Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 115

'Readers want to participate'

 

“Iwrite in expectation that readers want to participate in a kind of two-sidedgame: They are trying to guess what I am up to - what the story's up to - andI'm giving them clues and matter to keep them interested without giving everythingaway at the start.” – John Crowley

Born in Maine on this date in 1942,Crowley went to high school and college in Indiana before moving to NewYork City “to make movies,” starting his career in documentary films.   In 1975, his first novel The Deepestablished him in the science fiction and fantasy field.  His most recent tale is 2022’s Flint and Mirror:  A Novel of History and Magic.

 

Crowley’s best-known book is Little,Big, winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.  The book melds the story of a New York familywith a “fairy world” community over a hundred-year period and is a terrificstudy in family dynamics and compassion. Critics have lauded it as “The best fantasy book ever” and “The closestachievement we have to the Alice stories of Lewis Carroll.” 

 

Recipient of the World Fantasy Awardfor Life Achievement, Crowley also is a longtime creative writing teacher atYale and has taught annually at the Clarion West Writers' Workshop in Seattle for three decades.

 

“I've always had a compassion forcharacters in novels,” Crowley noted.   “Theyare, whatever they might think, living in a world that has a shape they don'tknow and can't finally alter.”

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'There never was an uninteresting life'

 

“Therewas never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Insideof the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.   (As writers) We recognize that there are no trivialoccurrences in life if we get the right focus on them.”– Mark Twain

 

 When I was a kid I foundmyself mesmerized by Mark Twain’s writing. I clearly could become Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn or any of the othercharacters he brought to life.  I wishednot only to be them but to be in the places in which they were living, and whenI opened one of his books I was immediately transported from our South Dakotafarm to the streets of Hannibal, MO or a raft on the Mississippi River.

 

He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemenson this date in 1835, shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet.  He famously predicted he would "go outwith it" too, and he died the day following the comet's subsequent return inApril of 1910. 

 

“Anybody can have ideas,” Twain wrote to an author friend.  “The difficulty is to express themwithout squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to oneglittering paragraph.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'There never was an uninteresting life'

A Writer's Moment: 'There never was an uninteresting life':   “There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a...

A Writer's Moment: 'Write the book that wants to be written'

A Writer's Moment: 'Write the book that wants to be written':   “A book comes and says, 'Write me.' My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never good enough, but all ...

'Write the book that wants to be written'

 

“Abook comes and says, 'Write me.' My job is to try to serve it to the best of myability, which is never good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do whatit tells me and collaborate.” – Madeleine L’Engle

A native of New York City, L’Englewas born this date in 1918 and wrote the Newbery Medal-winning AWrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, the NationalBook Award-winning A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and AnAcceptable Time. 
She was a writer whose worksreflected both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science –not a “usual” combination, but one that she had no issue with combining.  "Science and religion are not at odds witheach other," she said.  "They can be andshould be complimentary."
Although she wrote her first storyat age 5, she didn’t write AWrinkle In Time – her first novel – until age 42.  The book was voted by  Library Journal readers as the Number 2children’s book of all time (behind Charlotte’sWeb).   Rejected more than 30 times before its acceptance Wrinkle opened the writing floodgates for her and ultimately she authored dozens of books for children and adults.  She died in 2007.    “You have to write the book thatwants to be written,” she said. “And if the book will be too difficult forgrown-ups, then you simply write it for children.”

'It's the art of the possible'

“Sciencefiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soonwill, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be thesame again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of theworld, you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible,never the impossible.” – Ray Bradbury
One of the most celebrated 20th- and21st-Century Science Fiction writers, Bradbury was born in Illinois in the summer of 1920.  Self-taught as a writer, he won dozens of awards, including the National Medal of Arts, half-a-dozen honorary degrees, induction into at least 4 writing Halls of Fame for lifetime achievement, and a Pulitzer Prize Citation as "an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasty."    Bradbury authored 51 books, led by the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine.  He wrote the series The Martian Chronicles, consulted on dozens of screenplaysand television scripts, and authored numerous short stories, comic books and poems.  [image error] Upon his death in the summer of 2012 The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer mostresponsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream."

One of our country’s strongestadvocates for public libraries, Bradbury said he spent 3 days a week for 10 yearseducating himself in the public library, “And it's better than college. Peopleshould educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. Atthe end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written athousand stories.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the art of the possible'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the art of the possible': “Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, an...

'Show up every day'

 

“If you’re doing something, showup every day, and something good might happen – it’s not going to happen if youdon’t show up.” - Randy Newman
Born in New York on Nov. 28, 1943 Newman is a writer who always shows up, especially whenit comes to writing songs for movies.  The raspy-voice singer has been nominated for Academy Awards 22 times and won twice for hissometimes quirky and always wonderful songs – for which he writes both thewords and music.
Inductedinto the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he wrote thememorable film scores for the ToyStory series and the Monsters, Inc.series and for the stand-alone movies Seabiscuit and Ragtime.
 [image error] RandyNewman
Newman, who cites RayCharles as his greatest influence during his “growing up” years, has been aprofessional songwriter since age 17.    
Perhaps his two best-known songs are “It’s a Jungle outthere,” the Emmy winning theme song for the long-running TV series Monk, and "You've Got A Friend In Me" from the ToyStory movie series and recorded by dozens of other artists as well.   "I don't ever remember having writer's block," Newman said with his tongue firmly in cheek about the malady that often strikes writers.  "If I sit there for four hours, I usually have something."

A Writer's Moment: 'Show up every day'

A Writer's Moment: 'Show up every day':   “If you’re doing something, show up every day, and something good might happen – it’s not going to happen if you don’t show up.” - Randy ...

A Writer's Moment: A 'Cold Moon' looms

A Writer's Moment: A 'Cold Moon' looms: Today, snow is falling steadily in Colorado, a precursor to December’s “Cold Moon” and winter's formal arrival.      As we leave Thanksg...