A Writer's Moment: 'Something real . . . and emotional'

A Writer's Moment: 'Something real . . . and emotional':   “I can't speak for readers in general, but personally I like to read stories behind which there is some truth, some...

'Something real . . . and emotional'

 

“I can't speak for readers in general, but personally I like to read stories behind which there is some truth, something real and above all, something emotional. I don't like to read essays on literature; I don't like to read critical or rational or impersonal or cold disquisitions on subjects.” – Laura Esquivel

 

Born in Mexico on this date in 1950, Esquivel is the author and screenwriter of the award-winning novel and film Like Water for Chocolate..

 

She has been honored for both her fiction and screenwriting, but perhaps her biggest impact has been from her powerful essays on life, love and food.  Esquivel said she believes the kitchen is the most important place in the house, characterizing it as "a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure to all." 

 

While she’s won writing awards for both her films and her books, she said she gravitates toward writing fiction.

 

“In film you can use images exclusively and narrate a whole story very quickly, but you don't always so easily find the form in cinema to dig deeper into human thoughts and emotions,” she explained.  “In a novel you can much more easily express a character's inner thoughts and feelings.”

A Writer's Moment: Welcome to 'our second spring'

A Writer's Moment: Welcome to 'our second spring':   “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus   Summer's heat still blankets much of ...

Welcome to 'our second spring'

 

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

 

Summer's heat still blankets much of the country, but the brilliant colors and crisp nights of Autumn have officially arrived.   French writer Camus, well known for his often “melancholy” view, still was moved to write the upbeat line above following a Fall walk through the forest.

 

But for another point of view, here is children's author Judith Viorst's take on the season for this early Autumn Saturday's Poem.    

          Summer’s End

One by one the petals drop
There's nothing that can make them stop.
You cannot beg a rose to stay.
Why does it have to be that way?

The butterflies I used to chase
Have gone off to some other place.
I don't know where. I only know
I wish they didn't have to go.

And all the shiny afternoons
So full of birds and big balloons
And ice cream melting in the sun

Are done.

I do not want them done.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'A great way to live a life'

A Writer's Moment: 'A great way to live a life':   "Fiction, for me, is sort of a protracted way of saying all the things I wished I said the night before." - Christopher Buck...

'A great way to live a life'

 

"Fiction, for me, is sort of a protracted way of saying all the things I wished I said the night before." - Christopher Buckley

The only child of conservative author and speaker William F. Buckley, Christopher was born on Sept. 28, 1952 and has made his own way into the writing world as a humorist and satirist, creating such well-known works as The White House Mess, No Way To Treat A First Lady, and Thank You For Smoking – the latter made into a terrific film as well.

Buckley’s humorous pieces have appeared in most of the nation’s

leading newspapers, and he also has had an ongoing career as a magazine writer and editor, particularly at Forbes.   And, Buckley has done considerable time in P.R. and says that “In public relations, you live with the reality that not every disaster can be made to look like a misunderstood triumph.” 

Buckley’s P.R. efforts were primarily in the political arena and his first-hand knowledge of the political world often has provided the base for his satirical fiction.  His most recent, published in 2022 is Has Anyone Seen My Toes?, his 20th book.

 

Writing fiction, he said, is a great way to live a life you might otherwise only imagine. “You live vicariously through your characters.”

A Writer's Moment: A model for great writing

A Writer's Moment: A model for great writing:   “My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.   I was also in lo...

A model for great writing

 

“My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.  I was also in love with the English language.” – Dick Schaap

Born on this date in 1934 Schaap started his writing career as a sportswriter at age 14 at the Nassau Daily Review-Star.  There, he was mentored by famed writer and editor Jimmy Breslin, who he ultimately worked with at three different newspapers and as co-author of a best-selling book.

 

After earning degrees from Cornell and the Columbia School of Journalism, Schaap served as assistant sports editor for Newsweek magazine before moving into television.  Acclaimed as both a news and sports reporter, he won 6 Emmys for his work at NBC, ABC and ESPN. 

 

The first of Schaap's 33 books was the mega-bestseller Instant Replay, co-authored with Green Bay Packer all-pro guard Jerry Kramer.  From there his wide range of book topics included a political biography of Bobby Kennedy; the novel .44, co-authored with Breslin and based on the “Son of Sam” murders; and Bo Knows Bo about baseball and gridiron star Bo Jackson, and the best-selling sports biography of all time.   

 

Also a theatre critic (for ABC television), he became the only person in history to vote for both Broadway's Tony Awards and football's Heisman Trophy winner.

 

Schaap, who died from a respiratory infection in 2001, offered this advice to beginning writers:  “Read and reflect on writers you admire.  And then model your writing after theirs.  If a writing style captures your attention, then don’t you want to write that way yourself?”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Think, Imagine, Write'

A Writer's Moment: 'Think, Imagine, Write':   “What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually wa...

