A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots:   “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 w...

Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

 

“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 this date in 1963 (she now lives in Connecticut), Broach earned acclaim as a writer of Children’s and YA mystery tales.  Her dozen best-selling titles are led by her award-winning Shakespeare's Secret, Desert Crossing, and the Masterpiece series.   Her most recent “Masterpiece” offering is A Trip to the Country for Marvin & James.

 

Broach also has authored 10 Picture Books for young children, including When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, voted a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association, and My Pet Wants A Pet.   But writing mysteries seems to be at the top of her list.

 

 “I'm most interested in the relationship between the characters,” she said. “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: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

A Writer's Moment: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal':   “The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but n...

'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

 

“The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their heart." – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Born in Nigeria on Sept. 15, 1977 Adichie earned a bachelor’s degree at Eastern Connecticut University, where she began her writing career before going on to earn masters’ degrees from Johns Hopkins and Yale.  Since then she not only has been published in the world’s leading English language publications but also translated into more than 30 languages.

 

Winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (Genius Grant”), she is the author of the award-winning novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.  Her latest is Dream Count, published in 2025.  Adichie also has written numerous short stories and nonfiction pieces and has been honored with such prizes as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, The Reader’s Digest Author of the Year, and a PEN Pinter Prize. 

 

“I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external,” she said.  “(It’s what) Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.’”

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room'

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room':   “A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomi...

'Small door; enormous room'

 

“A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomie dePaola

  

Born in Meridian, CT on this date in 1934, dePaola created more than 200 children's books, authoring works ranging from his famous Strega Nona series to memoirs, legends, folk tales and religion.   He was honored for his lifetime contribution to American children’s literature with the prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and also was a several-time finalist for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award.   He died in 2020.

 

DePaola studied to be an art teacher, earning several degrees. in art while teaching at a number of colleges and universities.  But, after his books became successful, he left the teaching world in 1978 to concentrate full time on his adopted profession.   His lush artistic style earned him legions of followers – kids and their parents alike.   And, he also earned accolades for his fine art, creating numerous significant pieces that are displayed at museums and religious centers around the country.

 

DePaola credits his family with encouraging his development as an artist and influencing the themes of his works. 

 

 “I remember feeling guilty that I had a good childhood,” he said. “I thought everybody who is famous had to have a desperate childhood and work his way out of it, but I had a great one.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure': “The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and th...

'It's the scaffold beneath the structure'

“The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.” – Geraldine Brooks

 

Born in Sydney, Australia on this date in 1955, Brooks –  now a citizen of both Australia and the United States – started her career as an award-winning journalist, primarily writing for the Wall Street Journal.  Her first novel, Year of Wonders, set in a 1666 village stricken by the bubonic plague, was a massive international bestseller and started her along a creative writing path. 

 

Her second novel, March – imagining the Civil War service of the “absent” father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women – won her the Pulitizer Prize for Fiction.   She has now written 6 novels and 4 nonfiction books, her most recent being 2025’s Memorial Days: A Memoir. 

  

“Writing is like bricklaying,” Brooks said.  “You put down one word after another. Sometimes the wall goes up straight and true and sometimes it doesn't and you have to push it down and start again, but you don't stop; it's your trade.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Words like music'

A Writer's Moment: 'Words like music':   “I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself ...

'Words like music'

 

“I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.” — Mary Oliver

 

Earlier this week I posted about Oliver - born on Sept. 10, 1935 in Ohio - and the impact she had on poetry and writing in general.   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: 'Incredibly important images for kids'

A Writer's Moment: 'Incredibly important images for kids':   "The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. Wh...

'Incredibly important images for kids'

 

"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

  

Born in Sheffield, England on this date in 1946, Browne said he started drawing and writing when he was 5 and “never really stopped.”  With more than 50 books to his credit – headed by the multiple award-winning Gorilla – he is perhaps the preeminent member of the genre today.  He’s twice won the Kate Greenaway Medal (for his illustrations) and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honor that can be bestowed on creators of children's books.

 

His first book Through the Magic Mirror and another of his award-winners A Walk in the Park remain worldwide favorites, especially with his works translated into more than two dozen languages.  His most recent book is Our Girl.

