A Writer's Moment: Letting Your 'Self' Shine Through

A Writer's Moment: Letting Your 'Self' Shine Through:   “Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every...

Letting Your 'Self' Shine Through

 “Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” – John Jakes

Jakes, who was born this day in 1932, gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became a bestselling American Bicentennial Series of books in the mid-to-late 1970s.  The books sold an amazing 55 million copies.

He has since published several more popular works of historical fiction, most dealing with American history, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War,
which sold 10 million copies and was adapted as an ABC-TV miniseries.

A native of Chicago, Jakes started writing while studying the craft at DePauw University and he has penned 55 novels and 4 nonfiction books, including a terrific book on Famous War Correspondents and another on Famous “Firsts” in Sports.

I loved the Bicentennial Series and was shocked when none were made into movies, but perhaps they had too much breadth and scope to make them easily “filmable,” something I’ve learned can make or break a book’s being adapted into a film.  Simple, as the old saying goes, is good.  And, as Jakes likes to say:

“No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone, but is beyond control: luck.”

 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Walking Into The Unknown'

A Writer's Moment: 'Walking Into The Unknown':   “With a novel, there is no hurrying it. You're constantly walking into the unknown.” – Tobias Hill   Born in North London on this...

'Walking Into The Unknown'

 “With a novel, there is no hurrying it. You're constantly walking into the unknown.” – Tobias Hill

 

Born in North London on this date in 1970, Hill is a prizewinning and critically acclaimed author of five novels, four volumes of poetry, a short story collection and a children's book.  

 

Since 2012 has served as senior lecturer of the MA Creative Writing Course at Oxford Brookes University.

 

Amongst contemporary British authors, Hill is unusual in achieving critical recognition as a poet, novelist and writer of short stories.  He has been named  one of the “Best young writers in Britain” by the London Times Literary Supplement and selected as one of the country's “Next Generation” poets. His novels have been published worldwide.  Secrecy, revelation and obsession are recurrent themes in Hill's novels, which have all been best sellers.  His short stories have won the prestigious International PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award.  And, his poetry has been called “luminous” and “unforgettable.”

When asked what he likes best in his writing life, he said probably poetry because it provides him the biggest challenge.

 “At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language,” he said.  “Rhythms and the music of it are very important. But the difficulty is that poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'You Have To Believe'

A Writer's Moment: 'You Have To Believe':   “As a writer, you have to believe you’re one of the best writers in the world.   To sit down every day at the typewrit...

'You Have To Believe'

 “As a writer, you have to believe you’re one of the best writers in the world.  To sit down every day at the typewriter filled with self-doubt is not a good idea.” – Jo Nesbo

If the Norwegian writer and singer Nesbo lacks any of that self-confidence it’s not evident in his work.  He has parlayed it into two highly successful careers during his 61 years.  The first, of course, is for his creative fiction where he writes about Norwegian and international crime solver Harry Hole, a gritty detective known for his ability to not only solve perplexing crimes but also “save the girl,” much to the delight of the legions of Nesbo readers.

 

 

 Jo Nesbo

On his birthday today, Nesbo also is celebrating that his books have surpassed 50 million in worldwide sales and been translated into 50 languages.  Many of his readers also tune in to hear him sing.  Nesbo is one of the most “known” front men in the performance world as lead vocalist and songwriter for the rock band Di Derre.  The personable Nesbo, who grew up in a small town and has not forgotten his roots, says his readers and listeners think of him as “a family member made good.”

As for writing:  “I’ve always said that you can’t visit readers where you think they are, but instead you need to invite them home to where you are,” he said.  “They need to join you in your world.  That’s the art of storytelling.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Readable In One Try'

A Writer's Moment: 'Readable In One Try':   “When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what you do.” – Howard   Nemerov Nemerov (1920-1...

'Readable In One Try'

 “When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what you do.” – Howard  Nemerov

Nemerov (1920-1991) was thrice-honored for his The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov, winning the National Book Award for Poetry, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize, bestowed by Yale University in recognition of best book of new verse and for lifetime achievement.