'Think, Imagine, Write'

 

“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

 

Born in New Britain, CT on this date in 1955, Rice has been a regular on the New York Times’ Bestseller List.  Her 36 novels have been translated into 26 languages and 5 have been made into movies – two of which were selected for TV’s “Hallmark Hall of Fame.”

Many of her novels deal with love and family, although it is about nature and the sea that she truly excels.  Among her works are The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat, and Sandcastles and her most recent The Shadow Box .  She had her first published poem at age 11 and her first short story when she was 15.  Her debut novel, Angels All Over Town came at age 30.

As a just-beginning novelist, Rice would sit in on lectures on criminal law and evidence, mesmerized by how the cases would unfold and getting ideas for her writing. 

 

 She said she enjoys doing research, and also writes down her dreams – both of which make up parts of her work.  But, she said, she bases many characters on real people, including those she knows.  

 

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

A Writer's Moment: 'The first job of a writer: Be honest'

A Writer's Moment: 'The first job of a writer: Be honest':   “I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you...

'The first job of a writer: Be honest'

 

“I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.” – Irvine Welsh

Born in Scotland in September (“Sometime in the 1950s”), Welsh is perhaps best known for his novel Trainspotting, also made into a critically acclaimed  film.   His work often depicts the hardscrabble life of his native home of Edinburgh, where he grew up the son of a dockworker and waitress.

 

After dropping out of high school, he tried his luck at a variety of jobs before getting into the London music scene, where for a time he thought his success might rest with writing songs.  But it was while telling some of the tales of his childhood and his upbringing that he was encouraged to start writing down the stories that led to Trainspotting.  

 

Despite being lambasted by some as “too mean,” it became an almost instant success and started him on his writing path.  He has now authored 14 novels – the most recent being this year’s Resolution –  plus half-a-dozen books of short stories and many plays and screenplays.

 

“The first job of a writer is to be honest," Welsh said. "Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is.”

A Writer's Moment: Choices for 'the wise writer'

A Writer's Moment: Choices for 'the wise writer':   “My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of t...

Choices for 'the wise writer'

 

“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Born in Minnesota on Sept. 24, 1896 Fitzgerald is heralded as one of the greatest American writers with a remarkable output despite dying at age 44 from illnesses mostly attributed to stress and alcoholism.   Internationally renowned for books like The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald also wrote hundreds of short stories reflective of what’s been called “The Jazz Age.”

 

Named for his distant cousin Francis Scott Key (author of “The Star Spangled Banner”), Fitzgerald attended Princeton but dropped out to join the U.S. Army during World War I.  It was at Princeton that he both started his writing and met future wife Zelda, a major influence on his writing career, which took off right after the war.

 

While his writing star burned brightly, he said he found the process difficult. “All good writing,” he said, “is like swimming under water and holding your breath.”   He said sometimes he wished he could start over, leading to his famous statement: “There are no second acts in American lives.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Pressing each experience a little further'

A Writer's Moment: 'Pressing each experience a little further':   “My job as a human being as well as a writer is to feel as thoroughly as possible the experience that I am part of, and then press it a...

'Pressing each experience a little further'

 

“My job as a human being as well as a writer is to feel as thoroughly as possible the experience that I am part of, and then press it a little further.” – Jane Hirshfield

 

Born in New York City in 1953, Hirshfield is an essayist and poet.  Her individual poems and books of poems have been recognized with numerous national and international awards.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hirshfield’s,

The Heat of Autumn

The heat of autumn
is different from the heat of summer.
One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.
One is a dock you walk out on,
the other the spine of a thin swimming horse
and the river each day a full measure colder.
A man with cancer leaves his wife for his lover.
Before he goes she straightens his belts in the closet,
rearranges the socks and sweaters inside the dresser
by color.

That's autumn heat:
her hand placing silver buckles with silver,
gold buckles with gold, setting each
on the hook it belongs on in a closet soon to be empty,
and calling it pleasure.

A Writer's Moment: Full immersion for bestselling results

A Writer's Moment: Full immersion for bestselling results:   “I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor...

Full immersion for bestselling results

 

“I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.” – Gary Jennings

Born in Virginia on this date in 1928, Jennings wrote both children's and adult tales up until 1980.  But after writing his bestselling historical novel Aztec, he switched entirely to historical fiction up until his death in 1999.  

 

A self-taught writer, he started as a war correspondent, documenting the Korean War and being awarded a Bronze Star for heroism in the process.   After the war he combined writing for newspapers with his creative work before deciding in 1968 to devote himself full time to fiction.

 

Known for immersing himself in his topics, his sometimes massive novels were lauded for their historical detail.   He spent 12 years in Mexico researching Aztec and its sequel Aztec Autumn; and he joined 9 different circus troupes to write his bestseller Spangle. 