 

While he enjoyed art as a boy and used to draw with his father, Browne also was active in sports, playing rugby, soccer and cricket.  He said as a teenager his goals were to be either a journalist, a cartoonist, or a boxer, but he always gravitated back to writing and illustrating things for kids and he’s glad he reaches a worldwide audience.  

 

 “I don’t like narrowing my readers down – there’s not a particular age or gender or nationality,” he said.  “I suppose I’m aiming at the child I was. 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.”

A Writer's Moment: It's 'our duty as writers'

A Writer's Moment: It's 'our duty as writers':   “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...

It's 'our duty as writers'

 

“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 in Maple Heights, Ohio on this date in 1935, Oliver said people want poetry and that’s why she started writing it, becoming one of the best ever in the genre.  “They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work,” she said.

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.”

 

She began writing poetry at age 14, and at 17 visited the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in upstate New York where she and the poet's sister Norma became friends.   Oliver "more or less lived there for the next six or seven years, running around the 800 acres like a child, helping Norma, or at least being company to her," and assisting with organizing St. Vincent Millay's papers – another writing obsession.

 

Oliver's poetry often turned to nature for its inspiration, describing the sense of wonder it instilled in her.  She wrote 33 books of poetry and 4 nonfiction books, the first No Voyage, and Other Poems published in 1963 and the last Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver in 2017.  She died in 2019.

 

"When it's over," she said, "I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.  I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."

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...

'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 Thursday’s post I wrote about Berry’s many contributions to literature and the environment.  The author (who died Monday) created more than 50 books of fiction, essays and poetry – led by award-winning works like The Broken Ground and The Country of Marriage.  He wrote about the turning of the seasons, routines of the farm, life of the family, and the spiritual aspects of the natural world, urging mankind to live in harmony with the earth, or perish.

 

For Saturday’s Poem, from his Collected Poems: 1957-1982, here is Berry’s,

        The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.   I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light.    For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

A Writer's Moment: 'Hurling words into the darkness'

A Writer's Moment: 'Hurling words into the darkness':   “Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”  – Richard Wright   Born in Roxie, Miss., o...

'Hurling words into the darkness'

 

“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.” – Richard Wright

 

Born in Roxie, Miss., on this date in 1908, Wright authored at least two American literary classics – the novel Native Son, published in 1940, and his autobiographical Black Boy in 1945.   Self-taught as a writer, his works have been studied and held up as “keys to helping change the conversation about race relations in the United States.”  

 

Much of his work focuses on the discrimination and violence suffered by African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.   Over the course of his relatively short life (he died in 1960), Wright authored hundreds of journalistic pieces, many short stories, 17 novels and nonfiction books, poetry, and dozens of hard-hitting essays.  In the process he won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.  In 2010 he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. 

“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo,” Wright said.  “And if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A writer, not a talker'

A Writer's Moment: 'A writer, not a talker':   “Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”  – Wendell Berry   Born in Louisville, KY in August of 1934, ...

'A writer, not a talker'

 

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.” – Wendell Berry

 

Born in Louisville, KY in August of 1934, Berry died this past Monday after an extraordinary life as an environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer who also just happened to be one of America’s most prolific authors.  Through his essays, short stories, poems and books (both fiction and nonfiction), his writing served as an extended conversation about the pastoral life he valued and lived in his native Kentucky.

 

The “good life,” Berry said, included sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, and the pleasures of good food.   “All people should be interested in farming,” he said, “because eating is an agricultural act.” A longtime leader for Earth Day (which brought the two of us together at an event in Northfield, Minn. back in the mid-1980s), Berry wrote one of the key texts of the environmental movement, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture.  

 

Berry received both the National Humanities Medal and the prestigious Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement.   He was the first living writer (in 2015) to be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.  Active until the end, his last book was 2025’s Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, the ninth novel in his Port William series.  He wrote more than 50 books and hundreds of essays, poems and short stories.

 

“Well,” he said, “I’m a writer more than I am a talker.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the books that endure'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the books that endure':   “ I hope to be remembered for writing books about social justice that also have enough aesthetic value to endure as works of literature.” ...

