Blending 'The Real' and 'The Imaginary'

“I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing.” – Ken Follett

Born in Wales in June 1949, Follett has carved out arguably the number one spot in the world for the writing both thrillers and historical fiction.  Since the publication of his first book Eye of the Needle in 1978 he has sold a remarkable 350 million copies (and counting), recently achieving a rare three Number Ones in a row on the New York Times Bestseller List with his “Century Trilogy.”   

While words seem to flow effortlessly from Follett’s pen, he has been a champion for those who struggle with the reading and writing process, supporting a wide range of both local and international organizations that promote literacy, writing and support for those with maladies like dyslexia so that everyone can enjoy reading as much as he has. 

“Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader,” he said,  “and if you are not a reader you are not a writer. “                        
 

Follett said he very much likes the research process involved in creating his historical fiction.  “I start with the history, and I ask myself, 'What are the great turning points? What are the big dramatic scenes that are essential to telling the story?'    I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation.   Iwant readers to feel:  ‘Okay, this probably didn’t happen … but (wink, wink) it might have.” 

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Write what you WANT to know

“The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end!” – Geraldine McCaughrean

Born on this date in 1951, British children's novelist McCaughrean has had a fantastic career in “making things turn out just right” at the end of almost everything she’s written, including the “official” sequel to Peter Pan – Peter Pan in Scarlet.

A multiple award winner for her works, including being Britain’s nominee for the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international award for authors of children’s works, McCaughrean has written more than 160 books, including many re-tellings of Classic tales.  Her work has been translated into 45 languages.                

                           She’s the only writer to win the prestigious Whitbread Children’s Book Award 3 times, for her works A Little Lower than the Angels (1987), Gold Dust (1993) and Not the End of the World (2004).    She claims that what makes her love writing is the desire to escape from an unsatisfactory world. Her motto is:  Do not write about what you know, write about what you want to know.

 “Writing is writing to me. I'm incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I've done everything - historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I'll write,” she said.  “It's the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.”

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A little different way to see the world

“I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I always told stories and wrote them down, but I never thought writing was a career path, even though, clearly, someone was writing the books and newspapers and magazines.” – Gayle Forman 

 

A Los Angeles native, Forman was born on this date in 1970.  She is, perhaps, best known for her novel If I Stay, which both topped the New York Times bestseller list of Young Adult Fiction and also was made into a popular film – which I saw and liked a lot (I highly recommend it).

Forman began her career writing for Seventeen Magazine, with most of her articles focusing on young people and social concerns.   For a number of years, in addition to her YA writing, she has been a successful freelance journalist for publications like Glamour, The Nation, and Elle.

Now a resident of Brooklyn, NY, married, and the mother of two girls, Forman said she found her niche in YA writing by zeroing in on themes that give you an in-depth and often wrenching look at her protagonists’ lives.       

“I think we like movies and books that give us this emotionally moving experience,” she said. “Where you feel like a slightly different person, and you see the world a little different after you finish. It lets you see your own life in a different way, and it actually makes you feel really good.”

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A writing ministry extraordinaire

“All I really need to know... I learned in kindergarten.“ – Robert Fulghum

With those words, Fulghum – as he told me he prefers to be known and called by – burst onto the publishing scene in 1988, not only as a statement of fact, but as the title of his massively successful first book.  Ultimately, that book would remain near the top of the New York Times bestseller list for over 2 years and begin a 30-year run of sales.

Born in Texas and celebrating his 80^th birthday today, Fulghum now lives in the State of Washington, where he is a longtime Universalist Unitarian minister and, of course, writer.  There are nearly 17 million copies of his books in print, published in 27 languages in 103 countries. His prose style is very simple and direct, and finds life-affirming maxims in such mundane matters as visiting zoos, leaf-raking, and dusting. Or sayings like, “Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will break our hearts.”   The way Fulghum uses    words, especially in front of an audience, is mesmerizing.  

I picked him up once at the airport in Minneapolis to take him to an appearance before 2,000 college students.  We had a wonderful talk both over to the college and later on the way back, and he made me feel like one of his all-time best buddies, even though we had just met.  Then, when he stood up in front of those students, he did the same for all of them, beginning by singing “Itsy, Bitsy Spider” (and getting them all to sing along).

His story that I’ll always remember is about an old sage who was asked “What is the meaning of life?”  He responded by telling about a traveler who found a piece of broken mirror alongside the road, polished and shaped it, and then used it to shine light into every dark corner he might encounter.  “He sought to shine a light where no light could be found, and that is the meaning of life." Fulghum then pointed to himself and added, “It’s also what every good writer should strive to do with his words."

“I think my writing,” he said, “is part of my ministry.” 

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Simple expressions of glory

“To have great poets, there must be great audiences.” – Walt Whitman

Poet, essayist, and journalist, Whitman was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. He is considered among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

Born on May 31, 1819, on Long Island, New York, Whitman was an avid reader and writer as a child and began writing in his early teens.        While he wrote hundreds of poems, essays and books, it is his masterpiece Leaves of Grass for which he is most remembered.

“Simplicity,” Whitman said,  “is the glory of expression.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here are two of Whitman’s simple, yet powerful, short poems.

A Farm Picture

Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, 

A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; 

And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.

A Clear Midnight

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, 

Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, 

Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best.

Night, sleep, and the stars.

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Timeless, surprising changes

“No one can read with profit that which he cannot learn to read with pleasure.” – Thomas Hardy

Born on this date in 1840, Thomas Hardy was a multi-talented English writer who always sought to make his mark as a poet but is best known for his wonderful novels like Far From The Madding Crowd and Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Hardy was considered a Victorian  Realist and champion of the everyday man and woman, speaking out against suffering and injustice that he saw being endured by them. 

The author of 3 dozen books, 50 short stories      and hundreds of poems, he also penned a number of well-received dramas and was highly regarded by the theater community.  During his final years, in the 1920s, he seemed a bit surprised that many younger poets spoke of him as a mentor and role model.

“Time changes everything,” Hardy wrote (shortly before his death at age 88),  “except something within us which is always seems a bit surprised by change.”

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That perfect selection of a word

“When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.” – John Drinkwater

English poet and dramatist John Drinkwater, born on this date in 1882, started writing as a poet in the early 1900s but didn’t have his first writing success until 1918 when he switched to drama and penned a play about an American.  Abraham Lincoln was not only popular on the stage, but also spawned a big hit as a movie in the mid-1920s.   That piece opened the door for Drinkwater to become a leading playwright about famous people, including popular shows about Mary Stuart and Oliver Cromwell.                                  

Once established as a successful writer, he published the first volume of his Collected Poems in 1923 and also compiled anthologies of his own works and other young writers of the time.  And, he wrote literary criticism for several newspapers and magazines before taking over management of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.  There, he also became a popular recording artist of spoken word pieces and was still a rising star when he died suddenly in 1937.

Despite his broadcasting successes, he remained faithful to writing as a primary form of expression.   “The written word,” he said solemnly,  “is everything.”

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