'It's all in your own mind'

 

“Every reader re-creates a novel - in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobody else has read it.”  – Susan Hill

Hill, born on this date in 1942, is an English author of “mostly ghost stories written in gothic style to create maximum suspense and the right atmosphere." Among her works are The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award – named for British writer W. Somerset Maugham and a really cool award that can only be used for foreign travel to do more research for your writing. 

An only child she said she was born to be a writer.  “I was never really good at anything else,” she explained.  “I had no other option.  I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote.  Otherwise, I was unemployable.” 

 

  In addition to the "Maugham" award, Hill was named by Queen Elizabeth as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2020 for her lifetime achievement and services to literature.     

 

“Don’t overwrite," Hill says about the writing process that has led to her own success.  "Once you finish a book, just let it go out into the world to seek its fortune.”

A Writer's Moment: A lifetime of greatness

A Writer's Moment: A lifetime of greatness:   “Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us ren...

A lifetime of greatness

 

“Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us renew our faith and pledge to Man, his right to be Himself, and free.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay.

 

St. Vincent Millay, born in February 1892 won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1923.  And just to show that she wasn’t a “one hit wonder,” she won the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry 20 years later.  In between, she wrote many, many great poems, plays and prose.  

 

For Saturday’s Poem here is St. Vincent Millay’s,

 

   Afternoon on a hill

 

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
   And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
   With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
   And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
   Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
   And then start down.

 

 

                                                                               

A Writer's Moment: 'Life - Just one big research project'

A Writer's Moment: 'Life - Just one big research project':   “Write about what you care about. If you do that, you're probably going to do your best writing, reach off the page...

'Life - Just one big research project'

 

“Write about what you care about. If you do that, you're probably going to do your best writing, reach off the page and touch the reader. How are you going to make the reader care if you don't care yourself?” – Jerry Spinelli

 

Born in Pennsylvania on Feb. 1, 1941 Spinelli is author of nearly 40 novels for young people, including The Warden’s Daughter, Maniac Magee (winner of the Newbery Medal for Best Children’s Book) and Wringer, a Newbery Honor Book. 

 

An English major at Gettysburg College (“because they didn’t have a writing major”), Spinelli spent his spare time writing short stories and also was editor of the college literary magazine, The Mercury.

 

After graduation, he became a full-time magazine writer and editor while earning his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.  He intended to write novels for adults but couldn’t get publishers interested in any of his first 4 works.  His 5^th book, also intended for adults, drew the attention of a children’s book publisher (it was about a 13-year-old) and not only was published but became a top seller, starting him on a new writing path.   

 

 “Life is full of happy accidents,” he said.  “Sometimes I'm asked if I do research for my stories.  The answer is yes and no.  No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material.  Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Live it to its fullest!'

A Writer's Moment: 'Live it to its fullest!':   “ Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.   You must then live it to its fullest.” – Muriel ...

'Live it to its fullest!'

 

“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.  You must then live it to its fullest.” – Muriel Spark

Born in England on this date in 1918, Spark applied that philosophy to an award-winning career as a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.   In 2008 she was named by The Times of London as the 8^th greatest British writer since World War II – a war in which she served as an Intelligence officer for the British army.   It was during those Army years, in fact, that she realized she had a knack for the clever use of words.  

 

Best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which also was adapted as both a play and a movie, Spark lived in Britain and America before settling in Italy, where she continued writing until her death in 2006.  Shortly before her death, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

  

Muriel Spark

While serving as editor of Poetry Review magazine Spark authored several critically acclaimed poetry collections and books of criticism then went on to write 22 novels and a dozen nonfiction books.  A mother of three she also wrote several best-selling children’s books.  

 

 “Parents,” she said, “learn a lot from their children about coping with life.”