'Writing the books that endure'

 

“I hope to be remembered for writing books about social justice that also have enough aesthetic value to endure as works of literature.” – Jonathan Kozol 

 

Born in Boston in September of 1936, Kozol is best known for his books on public education in the United States starting with Death at an Early Age about his first year as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools.  Winner of a National Book Award the book has been continuously in print since its publication in 1968.selling more than 2 million copies in the U.S. and Europe alone.

 A graduate (with highest honors) from Harvard, he was selected for a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and then “self-studied” writing with accomplished authors like William Styron, Richard Wright and other American expatriates living and writing in Paris at the time.  

 

After returning to the States he tutored children, worked on his writing technique, and then did the year teaching that led to his multiple award-winning first book. 

 

His book Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America also earned multiple prizes including the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.   Still going strong, he published his 18th book, The End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America, in 2024.

  

“I don't know if anything I write will endure," Kozol said. "But I do try to write it as a narrative that will not only challenge but also entice the reader into the lives of children.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'A Writer's Best Mindset: Be Unafraid'

A Writer's Moment: 'A Writer's Best Mindset: Be Unafraid': “As a writer, the best mindset is to be unafraid.”  – Malcolm Gladwell   Born in Fareham, England on Sept. 3, 1963, Gladwell (who grew u...

'A Writer's Best Mindset: Be Unafraid'

“As a writer, the best mindset is to be unafraid.” – Malcolm Gladwell

 

Born in Fareham, England on Sept. 3, 1963, Gladwell (who grew up and still resides in Canada) writes “optimistic” books and articles that blend social science with engaging storytelling.  Among his thought-provoking bestsellers are What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures; Outliers: The Story of Success and Blink.

 

 Gladwell’s writing style has resonated with readers and all of his books (8 in print, 2 as audiobooks) have made New York Times bestseller lists.   His most recent is 2024’s Revenge of the Tipping Point.   A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, he also is a noted essayist and much sought-after speaker.  Gladwell said he enjoys collecting interesting stories and interesting research, especially in cases where they overlap. 

 

“I've had the most untraumatic life a human being can have,” he said.  “But I've always been drawn to those who have had far more complicated histories.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Great ideas press for admission'

A Writer's Moment: 'Great ideas press for admission':   “A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world...

'Great ideas press for admission'

 

“A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.” – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

 

Born in Boston on this date in 1844, Phelps began writing as a young girl, creating stories to entertain her classmates and friends.  By age 13, she already had a story published in the national magazine Youth's Companion and from that point on through her teens her youth stories appeared in many publications.

 

After studying at Abbot Academy, she became one of America’s most popular writers, authoring dozens of short stories collected into books like The Empty House and Other Stories.   She also authored 57 volumes of fiction, poetry and essays, starting with the bestselling novel Ellen’s Idol in 1864.  Her book The Gates Ajar was the second bestselling religious novel of the 19^th century.   

 

In nearly all of her works she challenged the prevailing view that a woman's place and fulfillment resided in the home, depicting her protagonists as physicians, ministers, artists and, of course, writers. 

 

“It is not the straining for great things that is most effective,” Phelps said about writing.  “It is the doing the little things . . . a little better and better.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The cathedrals of the imagination'

A Writer's Moment: 'The cathedrals of the imagination':   “Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the fact...

'The cathedrals of the imagination'

 

“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.” – Janet Frame

 

Born in New Zealand in August of 1924, Nene Janet Paterson Clutha, who published under the name Janet Frame, authored novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, essays and several bestselling nonfiction books.

 

Hospitalized for depression and anxiety as a young adult, Frame decided to start anew by traveling abroad.  In London, she began therapy with London doctor Robert Hugh Cawley, who encouraged her to pursue what would become a great writing career.  She dedicated 7 of her novels to Cawley.   

 

During her lifetime (she died in 2004), Frame's work garnered numerous literary prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Carpathians.  She also was one of the most widely published essayists of the late 20^th Century and two of her nonfiction books, An Angel at My Table, and The Envoy from Mirror City, earned Book of the Year Awards in several nations.

 

Noted for her hard-hitting realism, she noted, “I like to see life with its teeth out.”

A Writer's Moment: A really 'great' book!