A teacher in high school and college and at workshops around the country, he said he always enjoyed talking to kids and learning that they liked reading his work.  “I liked the kid who wrote me that he had to do a term paper on a modern poet and he was doing me because, though they say you have to read poems twice, he found he could handle mine in one try."   Here, for Saturday’s Poem, is Nemerov’s,'

 

Found Poem

after information received in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1986

The population center of the USA
Has shifted to Potosi, in Missouri.

The calculation employed by authorities
In arriving at this dislocation assumes

That the country is a geometric plane,
Perfectly flat, and that every citizen,

Including those in Alaska and Hawaii
And the District of Columbia, weighs the same;

So that, given these simple presuppositions,
The entire bulk and spread of all the people

Should theoretically balance on the point
Of a needle under Potosi in Missouri

Where no one is residing nowadays
But the watchman over an abandoned mine

Whence the company got the lead out and left.
'It gets pretty lonely here,' he says, 'at night.'

A Writer's Moment: 'Living Life So Many Ways'

A Writer's Moment: 'Living Life So Many Ways': “A good novel is an out-of-self experience. It lifts you off the ground so that you have the sensation of flying. It say...

'Living Life So Many Ways'

“A good novel is an out-of-self experience. It lifts you off the ground so that you have the sensation of flying. It says, 'Look at the world around you; learn from the people in these pages, neither quite me nor quite you, how life is lived in so many different ways.’” – Julia Glass

In 2002, Glass’s debut novel Three Junes got off to a very good liftoff, indeed, winning the National Book Award for Fiction.  Since then she’s led a very good writing life having half-a-dozen more novels published, all to excellent reviews.

Born in Massachusetts in March of 1956, Glass took a couple of divergent life paths, first moving to Brooklyn, NY, after college to become a painter, then trying magazine editing in New York City before taking a stab at creative writing.  She now lives back in Massachusetts and in addition to the National Book Award, she’s won the prestigious William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for her efforts.

  

Julie Glass 

“All the best novels are about one thing: how we go on,” she said.  “The characters must survive the fallout of their own cowardice, folly, denial or misguided passion. They squander what matters most, and still they pick up the pieces.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Every Book Is A Light'

A Writer's Moment: 'Every Book Is A Light':   “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” –   Kate DiCamillo Born on March 25...

'Every Book Is A Light'

 “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” –  Kate DiCamillo

Born on March 25, 1964 in Philadelphia, DiCamillo now makes her home in Minneapolis.  Her exemplary career has already produced two Newbery Medals for The Tale of Despereaux (2003) and Flora and Ulysses (2013), one of just 6 people in the world to win two such awards.   Her best-known books for young children are the “Mercy Watson” series illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

 

In 2014 and 2015 DiCamillo was appointed by the Library of Congress as the U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Unlike many other highly successful writers who devote their time strictly to writing, DiCamillo works full-time in a used bookstore, where she does some writing each weekday.  “I get up. I drink a cup of coffee. I think,” she said.  “The last thing I want to do is write.  Then I go to the computer and write.  My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it. After I write, I go to work at the bookstore.”

When I lived in Minnesota I always hoped to meet her but never did.  At the time I wanted to tell her how much I had enjoyed reading her absolutely wonderful Young Adult book Because of Winn Dixie.  If you have not read it, go get a copy and do so!  Meanwhile, getting the chance to meet her remains on my list of things to do, and I assume I’ll find her paging through some books at her bookstore.

“Every well-written book is a light for me,” she said.  “When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.”

A Writer's Moment: Good Advice, Good Poem

A Writer's Moment: Good Advice, Good Poem:   “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, fi...

Good Advice, Good Poem

 “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.” – Kenneth Rexroth 

Born in 1905, American poet, translator and critical essayist Rexroth laid the groundwork for what would become the 1950s beat movement.  Dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time Magazine, he also was among the first U.S. poets to explore styles like haiku.   And Rexroth worked tirelessly in his last decade (he died in 1982) to promote the work of female poets in America.

