Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 130
August 25, 2023
Creating a doorway to your mind
“Thewisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuityby a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.”– William Feather
Feather, born on this day in 1889,was a publisher and author based in Cleveland, OH, where he built apublishing empire and shared dozens and dozens of those quotes and fablesthrough his many works.
Born in Jamestown, NY, Feather wentto Cleveland in 1903 where he earned a degree from Western ReserveUniversity and began working as a reporter for the Cleveland Press. In 1916, he established the William Feather Magazine, and also wrote for other magazines likeH.L. Mencken's The American Mercury. His successful printing business publishedseveral of his own books, including the simply titled but highly sought-after How to Get Ahead.
He also wrote the best-selling The Business of Life and one of thefirst “How-To" guides, How To Set Upa Family Budget. In his writings he espoused thrift, industry, promptness,perseverance, and dependability.
“Books,” he said, “open your mind, broaden yourmind, and strengthen you as nothing else can. Finishing a good book is like leaving a good friend.”@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
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A Writer's Moment: Creating a doorway to your mind
August 24, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Say yes to life'
'Say yes to life'
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“A writer must say yes to life, to all of life: thewater glasses, the Kemp's half-and-half, the ketchup on the counter. It is nota writer's task to say, ‘It is dumb to live in a small town or to eat in a caféwhen you can eat macrobiotic at home.’ Our task is to say a holy yes to thereal things of our life as they exist.” –Natalie Goldberg @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;Born in New York in1948, Goldberg now lives in New Mexico and is perhaps best known for her seriesof books exploring writing as Zen practice.
She also is a noted teacher and lecturer. As for what leadswriters to become writers, she said, “I don't think everyone wants to create the greatAmerican novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories – of realizingwhat we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselvesand become intimate.”
August 23, 2023
'Powerful messages for the eye and ear'
“The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerfulmessages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words aswell as images.” – GalenRowell
Rowell was born in Oakland, CA on this date in1940 and died in August of 2002 after devoting his final 30 years to photographing andwriting about the world’s wild places. In the process, he won the Ansel Adams Awardfor Conservation Photography and established his own lasting legacy.
He was held in equal high regard forhis writing -- on photography, humanitarian and environmental issues, and mountaineering. His 18 books included In theThrone Room of the Mountain Gods about the history of mountaineering on theHimalayan mountain K2, and Mountain Light: In Search of the DynamicLandscape, one of the best selling “how-to” photo books of all time.
In addition to his many photo shoots and articles for suchprestigious journals as Life, National Geographic, and OutdoorPhotographer, he also produced myriad stand-alone shots. “Luckily,” he once said, “people tell mehow they have had a particular landscape photograph of mine in their office orbedroom for 15 years and it always speaks to them strongly whenever they seeit.”
[image error][image error]GalenRowell and the cover photo for one of his books
He said recognizing how film sees the world differently thanthe human eye was one of his "Secrets to success. Sometimes those differences can make aphotograph more powerful than what you actually observed. It’s remarkable.”
A Writer's Moment: 'Powerful messages for the eye and ear'
August 22, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Sharing voice and emotion'
'Sharing voice and emotion'
“Choosingthe narrator for a first-person story like Downriver is a crucial decision because the voice hasto be one the reader wants to listen to, and the voice has to be a match forthe emotion you want the story to carry” – Will Hobbs
Hobbs, born in Pittsburgh on thisdate in 1947, grew up in a military family, moving often. When his dad was stationed in Alaska, he saidhe fell in love with mountains, rivers, fishing, baseball, and books. After college and marriage, he settled in thesouthwest mountains of Colorado where he began teaching and writing.
The author of 20 novels for Tweens and Young Adults, as well as two picture book stories, Hobbscredits his sense of audience to his years of teaching, and his sense of place to writing about places he knows from firsthandexperience.
Hobbs has said he wants his writing to takeyoung people into the outdoors and engage their sense of wonder. Many of his novels take place in the FourCorners (the area where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizon and Utah share a borderand which has been his home since 1973.) “I know these mountains, rivers, mesas and canyons well, so it's beennatural for me to draw on my own personal experiences here.”
As for putting his reader into the action, he said, “Onceyou're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversationsand actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over.”
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August 21, 2023
A Writer's Moment: That 'What If?' factor can set a writing stage
That 'What If?' factor can set a writing stage
“WheneverI start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makesme go 'what if?' and a piece of history that ends in a question mark.”– James Rollins
One of twopen names for American veterinarian James Paul Czajkowski, Rollins is a writer ofaction-adventure/thriller novels who was born on this date in 1961. His had been practicing veterinary medicinewhen tried his hand at creative writing in 1999. He's been almost unstoppable since, penningnearly 50 novels, and counting. Amongthem the wildly successful Indiana Jonesand the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and his current bestseller Tides of Fire, part of his “Sigma Force”series.
His first novel, Witch Fire –written under his other pen name James Clemens – was “discovered” as an entryin a contest sponsored by the Maui Writers' Conference.
Rollins also never stopped practicingveterinary medicine and strives to help abandoned or abusedanimals. An amateur spelunker and acertified scuba diver, he found those pastimes to be great background andsettings and says much information can be gathered by simply asking. “Generally, if you preface a request with,'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot ofdoors.”
“I don't actually have a onewellspring of inspiration,” he said. “I subscribe to National Geographic, Scientific American, Discover, and a slew ofother magazines. And it is while reading articles for pleasure and interestthat an interesting 'What if?' often will pop into my head.”
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