A Writer's Moment: A really 'great' book!:   “Don’t judge me by my cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.” – Dolly Parton   Born in Locust Ridge, Tenn, in 1946, Parton – whose deat...

A really 'great' book!

 

“Don’t judge me by my cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.” – Dolly Parton

 

Born in Locust Ridge, Tenn, in 1946, Parton – whose death Tuesday made worldwide news – grew up in The Smoky Mountains surrounded by church singing, front-porch harmonies, old ballads, and an ear for writing music and stories.

 

Starting her career as a songwriter for her uncle Bill Owens she wrote songs for other singers before trying some for herself with such hits as Jolene; Coat of Many Colors; and I Will Always Love You.   Always interested in books as well, she used her music as the foundation for writing memoirs like My Life and Other Unfinished Business and Star of the Show.  Then she wrote a series of children's books and co-wrote a bestselling thriller Run, Rose, Run with James Patterson.

 

Despite it being a secondary career for her, books were never a side project for Parton.

 

Her books for children included the bestsellers Coat of Many Colors (also made into a TV movie) and I Am a Rainbow, giving young readers a guide on how to talk about feelings. Her Billy the Kid series feature a music-loving French bulldog in a string of Nashville-sized adventures, and she wrote a cookbook with her sister Rachel titled Good Lookin' Cookin'.

 

But perhaps her biggest “writing based impact” came with the founding of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, inspired by her father's inability to read or write. What began as a local effort grew into an international book-gifting program, and millions of children knew her as 'The Book Lady' before they knew about her music.  

“I didn’t have books at home when I was a kid, so I did all my reading at school,” Parton said.  “I love books and I believe that helping kids to read gives them a great start in life.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The catalyst for opening your mind'

A Writer's Moment: 'The catalyst for opening your mind':   “The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and q...

'The catalyst for opening your mind'

 

“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.” –  William Feather 

 

Born in Jamestown, NY on this date in 1889, Feather became a Cleveland, Ohio-based publisher and author who built a publishing empire and shared dozens of quotes and fables through his writings.

 

Feather moved to Cleveland in 1903 and after earning a degree from Western Reserve University in 1910 began working as a reporter for the Cleveland Press. In 1916, he established the William Feather Magazine while continuing to write for other magazines like H.L. Mencken's The American Mercury.  His successful printing business produced several of his own books, including the highly sought-after How to Get Ahead.

 

He also wrote the best-selling The Business of Life and one of the first “How-To" guides, How To Set Up a Family Budget.   A spokesman and advocate for books of all kinds, he espoused thrift, industry, promptness, perseverance, and dependability through his writings. 

  

“Books,” he said, “open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.  Finishing a good book is like leaving a good friend.”

A Writer's Moment: 'More powerful than observed'

A Writer's Moment: 'More powerful than observed':   The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words a...

'More powerful than observed'

 

The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words as well as images.” – Galen Rowell

Born in California on this date in 1940, Rowell was a wilderness photographer, climber and writer who devoted his final 30 years to photographing and writing about the world’s wild places.   In the process, he won the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography and established his own lasting legacy.

 

Also held in high esteem for his writing on photography and on the humanitarian and environmental issues and mountaineering he loved, his remarkable 18 books included In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods about the history of mountaineering on the Himalayan mountain K2, and Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, one of the bestselling “how-to” photo books of all time.  

 

In addition to his many photo shoots and articles for Life, National Geographic, and Outdoor Photographer, Rowell - who died in August of 2002 - also produced myriad stand-alone shots.  He said recognizing how film sees the world differently than the human eye and adjusting his shooting techniques to fit was probably the secret to his success.  

 

“Sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed,” he said.  “It’s remarkable.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Only emotion endures'

A Writer's Moment: 'Only emotion endures':   “In poetry, only emotion endures.”  – X.J. Kennedy   Born in Dover, NJ on this date in 1929, Kennedy was both a children’s book author...

'Only emotion endures'

 

“In poetry, only emotion endures.” – X.J. Kennedy

 

Born in Dover, NJ on this date in 1929, Kennedy was both a children’s book author and poet who published numerous poetry collections, including Dark Horses: New Poems, and Breaking and Entering. His many works for young audiences included Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh. 

