Use imperfections to tell your tale

“The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.” – Ben Okri

Born on this date in 1959, Nigerian poet and novelist Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions.  His writing has been ranked favorably with such award-winning writers as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez.

Starting with his 1980 novel Flowers and Shadows, Okri achieved international acclaim with his lyrical, intense works about Africa and its people. His best-known novels are the The Famished Road (awarded the prestigious Booker Prize), Songs of Enchantment, and Infinite Riches.  That trilogy follows the life of Azaro, a spirit-child narrator, through the social and political turmoil of an unnamed African nation. 

          Okri said his writing was influenced by the oral tradition of his people, and particularly, his mother's storytelling: "If my mother wanted to make a point, she wouldn't correct me, she'd tell me a story."

His advice to writers?   “I believe in leavening,” he said.   “You can't have words sticking out too much, like promontories. They disturb the density. You have to flatten them, or raise the surrounding terrain.”

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Strong Emotions, Vivid Memories

“A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.” – Algernon Blackwood

  

Born on this date in 1869, Blackwood was an English short story writer and novelist and one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator.    A gifted storyteller, even in childhood, he said he always amazed friends and neighbors with his ability to spin yarns about the supernatural, and so thought it was his calling to continue doing so as an adult.  

                                  Also an occasional essayist, his first stories were about his North London community and its residents before he turned almost completely to the ghostly tales that led to his title “Master of the genre."  He wrote at least 3-dozen original short story collections, and later became a highly sought-after speaker and broadcaster, sharing his tales with live audiences and on both radio and television.  Among his most well known were The Willows and The Wendigo.   Blackwood also authored 14 novels, several children's books, and a number of plays before his death in 1951.

Most of his stories were written to elicit a sense of “awe” or carry through the  “what if?”  factor, which made them perfect for such broadcast shows as “Suspense” and “Night Gallery.”   He said his secret to success in the genre was to leave a sort-of nagging sense in the reader that something yet might happen.  “Those little things that pierce and burn and prick for years to come. “

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No Word Choice Agony

“As a kid, I'd buy novels with these magnificent Chris Fosse covers which showed an enormous contraption hovering over a planet, and you'd always think 'Where's that going to come in?' And it never did! It was always slightly disappointing when the contents of a book never lived up to the cover.” – Alastair Reynolds

British SciFi writer Reynolds, born on this date in 1966, specializes in dark hard science fiction and what has been termed “space opera.”   A native of Cornwall, he also lived in Wales, Scotland and The Netherlands, studying physics, astronomy and literature before deciding that what he really wanted to do was combine them all with his writing.    He said reading historical novels also inspires science fiction.  “There are similarities between historical novels and science fiction,” he said.  “Being thrown into the Napoleonic Wars is just as much of a different world as space.”

The best way to check out Reynolds writing might be through his Revelation Space series, which includes a number of novels, two novellas, and eight short stories.  It’s set over a span of several centuries in a consistent future universe he calls the Revelation Space universe.  

                                     A one-time employee of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (part of the European Space Agency), he started full-time writing in 2004.  Reynolds prefers using real science in his books, especially what he believes will be possible.  But, he said he doesn’t hesitate to use what seems impossible – like faster-than-light travel – when it helps advance his stories.   His advice to SciFi writers is to just move forward with ideas and your creativity.

“One of the big breakthroughs I had as a writer was when I stopped agonizing over every word.”

 

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Splashing Into The Writing Pool

“My joke is that my father was a minister and my mother was an English teacher, so I'm trained to see the world in terms of symbols, which is hard when you just want to make toast.” – Libba Bray

Born Martha Elizabeth Bray in Alabama on this date in 1964, “Libba” grew up in Texas and now makes her home in New York City where she went to work as a book publicist and advertising specialist after college.  After working on behalf of other people’s books for a number of years she dived into the writing pool herself and became a best-selling author right from the start.

               Her first novel, 2003’s A Great and Terrible Beauty – the first in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy – not only was a New York Times bestseller but also a Book Standard's Teen Book Video Awards winner.   Bray also won the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award, recognizing literary excellence in Young Adult literature,  for her 2009 book Going Bovine. 

Bray’s most recent books for young readers are the Diviners series – three books and counting and all best sellers.

“I was a big reader as a kid,” she said.  “It was Charlotte's Web that showed me you could feel as if you were actually living inside a book.”

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Poetry's domain is in our hearts

“For poetry there exists neither large countries nor small. Its domain is in the hearts of all.” – Giorgos Seferis

Born in March 1900, Seferis – one of the most important Greek poets of the 20^th century – had the rare distinction of being a star in both politics and poetry. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature while also serving as a career diplomat in the Greek Foreign Service, including a 5-year stint as Ambassador to Great Britain.   Seferis was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture."  For Saturday’s Poem, here are three short Seferis poems.  

 

In The Sea Caves

in the sea caves
there's a thirst there's a love
there's an ecstasy
all hard like shells
you can hold them in your palm.

In the sea caves
for whole days I gazed into your eyes
and I didn't know you nor did you know me.

Just A Little More

Just a little more
And we shall see the almond trees in blossom
The marbles shining in the sun
The sea, the curling waves.
Just a little more
Let us rise just a little higher.

                                             Denial

On the secret seashore
white like a pigeon
we thirsted at noon;
but the water was brackish.

On the golden sand
we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew
and the writing vanished.

With what spirit, what heart,
what desire and passion
we lived our life: a mistake!
So we changed our life.

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The pages that sell a book

“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle.  They read it to get to the end.  If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore.  The first page sells that book.  The last page sells your next book.” – Mickey Spillane

  

Born on this date in 1918, Spillane was a master of “successfully getting to that last page” with his tales.  Born Frank Morrison Spillane, “Mickey” created one of the most memorable of characters, the hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer.  At the height of his popularity in 1980, Spillane, who died in 2006, was responsible for a remarkable 7 of the year’s 15 top-selling fiction books featuring his hero.

Like many great writers, Spillane used “life experiences” as background for his own work, starting during his high school days in New Jersey.  His jobs included a time with the circus, lifeguarding, meatcutting, bartending and flying – something that led to time in the Army Air Corps during World War II. 

                                            Spillane, who died in 2006, said he was “a writer not an author” who also loved to read, especially about history.  “I think a lot of authors like history because they want to be part of it,” he once said.   During the course of selling well over 225 million copies of his books, he succeeded.

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From Vision to Reality

“Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.” – Warren Bennis

Born on this date in 1925, Bennis was a scholar, organizational consultant and prolific author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership Studies.  He was Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California.

A leader and innovator almost from his earliest days, Bennis grew up in the New York-New Jersey area, was a standout scholar and athlete, and at age 18 became one of the U.S. Army’s youngest World War II officers.   Winner of the Bronze Star (for bravery) and Purple Heart, he studied at Ohio’s Antioch College after the war, then went on to earn a Ph.D. at MIT. 

           His writing career began in the early 1970s after he was named President of the University of Cincinnati.  While there he authored two books on leadership: The Leaning Ivory Tower and The Unconscious Conspiracy: Why Leaders Can’t Lead.   Bennis, who died in 2014, went to USC in 1979 where he wrote most of his 27 books, including the bestselling Leaders and On Becoming A Leader, both translated into 21 languages.   His book, An Invented Life was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

“There are two ways of being creative,” Bennis once said.   “One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.   Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.”

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