 

In the course of his writing he learned that many words modern writers take for granted simply didn’t exist in the time periods he wanted to represent and thought that might be a book project in the making.

 

 “There is a real need for a good, thick, complete-as-possible dictionary of 'What People Used to Call Things,’ ” Jennings said.  “I could list hundreds of words I've come up against in the course of my work that did not exist in the era of which I was writing and for which I never could find a suitably old-time, archaic or obsolete substitute.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's somewhere else to go'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's somewhere else to go':   “I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more excitin...

'It's somewhere else to go'

 

“I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting. Somewhere I feel I belong, possibly more than in the so-called real world.” –  Tanith Lee

Born in London on this date in 1947 Lee authored some 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems in a 40-year career (she died in 2015).   She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel for Death's Master and recipient of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achevement Award shortly before her death.

Despite her success with adult fiction, a large part of her prolific output was in children's fantasy, starting with her first book The Dragon Hoard in 1971, to her highly successful Claidi Journals that included the bestselling books Wolf Tower, Wolf Star, Wolf Queen and Wolf Wing in the  2000s.

Much of her work, she said, came from "small things" rather than major inspirations, and as to her preference for what she liked to write, she replied, “Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and non-fiction."

                               

She encouraged everyone to write, saying, “Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but EVERYONE has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.  But I believe it's true.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Connecting Elements, Solving Riddles'

A Writer's Moment: 'Connecting Elements, Solving Riddles':   “The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.   I read Nancy Drew ,...

'Connecting Elements, Solving Riddles'

 

“The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.   I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.” – Elise Broach

  

Born in Georgia on Sept. 20, 1963 Broach now makes her home in Connecticut where she settled after earning two degrees from Yale and where she primarily writes mysteries.  Among her many award-winning novels are Shakespeare's Secret, Desert Crossing, and Masterpiece. 

 

 Broach also has authored 10 Picture Books for young children, including When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, a 2008 Notable Children's Book (as voted by the American Library Association) and 2018’s, My Pet Wants A Pet.   But it's mysteries she most loves.

“Mysteries always have the potential for interesting connections between the elements,” she said.  “I'm also most interested in the relationship between the characters. As in Masterpiece, I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Everday kindness of the back roads'

A Writer's Moment: 'Everday kindness of the back roads':   “I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.” –   Charles Kuralt   Kuralt was a master at shar...

'Everday kindness of the back roads'

  “I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.” –  Charles Kuralt

 

Kuralt was a master at sharing life from America’s backroads through his in-depth and heartfelt reporting.  Widely known for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, he later became the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, which has continued his feature reporting tradition. 

Born in Wilmington, NC in September, 1934 he said he couldn’t remember a time when he didn't want to be a reporter. “I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling, but I thought it was.  Kids are always asked, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ I needed an answer. So instead of saying, a fireman or a policeman, I said, a reporter.”

He started reporting as a radio announcer at age 14, edited the college newspaper at the University of North Carolina, and then wrote for the Charlotte News, where he earned a prestigious Ernie Pyle Award for his features.  After moving to CBS as a newswriter, he started hosting the Eyewitness to History series, winning a Peabody Award for his reporting.  In all, he won three Peabodys, including one for “On The Road,” for which he also won multiple Emmys.

“I think all those people I did stories about ‘On The Road’ measured their own success by the joy their work was giving them,” he said.                          

   

“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Not a real safe occupation'

A Writer's Moment: 'Not a real safe occupation':   “If a big person invests time in reading, kids learn reading is important, the child is important, words are important, stories are impor...

'Not a real safe occupation'

 

“If a big person invests time in reading, kids learn reading is important, the child is important, words are important, stories are important.” – Gail Carson Levine

Born in New York City on Sept. 17, 1947 Levine is the author of the Newbery Award winning book, Ella Enchanted, and the wonderful semi-biographical novel Dave at Night, based loosely on her father’s “growing-up years” in an orphanage.

Although she grew up an avid reader, she didn’t have writing on her radar until later in life, wanting to be an artist or actress.  In her late 40s she finally gave it a try, starting with Ella, although it took 9 years of doing manuscripts before she got that one accepted.         After it won the Newbery and was made into a successful movie, it gave Levine the financial independence to focus on more, many based on fairy tales with a modern twist.  Her latest - her 26th - is Sparrows in the Wind.

“As a child, I loved fairy tales because the story, the what-comes-next, is paramount. As an adult, I'm fascinated by their logic and illogic,” Levine said.  As for why she didn’t get into writing sooner, she said (with tongue firmly in cheek), “Most of the authors I liked were dead, so it didn't seem like a real safe occupation.”

A Writer's Moment: Using 'The Powers of Observing'

A Writer's Moment: Using 'The Powers of Observing':   “I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own...