 

Kennedy (who died in January, 2026) earned degees from Seton Hall and Columbia and had a 6-decade writing career.  For Saturday’s Poem – from his collection Nude Descending a Staircase (winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize) – here is Kennedy’s,   

                          Nude Descending a Staircase

        Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
        a gold of lemon, root and rind,
        she sifts in sunlight down the stairs
        with nothing on. Nor on her mind.

        We spy beneath the banister
        a constant thresh of thigh on thigh;
        her lips imprint the swinging air
        that parts to let her parts go by.

 

        One-woman waterfall, she wears
        her slow descent like a long cape
        and pausing on the final stair,
        collects her motions into shape.

A Writer's Moment: 'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door

A Writer's Moment: 'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door:   “Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of hist...

'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door

 

“Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of history that ends in a question mark.” – James Rollins
 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1961, Rollins is a writer of action-adventure/thriller novels and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, practicing under his “real” name James Paul Czajkowski.   And he is an amateur spelunker and certified scuba diver, great background and settings for some of his tales. 

 

Rollins studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri and didn’t start writing until 1999. Since then he has penned more than 50 novels, including the wildly successful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Witch Fire – written under his other pen name James Clemens.  That book was “discovered” as an entry in a contest sponsored by the Maui Writers' Conference. 

 

His most recent books are A Dragon of Black Glass and A Fist of Molten Fire, released in the past two years under his “MoonFall” series.   In his veterinarian career, Rollins stays busy caring for abandoned or abused animals.  But it’s books that remain at the heart of things for him.

  

“Books are keys that open many doors,” Rollins said. “Generally, if you preface a request with, 'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot of doors.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The foundation for writing structure'

A Writer's Moment: 'The foundation for writing structure': “I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.” – Nicole Krauss   Born i...

'The foundation for writing structure'

“I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.” – Nicole Krauss

 

Born in New York City on Aug. 18, 1974 Krauss is best known for her novels Man Walks Into a Room and Forest Dark, although her short fiction also has been widely published in everything from The New Yorker to “Best American Short Stories.”  Her most recent collection is How To Be A Man, winner of the Wingate Literary Prize.

 

A writer since childhood, she said her first “opus” was a book of poems put down in a spiral notebook at age 5 or 6 “handsomely accompanied by crayon illustrations.” Krauss “officially” started writing – mostly poetry – in her teens.  After college - at Stanford University - she had her first novel published in 2001.  Two of her award-winning novels have been adapted into films and been translated into 35 languages.

Of her writing style, she noted, "I'm very interested in structure, how multiple stories are assembled in different ways; that is what memory does as well."

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Because life is ambiguous'

A Writer's Moment: 'Because life is ambiguous':   “Songwriting's a weird game. I never intended to become one - I fell into this by mistake, and I can't get out of it. It fascinate...

'Because life is ambiguous'

 

“Songwriting's a weird game. I never intended to become one - I fell into this by mistake, and I can't get out of it. It fascinates me. I like to point out the rawer points of life.” – Keith Richards

 

Born in the London suburb of Dartford on this date in 1943, Richards started life on the go as his family was temporarily evacuated from their home during the Nazi bombing and rocket campaign of 1944.   In 1951, while attending primary school, Richards first met and befriended Mick Jagger in what would not only become a lifetime friendship but also the start of The Rolling Stones, and eventual enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

The pair founded The Rolling Stones as a rhythm and blues and jazz group, although it wasn’t until they changed their style to straight rock in 1964 that they really hit their stride, mostly on songs written by Richards, the biggest (and longest-lasting) hit being Satisfaction.   Despite their image as the “anti-Beatles” – a counter to that "other" wildly popular British boy band of the day – “It was a very, very fruitful and great relationship between the Stones and The Beatles. It was very, very friendly,” Richards said.

 

While writing music has been his forte’, Richards also wrote two bestselling books, the memoir Life, and a wonderful children’s tale Gus and Me: The Story of My Grandad and My First Guitar.

 

Whether it be the lyrics for his songs or his books, Richards noted,  “I look for ambiguity when I'm writing,  because life is ambiguous.”

