Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 100

A Writer's Moment: The 'Normalcy' of writing every day

A Writer's Moment: The 'Normalcy' of writing every day:   “I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called &#39...

A Writer's Moment: 'Touching your soul'

A Writer's Moment: 'Touching your soul':   “If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there – not because you’ve...

'Touching your soul'

 

“IfI do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better forhaving been there – not because you’ve done a comedy performance but becauseyou’re talking about your father dying or having young children, things thattouch your soul.” – Roger McGough

 

Born in Liverpool, England in 1937McGough started on the road to writing success in the 1950s with hisbest-selling The Mersey Sound.  Since then he’s had a highly successful career as a performance poet,children’s author and playwright.  Abroadcaster, too, he long hosted the BBC’s “Poetry Please.”   For Saturday’s Poem, here is McGough’s,

 

                          Sleeping In

Our street is dead lazy
Especially inwinter.
Some mornings youwake up
And it’s stilllying there
Sayingnothing.  Huddled
under its whitecounterpane.

But soon the lorries arrive
Like angry Mums,
Pull back theblankets
And send itshivering
Off to work.

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'Writing because we can'

 

“Wewrite for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim theoceans - because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want toexplain ourselves to other human beings. That's why we paint, that's why wedare to love someone - because we have the impulse to explain who we are.” – MayaAngelou
It was my privilege to meet, talk withand learn from the great Maya Angelou, born in 1928 and an inspiration to all who seek to live the writinglife.

                                                           

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing because we can'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing because we can':   “We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have some impulse within us tha...

A Writer's Moment: 'Simply the best way to experience a story'

A Writer's Moment: 'Simply the best way to experience a story':   “I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.” – Philip Reeve Born in E...

'Simply the best way to experience a story'

 

“Istill feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the bestway to experience a story.” – Philip Reeve

Born in England on Feb. 28, 1966 Reeve is a bestselling author and the cartoonist /illustrator of many books for kids, including the “DeadFamous” book Horatio Nelson and HisVictory, and a number of books in the clever Horrible Histories and MurderousMaths series.  He authored the very popular "Utterly Dark" series for Young Adults and the"Buster Bayliss" books for young readers with such clever titles as Night of the LivingVeg, The Big Freeze, Day of the Hamster, and Custardfinger. 

And he delved into historicalfiction with his award-winning book HereLies Arthur, an alternative look at the King Arthur legend.  
Reeve said he was always fascinatedby the illustrations as much as the writing and strives to make hisillustrations as palatable as possible for young readers.   “Even tiny children looking at a picture bookare using their imaginations, gleaning clues from the images to understand whatis happening, and perhaps using the throwaway details which the illustratorincludes to add their own elements to the story."

Filling each blank page

 

“Blankpaper has always inspired me.” – Daniel Handler
Born in San Francisco on this date in 1970, Handler is a writer, musician and journalist perhaps best known under the pen name LemonySnicket, after publishing his 13-book children's series A Series of UnfortunateEvents and  4-book series All the Wrong Questions under the pseudonym.    Handler also has published or contributed to a number of adult novelsunder his own name, including his first book The Basic Eight andthe 2019 book Bottle Grove.
Handler began writing A Series ofUnfortunate Events – about three orphaned children who experienceincreasingly terrible events following the death of their parents and burningof their home – in 1998 after struggling to get The Basic Eight published.  “Myfirst novel took almost six years to sell and was rejected 37 times in theinterim, and then finally sold for the smallest amount of money my literaryagent had ever negotiated for a work of fiction,” he said.    
The Lemony Snicket books,however, were an immediate and worldwide success, already selling some 70 million copies in41 languages and spawning a film, a video game, assorted merchandise, amainstream movie, and a Netflix television series.    “I kind of always think my work isunfilmable," Handler said.  "When I meet people who are interested in filming it, I'm alwaysstunned.”

A Writer's Moment: Filling each blank page

A Writer's Moment: Filling each blank page:   “Blank paper has always inspired me.” – Daniel Handler Born in San Francisco on this date in 1970, Handler is a writer, musician an...

A Writer's Moment: 'Knocking loud enough and long enough to be heard'

A Writer's Moment: 'Knocking loud enough and long enough to be heard':   “What a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen.” -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Longfellow may be the only poe...