Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 31
May 8, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'Looking straight at the world'
May 7, 2025
'Just the page . . .and the right words'
“No matter how close to personalexperience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part thatisn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It isall about choosing the right words.“ – Roddy Doyle
Born in Dublin, Ireland on May 8, 1958, Doyle is an award-winningnovelist, dramatist, and screenwriter. The author of 14 novels foradults, 10 books for children, and numerous plays, screenplays and shortstories, he has had several of his works adapted into films. Hisnewest novel, in the “Paula Spencer” series, is 2024’s The Women Behind TheDoor.
A one-time secondary school teacher,Doyle switched to full-time writing after his first three novels – collectivelyknown as “The Barrytown Trilogy” – not only sold well but also weremade into successful films. His 1993 book – PaddyClarke Ha Ha Ha – won the prestigious Booker Prize, awardedannually to the best original English language novel published in the UnitedKingdom.
Doyle’s stories, built around heavyuse of dialogue, primarily focus on the lives of working-class Dubliners withthemes ranging from domestic and personal concerns to larger questions of Irishhistory.
“I tend to plan as I write,” hesaid. “And I want to leave myself open and the character open to keep on goinguntil it seems to be the time to stop. When I'm writing I just thinkthere's only the page and me and nobody else.”
A Writer's Moment: 'Just the page . . .and the right words'
May 6, 2025
"A craftsman's command of the language'
“If you have a craftsman's commandof the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as longas you know what you want to say” – Jeffery Deaver
Deaver, born on this date in 1950,is one of America’s premiere mystery/crime writers having earned most of thetop awards in the genre and making almost every major bestseller list aroundthe globe. A native of Illinois and graduate (in journalism) fromthe University of Missouri, and in Law from Fordham University, he started in alaw career before realizing that what he really wanted to do was write.
Among his awards are a Nero Wolfeand three Ellery Queen Reader's Awards for Best Short Story and Best Novel ofthe Year. Deaver's most popular series (16 titles) features detectiveLincoln Rhyme – the most recent being TheWatchmaker’s Hand (in 2023). Hisbooks The Devil’s Teardrop, which first introduced Rhyme, and TheBone Collector, the first in the Rhyme series, both were made into populartelevision movies. And, his 9-book series featuring characterColter Shaw has been the inspiration for CBS television’s hit series Tracker.
“I think my responsibility as athriller writer,” Deaver said, “(is to) give my readers the most excitingroller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.”
A Writer's Moment: "A craftsman's command of the language'
May 3, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'The power and danger of words'
'The power and danger of words'
“The more articulate one is, themore dangerous words become.” – May Sarton
Born in Belgium on thisdate in 1912, Sarton has been called “a poet's poet.” Over a70-year career, began when she was a teen, she authored 17 books of poetry, 19novels, 15 nonfiction works, 2 children's books, and several screenplays,writing right up to her death in 1995 at her U.S. home in New England (herfamily emigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and she grew up in Boston).
Her award-winning poem “Now IBecome Myself” was written on her birthday in 1947 – also the day on which Iwas born. It was an easy selection for mychoice as this week’s Saturday’s Poem. Here is Sarton's,
NowI Become Myself
Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
'Hurry, you will be dead before-'
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
May 2, 2025
'Watching your characters in action'
“Writing a mystery is more difficultthan other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that mustbe superimposed over the story.” – Martha Grimes
Grimes was born in Pittsburgh, PA,on this date in 1931, a fact that sometimes shocks her readers – not that shewas born in Pittsburgh, but that she was born in America. That’sbecause her best-known mysteries feature Scotland Yard detective Richard Juryand many of her readers thought she was British. Her first novel – and also the first of 25 tofeature Jury – was 1981’s The Man With a Load of Mischief. Herlatest Jury book, The Old Success, came out in 2019.
Each of her “Jury” mysteries isnamed after a pub. She didn’t intend tohave her hero do a story in the U.S., but when she saw a pub in Baltimorecalled The Horse You Came In On, she couldn’t resist setting a book bythe same name in that location.
Named “Grand Master” by the MysteryWriters of America, Grimes also has written a dozen other books, includingseveral set in Maryland where she grew up and where her mother ran ahotel. Her “Emma Graham” series ofnovels is set in a Maryland hotel similar to her mother’s.
“I don't think I could have justkept writing the 'Richard Jury' books. Itwasn't that I was bored or dissatisfied. I just had to write something else,”she said. “I just enjoy telling storiesand watching what these characters do.”
