Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 139
June 30, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Reflecting the beauty that surround us'
'Reflecting the beauty that surround us'
“Let'sput it this way: if you are a novelist, I think you start out with a 20 wordidea, and you work at it and you wind up with a 200,000 word novel. We,picture-book people, or at least I, start out with 200,000 words and reduce itto 20.” – Eric Carle
As ajournalist I was told time and again to “write tight.” In other words, say everything you can abouta topic so that it is crystal clear in as few words as possible, because publicationspace is always at a premium. Writing asjournalists might be good training for children’s book writers. But if Iwere an editor I’d be asking someone like Carle about the best way to writetight, because he was an expert at it for over 50 years. Of course his wonderful artwork didn’t hurteither.
Born inSyracuse, NY on June 25, 1929 Carle was the author of mega-sellers like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Carle said he always attempted to makehis books both entertaining and educational – offering young readers (and oftentheir parents) opportunities to learn something about the world. He also advised writers wanting to work inthe children’s literary genre’ to “recognize children’s feelings,inquisitiveness and creativity.”
Carle, who was named for the LauraIngalls Wilder Award for his career contribution to American children’sliterature shortly before his death in 2021, said, “We have eyes, and we're looking at stuff allthe time, all day long. I just thinkthat whatever our eyes touch should be beautiful, tasteful, appealing, andimportant.”
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June 28, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Revitalizing and remembering'
'Revitalizing and remembering'
“Reasonis a fine thing, but it is not the only thing available to a writer. It's justpart of the arsenal of many things available to a storyteller.”– Mark Helprin
Born on this date in 1947, Helprinis a novelist, journalist, scholar and conservative commentator stating that he"belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend.”
The child of two artists – hisfather was a well-known film industry leader and his mother a stage actress –Helprin was born in Manhattan, studied at Harvard and Princeton, andsimultaneously became a statesman and writer with his non-fiction conservativecommentary often called "biting." On the “creative” side, he has won numerous awards, particularly for hisnovel Winter’s Tale.
About writing, he has said, “We create nothingnew—no one has ever imagined a new color—so what you are doing isrevitalizing. You are remembering, thencombining, altering. Artists who think they're creating new worlds are simplycreating tiny versions of this world."
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June 27, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Dreams: nourishment for the soul'
'Dreams: nourishment for the soul'
“Peopleneed dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.”– Dorothy Gilman
Born in New Jersey on June 25,1923 Gilman began writing her "Mrs. Polifax" mystery/thrillers at a time when women in mystery were represented by Agatha Christie’s MissMarple, and spies by characters like "James Bond." Instead, herheroine was a woman in her late 60s who might be the only spy in literature to simultaneously be a member of the CIA
and a local garden club.Gilman started her writing career at age 9 and won a story-writing contest (against much older contestants) at age 11. She wrote children’sstories for more than a decade (using the name Dorothy Gilman Butters) and then created Mrs. Pollifax, a retired grandmother whobecomes a CIA agent.
Most of her books feature strongwomen having adventures around the world, reflective of her own internationaltravel background. But they also featuresmall town life and puttering in the garden, something she enjoyed doing –cultivating vegetables and herbs and again using that skill and knowledge inher writing.
Named a Grand Master by the MysteryWriters of America, she died in 2012 after authoring dozens of books and myriadshort stories and pieces for magazines and newspapers. Her advice to writers was always be onschedule in everything you do. “If something anticipated arrivestoo late it finds us numb, wrung out from waiting, and we feel - nothing atall. The best things arrive on time.”
June 26, 2023
'Search yesterday to understand today'
“Ifyou want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”– Pearl Buck
Buck, born on this date in 1892,saw the world unfolding around her and chronicled it in a writing style thatmelded the past and present with clarity and intensity. Over her lifetime she penned nearly 40novels and numerous short stories and non-fiction works. Born in the backwoods of West Virginia, she spent much of hergrowing up years in rural areas of China where her parents weremissionaries. Throughout her adult life,she was a staunch supporter of multiple humanitarian causes, particularly insupport of overcoming poverty faced by children. Afterwinning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938 (the first American woman to winthe award), she utilized her prize money to establish the East and WestAssociation, and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to address humanitarian issuesaround the globe. Formore than 50 years she spoke out and wrote against injustice whenever andwherever she saw it. “The truth is always important and exciting,”she said. “Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.”
A Writer's Moment: 'Search yesterday to understand today'
June 24, 2023
'A matter of language, and life'
“Poetryis a matter of life, not just a matter of language.” –Lucille Clifton
Born near Buffalo, NY, on June 27, 1936 Clifton studied and lived in Washington, DC, beforesettling in her adopted Maryland where from 1979–1985 she was the state’s PoetLaureate. Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her AfricanAmerican heritage and feminist themes as well as daily life in the city and the home.
Her writing began as a hobby, but when a friend who also was a friendof the poet Langston Hughes passed along some of her work to him, he encouragedher to stop her job and concentrate on writing.
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“People wish to be poets more than they wishto write poetry, and that’s a mistake,” she said. “One should wish to celebrate more than onewishes to be celebrated.” For Saturday's Poem, here is Clifton's,
Iam accused
i am accused of tending to the past
as if i made it,
as if i sculpted it
with my own hands. i did not.
this past was waiting for me
when i came,
a monstrous unnamed baby,
and i with my mother's itch
took it to breast
and named it
History.
she is more human now,
learning languages everyday,
remembering faces, names and dates.
when she is strong enough to travel
on her own, beware, she will.