A Writer's Moment: About those characters -- 'Keep in Touch'

A Writer's Moment: About those characters -- 'Keep in Touch':   “The characters I'm most emotionally involved with are like friends you leave behind when you move away. You don't see them regula...

About those characters -- 'Keep in Touch'

 

“The characters I'm most emotionally involved with are like friends you leave behind when you move away. You don't see them regularly anymore, but you still love them and keep in touch.” – Mary Doria Russell

 

Born in Elmhurst, IL on Aug. 19, 1950 Russell has earned acclaim in a couple of genres, including the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction for her first book, The Sparrow, which also won her the John Campbell Award as Best New Writer.  

 

Russell, who also is a well-known and much sought after speaker, said she planned to be an anthropologist but got “sidetracked” into a writing career that has been lauded for its meticulous attention to detail and “fine prose.”  

One of the few people to have a high school English Honor Society Chapter (at Lombard, IL) named in her honor, she earned worldwide recognition for what became known as the “Sparrow” series.  Then, branching into historical fiction she wrote two of the best – Doc and Epitaph – about the notorious gunfighter, gambler and dentist John Henry “Doc” Holiday.  Her most recent book is The Women of the Copper Country a novel based on the first unionized strike (in the 19-teens) against the copper industry.

 “Maybe if I'd studied writing instead of anthropology,” she said, “I'd be more sensible. You know - pick a genre, follow the rules, stay in the box.  But let's face it, sensible people don't major in anthropology.”

A Writer's Moment: 'In terms of rhymes'

A Writer's Moment: 'In terms of rhymes':   “Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.”  – Ogden Na...

'In terms of rhymes'

 

“Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.” – Ogden Nash

         

 Born in Rye, NY in August of 1902, Nash was known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes he was declared by many critics and fellow poets alike as the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry.  "I think in terms of rhyme, and have since I was six years old," he said.  For Saturday’s Poem, here are a few examples of Nash’s poetic musings.

 

    A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

 

              Celery

             Celery, raw
         Develops the jaw,
       But celery, stewed,
     Is more quietly chewed.

 

                   A Flea and a Fly in a Flue

A flea and a fly in a flue

               Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
                        Said the fly, "let us flee!"
                        "Let us fly!" said the flea.
                So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

 

          Morning Prayer

    Now another day is breaking,
    Sleep was sweet and so is waking.
    Dear Lord, I promised you last night
    Never again to sulk or fight.
    Such vows are easier to keep
    When a child is sound asleep.
    Today, O Lord, for your dear sake,
     I'll try to keep them when awake.

A Writer's Moment: The 'discomfort of labels'

A Writer's Moment: The 'discomfort of labels':   Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.  – Jonathan Coe   Born in Bromsgrove, Englan...

The 'discomfort of labels'

 

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are. – Jonathan Coe

 

Born in Bromsgrove, England in August of 1961, Coe has written 17 mostly satirical and politically focused novels, starting with 1987’s The Accidental Woman.  His most recent novel is 2024’s The Proof of My Innocence and his next one Lessons in Harmony, slated for release this November.  His novel Middle England won both the European and Costa book awards.

 

 Coe also has had several nonfiction books, led by Humphrey Bogart: Take It and Like It – one of the best written on the late actor – and his ongoing love of music has led to collaborations with other writers and musicians on a wide range of songs.  And he’s written several children’s books, but no short stories.

 

“I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories,” he said.   “They just seem to turn into novels.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Reluctant writing; successful results'

A Writer's Moment: 'Reluctant writing; successful results':   “One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.”  – William Goldman   Born in Chicago on this date in 193...

'Reluctant writing; successful results'

 

“One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.” – William Goldman

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1931, Goldman wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men and also wrote two massively bestselling novels – the thriller Marathon Man and the comedy-fantasy The Princess Bride – also adapted into successful films.  He wrote 20 screenplays and adapted or consulted on a dozen more, all critical and box office successes.

 

The prolific Goldman, who died in 2018, studied writing at Oberlin College and authored 16 novels, a children’s book, 9 nonfiction books and numerous short stories to go along with his many screenplays.  But, despite that success, he often referred to himself as “a reluctant writer.”

 

“The easiest thing to do on earth is not write,” he said. “But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.”