Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 117

A Writer's Moment: 'It's because you love language'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's because you love language':     “Poems have a different music from ordinary language, and every poem has a different kind of music of necessity.   ...

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing words to express what the music is saying'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing words to express what the music is saying':   “I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the ele...

'Writing words to express what the music is saying'

 

“I suppose an artist takes theelements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by othersas though they were the elements of their lives.” – Paul Simon
Simon, born in October of 1941, has been named by Rolling StoneMagazine as one of the 100 greatest musicians who ever lived.  That distinction followed his being named one ofthe 100 greatest songwriters, the first recipient of the Library ofCongress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and Time Magazine’s naming him “100 People Who Shaped TheWorld.”   Not too bad for the son ofimmigrant parents who grew up playing stickball in New York City streets.  Simon's musical career began at age 11 whenhe and neighbor Art Garfunkel first performed together.  By age 12 they had “a neighborhood hit” withhis song “The Girl for Me” (the only song written by an 11-year-old to be enshrinedin the Library of Congress).
Thatled to hundreds more songs – among them such multiple Grammy Award winners and mega-hits as “Sounds of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary &Thyme,” “Homeward Bound,” and, of course, “Bridge Over Troubled Water."   Healso wrote a number of hit songs for other artists.
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Simon’spoignant written words accompany some of the most memorable music ever written.  His are the words of our times and places thatwill resonate with us for generations to come.  He told an interviewer that writing the right words is “…like a puzzle …to express what the music is saying.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a sea full of ideas'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a sea full of ideas':   “I think the novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers. The novel receives st...

'It's a sea full of ideas'

 

“Ithink the novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like asea that is filled by many rivers. The novel receives streams of science,philosophy, poetry and contains all of these; it's not simply telling a story.”– Jose Saramago Portuguese novelist and Nobel PrizeWinner Saramago was born on this date in 1922 to a family of landless peasantsin a small rural village.  “I had nobooks at home,” Saramago said, “so, I started to frequent a public library inLisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, thatmy taste for reading developed and was refined.”

Many writers will tell you that thelove of reading was the first spark in their own creative world, and that isdefinitely the case for Saramago, who was taken away from his grammar schooleducation at age 12 because his family was so poor they could not afford tokeep him there.    Trained as a mechanic, he continued to read everything he could get his hands on,ultimately teaching himself to write and convincing the local newspaper to give him achance.   His first books came out when he was in hislate 30s and 40s, but his first best seller, Memorialdo Convento wasn't published  until he was 60.   That book put him onto theworld writing scene and led to the Nobel Prize in Literature at age 75.  
“I do not just write, Iwrite what I am.   If there is a secret to success perhaps that is it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The journey is the purpose'

A Writer's Moment: 'The journey is the purpose': " When you're a writer, you're always looking for conflict. It's conflict that drives great stories.” – William Kent Krueg...

'The journey is the purpose'

"When you're a writer, you're alwayslooking for conflict. It's conflict that drives great stories.”– William Kent Krueger

I first got to know St. Paul, Minn.-based mystery writer Kruegerwhen he would stop over to visit English classes at Augsburg University where I was teaching writing.  The first time I heard him wasshortly after he had Iron Lake, thefirst of his Cork O’Connor series, out on the market.  With his primary protagonist being half Ojibwe(the other half Irish) I was amazed to learn that he didn’t have any Ojibweblood, since he does a remarkable job of incorporating great detail about Ojibweculture into his stories. 
Krueger sets most of his tales in north-central Minnesota and now has 19 O’Connor mysteries plus many best-selling stand-alone novels (his most recent being The River We Remember).  He said he very much enjoys researching and writing about the Ojibwe.

“Readers anticipate that asignificant element of every story will be additional exposure to the ways ofthe Ojibwe,” he said. “The truth is that I enjoy this aspect of the work. Although I have no Indian blood running through my veins, in college I preparedto be a cultural anthropologist, so exploring other cultures is exciting tome.”                                                                 [image error] Born on Nov. 16, 1950, he was raised in Oregon and has an “Old West” vibe running through the way his lawman/privateinvestigator O’Connor operates, another wonderful element of his writingstyle.   As for advice tobeginning writers, he says,
“Write because you love thework not because of what might come from it. The journey is thepurpose. Very Zen-like, I know, but (for me) honest to God it's the truth.”

'Interesting things happen to interesting people'

 

"Iwant readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want thethemes of books to stick around for a reader. I'm always trying to find a wayto balance characters and theme.” – Guy Gavriel Kay

 

Kay, born in Canada in November1954, has had a knack for creating what is commonly known as “page turner”books, writing historical fantasy fiction with a flair that has distinguishedhis writing over several decades. He cut his teeth on fantasy writing bytraveling to Oxford to assist Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien,editing J.R.R.’s unpublished work TheSilmarillion.  With that experienceas inspiration he began his own career with TheSummer Tree. 

 

Many of his novels are set infictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, suchas Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I, or Spain during the time ofEl Cid.   He has authored more than adozen best-selling novels, now translated into some two dozen-plus languageswith settings and lead characters from almost every era.

 

He has won multiple awards,including The World Fantasy Award for the book Ysabel, set in modern day France but bringing his teenage lead intodirect contact with characters from both the distant past and a “parallel”world to ours.    

 

 “I havealways argued,” Kay said, “(that) in a good novel, interesting thingshappen to interesting people, no matter who they are or where they arefrom.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Interesting things happen to interesting people'

A Writer's Moment: 'Interesting things happen to interesting people':   "I want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the themes of books to stick around f...

'Capable of working magic'

 “What anastonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexibleparts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at itand you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousandsof years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silentlyinside your head, directly to you." -- Carl Sagan

Sagan, born in Brooklyn, NY on Nov. 9, 1934 was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist and astrobiologistwho also wrote more than 600 articles and authored, co-authored or edited 20books.  His novel Contact was the basis fora popular movie, and he co-wrote and narrated Cosmos, the most widely watched series in the history of Americanpublic television.    Sagan died of pneumoniaat the relatively young age of 61, but just before his death he spoke the wonderfulwords above about books and writing.
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“Writing is perhaps the greatest of humaninventions," Sagan said, "binding together people who never knew each other, citizens ofdistant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humansare capable of working magic."