What English can do: ransack
the warmth that chuckles beneath
fuzzed surfaces, smooth velvet
richness, splashy juices.
I beseech you, peach,
clench me into the sweetness
of your reaches.

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Quiet ... But Definitely 'Noticed'

A Writer's Moment: Quiet ... But Definitely 'Noticed': “I think the computer is a hindrance to good writing because it is so tempting to leave what you've written. If yo...

Quiet ... But Definitely 'Noticed'

“I think the computer is a hindrance to good writing because it is so tempting to leave what you've written. If you use a typewriter, you must retype if you make a mistake, and thus, you must re-examine every word.” – Edith Pearlman

Born in Providence, RI on this date in 1936, Pearlman has written more than 250 works of short fiction and non-fiction for national magazines, literary journals, anthologies, and on-line publications. Her work has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian and the New York Times.   Her work has often been featured in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and New Stories from the South.   She has now written for nearly 8 decades.

Top of Form

“I always loved to read,” she said, “and I wanted to be part of the project of literature. My physical longevity is due to luck, and my literary longevity is due to my physical longevity.” 

Among her collections of short stories are the award-winning How To Fall, Love Among The Greats and Honeydew, chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey’s “Top 19 books to read right now.”

Despite her many accolades she likes to stay in the background.  “It’s very important for a writer to be unnoticed,” she said.  “As quiet and unnoticed as possible.”      “There's no rule I want to break or ever wanted to break.  I find the conventional life gratifying - as long as I can sit at my typewriter, alone, for half a day.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: 'What I Love To Do Best'

A Writer's Moment: 'What I Love To Do Best': “Ever since I could first write I have been doing so. When I was taught how to write and read at school, I made up my mind that this was w...

'What I Love To Do Best'

“Ever since I could first write I have been doing so. When I was taught how to write and read at school, I made up my mind that this was what I love to do best and this was the world I was going to occupy.” – Anita Desai

Born in Mussoorie, India on this date in 1937, Desai was half-Indian, half-German by birth, raised in a Hindi/Bengali culture, and learned to read and write in English, which ultimately became her “literary” language.  The youngest of 4 kids, she was fluent in 5 languages, started writing at age 7, and had her first story published at age 9.  

After writing short stories and co-founding a publishing firm in the 1950s, Desai had the first of her 17 novels, Cry The Peacock, published in 1963.   Her 1984 novel The Village by the Sea won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize – a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.  Three of her other novels have been finalists for prestigious Booker Prize. 

Emerita Professor of Humanities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she also has taught writing at Mount Holyoke, Baruch and Smith Colleges in the U.S. and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in Great Britain.   Her daughter Kiran Desai also is an award-wnning novelist and a winner of the Booker Prize.

After nearly 8 decades of writing, Desai said she still enjoys pursuing her chosen craft. “Someone who wants to write should make an effort to write a little something every day,” she said. “Writing in this sense is the same as athletes who practice a sport every day to keep their skills honed.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Making Wishes Into Reality

A Writer's Moment: Making Wishes Into Reality: “If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more re...

Making Wishes Into Reality

“If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.”—Richard Bach 

 Born in Illinois on this date in 1936, Bach authored some of the 1970s' biggest sellers, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull  (also made into a popular film) and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.   A renowned pilot and student of aviation who started flying at age 17, he has written numerous non-fiction flight-related titles.

A pilot in both the Naval Reserve and Air National Guard, he also served as a technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and a writer for Flying Magazine.  After mastering operation of World War I aircraft, he did a stint as a “Barnstormer” at numerous air shows and then was chosen as a stunt pilot for the movie Von Richthofen and Brown.  And he was the driving force behind a documentary film, Nothing by Chance, based on his book and centering on barnstorming in the U.S. during the 1970s.

     The author of 19 books – several of them interwoven through smaller “novellas” – Bach often writes from his own experiences and said that has been a key factor in his success.  

 “You are never given a wish,” Bach said,  “without also being given the power to make it come true.  You may have to work for it, however.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: A Key To Writing 'Suspense'

A Writer's Moment: A Key To Writing 'Suspense': “I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I...

A Key To Writing 'Suspense'

“I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I’m able to conceal the information I’m trying to conceal.  And that is, at the end of the day, what writing suspense is all about.”– Dan Brown

Born this date in 1964, Brown has utilized the technique to perfection.  His thrillers exude suspense and his readers flock to them, having purchased well over 200 million copies since his first success, The Da Vinci Code (also a highly successful highly successful movie), burst on the scene in 2003.  Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, and feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes and, of course, conspiracy theories.  They’ve been translated into 52 languages, and sold in the hundreds of millions. 

