The truth in one's imagination

“The thing about imagination is that by the very act of putting it down, there must be some truth in one's own imagination.” – Dennis Potter

Born on this date in 1935, Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists ever to have worked on British television.  His television dramas mixed fantasy, reality, personal and social with themes and images from popular culture.

In addition to his work as a TV dramatist, Potter also wrote journalistically, had several novels and nonfiction books published, and did both screenplays and stage productions. He is best known for his BBC TV serials Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective, and for his television play Blue Remembered Hills, all aired on Masterpiece Theatre as well.

Major motifs in Potter's writing are the concept of betrayal and the device of a disruptive outsider.      He also wrote a number of pieces considered semi-autobiographical, and while he won very few awards (he did win an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for his screenplay of the novel Gorky Park), his work has influenced a wide range of other writers and producers both in Great Britain and the U.S.    He died at the relatively young age of 59 and has since been the subject of several television retrospectives, including a festival of his works by the BBC.

Noted for his droll sense of humor, he once remarked wryly that, “The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they have been in.”

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Human because of our language

“Words are our life. We are human because we use language. So I think we are less human when we use less language.” – Carol Shields

Born on this date in 1935, Shields was American-born (Illinois) but became a well-known novelist and short story writer in her adopted country of Canada.   And, after becoming a renowned writer, her life came full circle when she won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel The Stone Diaries, along with  Canada’s equivalent, the Governor General's Award - the only novel to ever win both.

Shields first moved to Canada in the 1960s to do her master’s degree in English, and then she returned after marrying a Canadian citizen.  She started her writing career as an editorial assistant for the journal Canadian Slavonic Papers in the late 1970s and taught creative writing in British Columbia before moving over to the University of Manitoba, where she taught the rest of her life.  She died in 2003.

Side-by-side with her teaching she wrote short stories and a number of well-received novels before her major achievement with The Stone Diaries.  Shields also won the 1998 Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Larry's Party, and her last novel Unless (in 2002) won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was nominated for The Booker Prize.      

“There are chapters in every life which are seldom read,” Shields wrote about what should and should not be shared by writers.  “And if they are, they should not be shared aloud.” 

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The sounds and rhythms of words

“The sounds and rhythms of words are really important to me.” – David Almond

Born on this date in 1951, British author Almond started writing for adults but earned accolades and critical success with works for children and young adults. Since the publication of his first young adult book, Skellig, his YA novels, stories, and plays have brought him international success and widespread critical acclaim.  He is one of just 30 writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, "the world's most prestigious prize in children's literature."

A native of Newcastle, Almond said he dreamed of being a writer “even as a child,” creating little books to share with his family and classmates.       A teacher right out of college, he didn’t begin a writing career until the 1985 adult novel, Sleepless Nights.  While he had modest success writing for adults, it was Skellig that launched him onto the his award-filled (he’s won over a dozen) YA writing path. His most acclaimed recent work is A Song for Ella Grey based on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.                               

Noted for a lyrical style that also often focuses on the region in which he resides, he said he credits “regional” writers with influencing him.  “I learned to be a regional writer by reading people like (writer of the American South) Flannery O'Connor,” he said.  “She was a huge influence.” 

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Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day, especially to my wife Susan and daughters Kari and Becky, who also are beautiful and wonderful mothers, giving Susan and me some terrific grandsons.  All 3 of these strong women have always been great inspirations to me as a writer.

And, remembering today my own mother Virginia, who died at the relatively young age of 60, but whose spirit and enthusiasm for life continues to play an important part in my life and how I look upon the world when writing about it.

 “Be happy and be a friend, and your life will always be full,” my mother used to say.  “Money does not measure success.  If your life is filled with friends, then you are rich.”   My mother’s optimistic spirit, concern for others, and hope for the future were, perhaps, the greatest gifts she gave to me and to all whose lives she touched. 

We receive so many gifts from our mothers each and every day.  The best each of us can do in return is cherish those gifts and use them wisely.

                                                                                      

Celebrating the start of the day

“I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue. If it does, I can feel a sense of momentum - the poem finds a reason for continuing.” – Billy Collins

I’ve written of Collins before and the former Poet Laureate of the U.S.    just continues adding to his body of work and honors, including the recently awarded Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, given annually to an "internationally acclaimed" author who has "written a distinguished body of work and made a major contribution to the field of literature and letters."

After waking early today – I’m a “morning person” anyway – and while making coffee, I was reminded of the Collins’ poem Morning.  As I re-read it, I also thought it was a perfect share for Saturday’s Poem.  Enjoy!

Morning

Why do we bother with the rest of the day,
the swale of the afternoon,
the sudden dip into evening,

then night with his notorious perfumes,
his many-pointed stars?

This is the best—
throwing off the light covers,
feet on the cold floor,
and buzzing around the house on espresso—

maybe a splash of water on the face,
a palmful of vitamins—
but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,

dictionary and atlas open on the rug,
the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,
a cello on the radio,

and, if necessary, the windows—
trees fifty, a hundred years old
out there,
heavy clouds on the way
and the lawn steaming like a horse

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Writing as an emotional reflection

“Whether you want to entertain or to provoke, to break hearts or reassure them, what you bring to your writing must consist of your longings and disappointments.” – Rafael Yglesias

American novelist and screenwriter Yglesias, celebrating his 63^rd birthday today, is perhaps best known for his book and screenplay Fearless, both multiple award winners and award nominees.  He is a New York native who finds himself in a “sandwich” position of family writers – the son of two of them and father of two more.  And, his wife is novelist Ann Packer.   Literally a “born writer,” Yglesias wrote his first successful novel, Hide Fox, while still in the 10^th grade.  

He also has had many his major successes with screenplays – besides his own novel’s adaptation – including the 1998 version of Les Miserables, featuring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Uma Thurman in the lead roles.   And, look for more from him on television, too.  He just finished a successful run with NBC’s Aquarius       and is rumored to have signed for more.

Fiercely independent with his writing style, he is noted for creating complex characters. “To me, people's lives and loves are entwined with their characters, natures and circumstances,” he said.  “I regard all general advice with skepticism.”

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Engaging with the world around us

“As a writer and as a reader, I really believe in the power of narrative to allow us ways to experience life beyond our own; ways to reflect on things that have happened to us and a chance to engage with the world in ways that transcend time and gender and all sorts of things.” – Kim Edwards

Born in Texas in May 1958, Edwards is the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, now translated into 38 languages, and the bestselling The Lake of Dreams.  She also authored a collection of short stories, The Secrets of a Fire King.  Her writing honors include the Whiting Award, the British Book Award, and USA Today's 2006 Book of the Year for Memory Keeper’s Daughter.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has taught widely in the U.S. and Asia and continues to teach at the University of Kentucky.  She also is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant for her work.  

In her teaching,       she said she often reflects  on people’s desire to share stories as one of the things “that make us human.”  

As for advice to beginning writers, she likes the idea of writing from a place that you know.  “I've always set my stories in places I know well,” she said.  “It frees me up to spend more imaginative time on the characters if I'm not worrying about the logistics.“

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