With Spring nigh upon us, here for Saturday’s Poem is Rexroth’s,

Yin and Yang

It is Spring once more in the Coast Range
Warm, perfumed, under the Easter moon.
The flowers are back in their places.
The birds are back in their usual trees.

The winter stars set in the ocean.
The summer stars rise from the mountains.
The air is filled with atoms of quicksilver.
Resurrection envelops the earth.

Goemetrical, blazing, deathless,
Animals and men march through heaven,
Pacing their secret ceremony.

The Lion gives the moon to the Virgin.
She stands at the crossroads of heaven,
Holding the full moon in her right hand,
A glittering wheat ear in her left.

The climax of the rite of rebirth
Has ascended from the underworld
Is proclaimed in light from the zenith.
In the underworld the sun swims
Between the fish called Yes and No.

 

A Writer's Moment: Master of the Narrative

A Writer's Moment: Master of the Narrative:   “I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction,...

Master of the Narrative

 “I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness.” –  John Updike

Updike, who was born on this date in 1932 (and died in 2009), was a novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic.  Although self-deprecating about his “critic” role, most of what he wrote was a model of what good critical writing is all about.    He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for books in his “Rabbit” series – Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and the novella Rabbit Remembered – which chronicles the lifetime of the middle-class everyman Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.  Rabbit Is Rich won all three major American literary prizes – the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Updike published more than 20 novels, a dozen short story collections, poetry, art criticism, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews and poems appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.

Ironically, writing was not his first love.  “My first ambition was to be an animator for Walt Disney. Then I wanted to be a magazine cartoonist,” he said.   

Updike was a master of narrative. “A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.”   

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'And That’s the Truth'

A Writer's Moment: 'And That’s the Truth':   “I don't enjoy doing a lot of research, preferring as a rule, to ‘make up my facts.’ That's why I write fictio...

'And That’s the Truth'

 “I don't enjoy doing a lot of research, preferring as a rule, to ‘make up my facts.’ That's why I write fiction. I firmly believe that if you want facts, you read non-fiction; you read fiction to discover the truth.” – Joy Fielding

Fielding, who turns 76 today, is a native Canadian who makes her home in Toronto.  She said she knew early on in life that she wanted to be a writer, and even when she was drawn in different directions – particularly acting – she always felt the pull back to that first love.  Today, as the author of 29 books, many of them best-sellers including the extraordinarily successful See Jane Run, she said she’s glad she finally settled into the life of a writer.

“I love writing because it's the only time in my life when I feel I have complete control,” Fielding said.   “Nobody does or says anything I don't tell them to - although even this amount of control is illusory because there comes a point where the characters take over and tell you what they think they should say and do.” 

  

 

Joy Fielding

 

Fielding said she looks upon everything as a potential scene for a book, and everyone as a potential character.  While she occasionally get snippets of ideas from magazines and newspaper articles, especially from the headlines, more often her ideas come from something that happens to herself or someone she knows. 

 “I use whatever I can and nothing is sacred. Of course, nothing is exactly the way it is in real life. A writer borrows a bit from here, there and everywhere, and adapts it to her own purpose.  (But) I find that the more of me I include, the more successful the book, the more readers can identify with.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Ever Dreaming A New Dream

A Writer's Moment: Ever Dreaming A New Dream: “You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis   Despite his quote above, Clive...

Ever Dreaming A New Dream

“You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

 

Despite his quote above, Clive Staple (C.S.) Lewis – born in Ireland in 1898 – started dreaming (and writing) young.  He wrote his first pieces by age 7 and went on to write hundreds of essays and more than 30 books.  His works continue to attract thousands each year. 

Lewis's most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Screwtape Letters and, of course, the universally acknowledged The Chronicles of Narnia.  To date, the Narnia books alone have sold over 100 million copies and been made into 3 major motion pictures.  

 

His impact on the world's literature is everlasting.  

 

"Literature," he said, "adds to reality, it does not simply describe it.  It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives already have become."

 

 

 

 

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