While writing is his life it wasn’t that way until the mid-1990s when he was on vacation, read a thriller by Sidney Sheldon, and decided that’s what he really wanted to do.  Up until then he had been a fairly successful musician, and was a singer, songwriter and pianist in Hollywood, where he also taught music. 

      Brown sometimes uses the real people in his life as models for characters. It’s a a great writing technique and also an answer to that old question: “Where do you get your characters?”

As to the secret to Brown’s successes? “Hard work,” he said.   “I still get up every morning at 4 a.m.  I write seven days a week, including Christmas.  I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don’t really care how many books I’ve sold.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: What is a Dad?

A Writer's Moment: What is a Dad?:         What Is A Dad? A Dad is someone who wants to catch you before you fall but instead picks you up, bru...

What is a Dad?

        What Is A Dad?

A Dad is someone who

wants to catch you before you fall

but instead picks you up,

brushes you off,

and lets you try again.

A Dad is someone who

wants to keep you from making mistakes

but instead lets you find your own way,

even though his heart breaks in silence

when you get hurt.

           

A Dad is someone who

holds you when you cry,

scolds you when you break the rules,

shines with pride when you succeed,

and has faith in you even when you fail…

                                                                                                -Unknown

Happy Father’s Day

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Reaching Out For Poetry

A Writer's Moment: Reaching Out For Poetry: “People reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives. – Paul Muldoon Born in Northern Ireland on this da...

Reaching Out For Poetry

“People reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives. – Paul Muldoon

Born in Northern Ireland on this date in 1951, Muldoon (who now lives in New York City) has written over 30 collections of poetry, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize for his works.   A Professor and Founding Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, he also has served as President of the U.K. Poetry Society and as Poetry Editor at The New Yorker.

For Saturday’s Poem, here is Muldoon’s,

          Hedgehog

The snail moves like a
Hovercraft, held up by a
Rubber cushion of itself,
Sharing its secret

With the hedgehog. The hedgehog
Shares its secret with no one.
We say, Hedgehog, come out
Of yourself and we will love you.

We mean no harm. We want
Only to listen to what
You have to say. We want
Your answers to our questions.

The hedgehog gives nothing
Away, keeping itself to itself.
We wonder what a hedgehog
Has to hide, why it so distrusts.

We forget the god
under this crown of thorns.
We forget that never again
will a god trust in the world

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Redemption Through Storytelling

A Writer's Moment: Redemption Through Storytelling: "Storytelling makes possible redemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Do...

Redemption Through Storytelling

"Storytelling makes possible redemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Donaldson

While Donaldson is American, he has been “other-worldly” in his writing, developing a wide range of fantasy and science fiction novels (some 3 dozen titles) that have cemented his position as a leading writer in the genre’ and had him knocking around in an alternative universe as his primary setting.

His most famous series is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a ten-novel fantasy series. His work is characterized by psychological complexity, conceptual abstractness, moral bleakness, and the use of an arcane vocabulary, and has attracted critical praise for its "imagination, vivid characterizations, and fast pace."  

 

             He also should get high marks for great choice of titles (one I especially enjoyed is called The Rune of Earth).

A graduate of both The College of Wooster in Ohio and Kent State (also, of course, in Ohio), he currently makes his home in Albuquerque, NM where he recently had his 73rd birthday.  “I may not be as old as dirt,” he quipped,  “but dirt and I have an awful lot in common.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Setting The Benchmark For Great Reporting

A Writer's Moment: Setting The Benchmark For Great Reporting: “ To love what you do and feel that it matters how could anything be more fun?” – Katharine Graham The award-winning writer and publi...

Setting The Benchmark For Great Reporting

“To love what you do and feel that it matters how could anything be more fun?” – Katharine Graham

The award-winning writer and publisher of The Washington Post for over two decades, Graham, who was born this day in 1917, is especially remembered for her newspaper's role in exposing the Watergate Scandal.    Her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, simply titled Personal History, exudes both her joy of working in media and the fun she had doing it.  She and her editorial team not only revived a so-so newspaper but made it into a national power.

A Republican who led the investigative reporting of a Republican president, she said that politics should never get in the way of good reporting.  “It matters not if a person is from one party or another,” she said.  “If someone has done something that needs to be exposed in print, then that’s what a good reporter should do.”  That investigative effort still stands as the benchmark for “how it should be done.” 