Using 'The Powers of Observing'

 

“I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with the powers of observing.” – Mary Oliver

 

Born on Sept. 10, 1935 Oliver won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her poetic stylings, and The New York Times described her as "far and away, [America's] best-selling poet.”  Oliver, who died in 2019, said she often turned to nature for both wonder and inspiration.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Oliver’s,

      A Dream of Trees

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?

A Writer's Moment: 'The heart of everything we do'

A Writer's Moment: 'The heart of everything we do':     "The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are i...

'The heart of everything we do'

 

 

"The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life."  – Anthony Browne

  

A British writer and illustrator of children's books, Browne was born on Sept. 11 1946, and started drawing and writing when he was 5.   Browne said as a teenager his goals were to be either a journalist, a cartoonist, or a boxer, but he always gravitated back to doing things for kids.  

 

“Never forget that children are at the heart of everything we do,” he said. “Respect them, listen to them, talk to them as equals and most of all, care about them.”

 

With some 40 books to his credit – headed by the multiple award-winning book Gorilla – he has twice won the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations.  He also is recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honor for children's book authors.

  

“I never want to make a child worried or afraid, and I don't think I do. My pictures are born from the belief that children are far more capable and aware of social complexities than we give them credit for.”

'The realist is an optimist'

 

"The realist . . . is really an optimist, a dreamer. He sees life in terms of what it might be, as well as in terms of what it is; but he writes of what is, and, at his best, suggests what is to be, by contrast." – Hamlin Garland

Born on a Wisconsin farm on Sept. 14 1860 to devotees, Garland was named Hannibal Hamlin after Abraham Lincoln’s vice presidential running mate.    But he never much liked the name Hannibal and went by Hamlin most of his life, particularly after his writing career took off.   

                    

 Novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, Garland is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers – a reflection of his “Growing Up Days” in Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota.  His first major success, in fact, was a book of short stories Main-Travelled Roads, inspired by his days on the farm. He then serialized a biography of Ulysses S. Grant in McClure's Magazine, publishing it as a book in 1898, the same year he traveled to the Yukon to witness the Klondike Gold Rush and inspiring his best-seller The Trail of the Gold Seekers. 

While he was a prolific writer in many genres, his work as a memoirist brought him his most acclaim, beginning with his autobiography A Son of the Middle Border, its Pulitzer Prize-winning sequel A Daughter of the Middle Border, and a number of other memoirs about farm life, the people, and the harsh land they strove to tame – “...the hard, unromantic truth," he said, "of pioneer life on the plains.”

A Writer's Moment: 'There's only one rule'

A Writer's Moment: 'There's only one rule':   “Write what you like; there is no other rule.” – O. Henry William Henry Porter – known by the pen name O. Henry – ...

'There's only one rule'

 

“Write what you like; there is no other rule.” – O. Henry

William Henry Porter – known by the pen name O. Henry – is perhaps America’s greatest short story writer.   His works set a standard for generations of writers and today the O. Henry Award is a prestigious annual prize given for outstanding stories in the genre'.

 

Born in North Carolina on this date in 1862, O. Henry grew up in Texas.  Working as a banker in Houston in 1895, he was accused of embezzlement and in a panic fled the country.

 

While the charges were never proven, he lived for a time in South America where he began writing short stories and coined the term “Banana Republic,” first used in his story “Cabbages and Kings.”  Drawn back to America when his wife developed a fatal illness, he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison.  While there he wrote many successful stories, publishing under various names to hide his identity.  One of those names was O. Henry.

 

After being released early for good behavior, he wrote steadily and had dozens of best-selling stories and story collections published, establishing himself as one of America’s most well-known and beloved writers. 

 

Among his most famous stories, still popular today, are The Gift of the Magi; The Last Leaf; The Ransom of Red Chief (where a kidnap victim is so horrible that the kidnappers end up paying his family to take him back); and Caballero’s Way (introducing the world to The Cisco Kid).

 

O. Henry died from liver disease at age 47 but on his death bed said he loved every minute of his life and being a writer.  “When one loves one's art,” he said, “no service seems too hard.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The world awaits'

A Writer's Moment: 'The world awaits':     “They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored.   But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting f...

'The world awaits'

 

 “They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored.  But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for you and me.”  - Lisa Ann Sandell

 When I was a kid growing up on a South Dakota farm my Mom and Dad would spend days building us up for "day trips," and my brothers and I would look upon them with as much anticipation as if we were going to Europe.  So, you can about imagine the excitement a three-day vacation somewhere might generate.  

 

It built a love for discovery; and a lifelong resonance for enjoying whatever might be found around the next corner and then writing about those discoveries.  Writers' moments, if you will.   

 

“The real voyage of discovery," says author Marcel Proust, "consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”