Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 158

A Writer's Moment: 'Something bigger than ourselves'

A Writer's Moment: 'Something bigger than ourselves':   “Each of us is carving a stone, erecting a column, or cutting a piece of stained glass in the construction of something much bigger than ...

'Something bigger than ourselves'

 

“Each of us is carving a stone, erecting a column, or cutting a piece of stained glass in the construction of something much bigger than ourselves.”– Adrienne Clarkson 
Journalist, author, and diplomat Clarkson, born on this date in 1939, first came to Canada with her family in 1941 as a refugee from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong.  Raised in the national capital of Ottawa, she entered university early and earned degrees in several different fields before being drawn to broadcasting.     First hired as a reporter on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) show Take Thirty, Clarkson was promoted to co-host after just one year, becoming one of the first members of a visible minority to obtain a prominent position on Canadian television.    Alongside her positions on Take Thirty, she also was acclaimed for her thoughtful and thought-provoking journalistic writings.
During a 30-year CBC career, she hosted more than 3,500 programs and also became a leading spokesperson and luminary for such charitable organizations as the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Horizons of Canada, and International PEN.  
A tireless proponent of equal opportunity and                     a champion of diversity, in 2011 she authored the book Room for All of Us, a compilation of 10 stories about immigrant Canadians, for whom she was a trailblazer.  

 

“Sometimes we read or hear too much news that makes us fearful or suspicious of others,” she said.  “We can forget that most of the people that we know, or at least encounter regularly, are decent and friendly.” 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Always be writing something'

A Writer's Moment: 'Always be writing something':   “Young writers reasonably say, 'I don't know what to write about,' so writing about yourself is a very literal way to begin.”...

'Always be writing something'

 

“Young writers reasonably say, 'I don't know what to write about,' so writing about yourself is a very literal way to begin.” – Susanna Moore

Author of the award winning memoir about growing up in Hawaii, I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawaii, Moore was born in 1945 in Bryn Mawr, PA before moving with her family to the Islands.  
Curiosity, she said, is a key to learning about your surroundings, and she spent hours listening to Hawaiian leaders and cultural figures tell about their heritage – tales that would help shape her own writing.
“As a girl, I sat awestruck at the feet of Harriet Ne, author of Tales of Molokai,” Moore said.  “It was she who used to say, 'I myself have seen it,' after telling a particularly hair-raising ghost story - a phrase that I borrowed for one of my titles.”                
She started her career as a theater production and costume designer then moved over to the movie industry, working for a time as an assistant writer for Warren Beatty.  After doing some acting stints of her own, she turned to writing with her first novel, My Old Sweetheart, published in 1982.  Her latest is the 2020 nonfiction book  Miss Aluminum: A Memoir.    Following in the footsteps of those who shared tales with her – she also became a noted creative writing teacher, lecturing at major universities like Yale, Princeton and the University of Adelaide in Australia. 

But, “Writing can't be taught.  The point always is to be writing something - it leads to more writing.”

'Fall in love with imagination'

 

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.” – Alice Walker

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Novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist, Walker was born on this date in 1944 the daughter of a poor Georgia farm family.  Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (who was the model for the character of Mr. in her award-winning book The Color Purple), Walker began school at age 4 and writing at age 8.
She wrote the critically acclaimed Color Purple in 1982 and rocketed to fame.   The book won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was made into an Academy Award-winning movie, and ultimately did a 3-year run as a play on Broadway.   The story follows a young troubled          black woman fighting her way through not just racist white culture but patriarchal black culture as well.
The recipient of many awards for her work on behalf of human rights and peace initiatives, Walker said those things are a writer's responsibility.  “Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter.  I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.” @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 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:3 0 0 0 1 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;}

A Writer's Moment: 'Fall in love with imagination'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fall in love with imagination':   I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a f...

A Writer's Moment: Your 'make it or break it' opening

A Writer's Moment: Your 'make it or break it' opening:   "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of ...

Your 'make it or break it' opening

 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Opening lines of books often can make or break them, and one of the most famous of all times, despite its “run-on” nature, is the opening by Charles Dickens’ to A Tale of Two Cities.  It not only introduces what would become one of the 100 greatest books of all time but also the universal nature of the book, the French Revolution, and the drama depicted within its pages.   Dickens, the most popular novelist of his time, remains one of the best known and most read. His works have never gone out of print and have been adapted continually for the screen since the invention of cinema, with at least 200 motion pictures and TV adaptations so far.  Many of his works also were adapted for the stage, the most famous being the beloved A Christmas Carol.  What made him (and still makes him) one of the best novelists was his creation of memorable characters, many of which took on lives of their own or became part of our vernacular outside of his books.  Think “Scrooge,” for example.    His biographer Claire Tomalin regards him as the greatest creator of character in English fiction after only William Shakespeare.  He captured the imagery of his era and gave the world a view of Victorian England that remains as vivid today as it was in its own time.
 [image error]Charles Dickens – born Feb. 7, 1812

'A new world for every reader'

 

“Every reader re-creates a novel - in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobody else has read it.” – Susan Hill
Born on this date in 1942, Hill is an English author of “mostly ghost stories.” Among her works are The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award – a really cool award that can only be used for foreign travel to do more writing research.  
Hill has won a number of awards and honors, including being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literature. 

    For terrific crime mysteries with an infused “chill” factor, I highly recommend her "Detective Simon Serrailler" series.   She said she was born to be a writer.  “I was never really good at anything else.   I had no other option.  I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote.  Otherwise, I was unemployable.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'A new world for every reader'

A Writer's Moment: 'A new world for every reader':   “Every reader re-creates a novel - in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobody else has read it...