      By the time she retired, she was considered one of the most powerful and influential women in America, not only overseeing The Post and all its affiliates but also Newsweek Magazine.    She was awarded both the Freedom Medal and The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and shortly before her death in 2001 she was named one of the world’s 50 most influential and powerful media people of the 20^th Century by the International Press Institute.  In 2002 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

“Once, power was considered a masculine attribute,” Graham said.  “But, in fact, power has no sex.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Eternal Optimism ... And Excellence

A Writer's Moment: Eternal Optimism ... And Excellence: “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business....

Eternal Optimism ... And Excellence

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business.” – Michael J. Fox

Born Canadian and now American, Fox is fast approaching geezerhood, turning 59 on June 9.  But he’s staying exceptionally busy despite his ongoing struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, working on causes ranging from finding a cure for the illness to eradicating hunger and housing shortages.

Probably one of the most iconic faces in acting, especially for the two roles for which he will always be remembered – Alex Keaton on Family Ties and teen adventurer extraordinaire Marty McFly in the Back to the Future series – he also is a gifted writer.    He uses his writing skills to spread the word about the disease from which he suffers, ever optimistic that with enough attention and support a cure can be discovered – if not in his lifetime then at least for future generations.  Lucky Man, his book about dealing with the disease, is a must read for those interested in how to overcome the odds.

His Family Ties acting role almost didn't happen.  The director wanted him for the the part, but producer Brandon Tartikoff felt Keaton was “too short (he’s 5-foot-4) and not the kind of face you’d like to see on your kid’s lunchbox.”  Five seasons and 3 Emmy Awards later, when the series ended, he presented Tartikoff a lunchbox with his face emblazoned on the cover.

A self-proclaimed “enternal optimist,” Fox said: “I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action if it's proactive and there is positive intent behind it.”

  

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Why Is That?

A Writer's Moment: Why Is That?: “Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter...

Why Is That?

“Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used.” – David Lehman

Born in New York City on this date in 1948, Lehman is an award-winning poet, prominent editor and literary critic. He is currently the series editor of The Best American Poetry and general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series.    A graduate of Columbia, where he also earned a Ph.D., he has authored numerous books of poetry including Yeshiva Boys and The Evening Sun.  His books of criticism include The Line Forms Here, and a study of detective novels – The Perfect Murder – was nominated for a prestigious Edgar Award.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Lehman’s,

The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke

Can't swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat
intolerable feelings of inadequacy;
Won't admit his dread of boredom, chief impulse behind
numerous marital infidelities;
Looks fat in jeans, mouths clichés with confidence,
breaks mother's plates in fights;
Buys when the market is too high, and panics during
the inevitable descent;
Still, Pop can always tell the subtle difference
between Pepsi and Coke,
Has defined the darkness of red at dawn, memorized
the splash of poppies along
Deserted railway tracks, and opposed the war in Vietnam
months before the students,
Years before the politicians and press; give him
a minute with a road map
And he will solve the mystery of bloodshot eyes;
transport him to mountaintop
And watch him calculate the heaviness and height
of the local heavens;
Needs no prompting to give money to his kids; speaks
French fluently, and tourist German;
Sings Schubert in the shower; plays pinball in Paris;
knows the new maid steals, and forgives her.

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: 'Follow Where Your Dreams Lead You'

A Writer's Moment: 'Follow Where Your Dreams Lead You': “There is no better test of character than when you're tossed into crisis. That's when we see one's true c...

'Follow Where Your Dreams Lead You'

“There is no better test of character than when you're tossed into crisis. That's when we see one's true colors shine through. So I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.” – Tess Gerritsen

Born in San Diego on this date in 1953, Gerritsen longed to be a writer but her family had reservations about the sustainability of such a career.  So she chose a career in medicine instead.  But the call to writing was too strong and in the mid-1990s she took the plunge, first doing short stories and then a series of romance thrillers. 

Her medical colleagues kept urging her to combine her writing skills and medical background instead, and finally in 1996 she wrote Harvest, her first medical thriller.  It’s the story of a detective and a doctor working together to solve the mystery of orphans disappearing and who they think are being used as organ donors. 

Three more bestselling medical thrillers followed before she started a series featuring a medical examiner/detective partnership – Rizzoli and Isles.  Twelve books and a television series later, the duo is still going strong.  Gerritsen also continues to write stand-alone bestsellers like The Bone Garden, Playing With Fire, and 2019’s The Shape of Night.  All told, she’s written 33 novels and several short stories.

“Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go,” Gerritsen said.     “We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.”

 

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend or forward the link: http://writersmoment.blogspot.com