Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 34

A Writer's Moment: 'Let my efforts be known by their results'

A Writer's Moment: 'Let my efforts be known by their results':   “I'm just going to write because I cannot help it.”  – Charlotte Bronte   Bronte, who lived to just age 39 before dying of typhus,...

A Writer's Moment: 'It begins in childhood'

A Writer's Moment: 'It begins in childhood': “I believe that poetry begins in childhood and that a poet who can remember his own childhood exactly can, and should, communicate to childr...

'It begins in childhood'

“I believe that poetry begins inchildhood and that a poet who can remember his own childhood exactly can, andshould, communicate to children.” – William Jay Smith

 

Born in Louisiana on April 22, 1918Smith was U.S. Poet Laureate from 1968-70, the first Native American to holdthe post.  He also served as longtimePoet-in-Residence at Williams College and wrote 50 books of poetry, includingthe multiple award-winning children’s book Laughing Time.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Smith’s,

 

     The World Below The Window

Thegeraniums I left last night on the windowsill,
To the best of my knowledge now, are out there still,
And will be there as long as I think they will.

And will be there as long as I think that I
Can throw the window open on the sky,
A touch of geranium pink in the tail of my eye;

As long as I think I see, past leaves green-growing,
Barges moving down a river, water flowing,
Fulfillment in the thought of thought outgoing,

Fulfillment in the sight of sight replying,
Of sound in the sound of small birds southward flying,
In life life-giving, and in death undying.

A Writer's Moment: 'A new thing in an old way'

A Writer's Moment: 'A new thing in an old way':   "The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way." –  Richard Harding Davis ...

'A new thing in an old way'

 

"The secret of good writing is to sayan old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way." – RichardHarding Davis

 

Born in Philadelphia on this date in 1864,Davis played an outsized role in American life through both his reportingskills and his works of fiction and drama.  He was the first Americanwar correspondent to cover 3 wars – Spanish-American, Boer and WWI – hisreporting often credited for the wild popularity of Theodore Roosevelt’sRoughriders.

 

The son of two prominent writers –Rebecca Harding Davis, a successful creative writer and playwright, and LemuelDavis, a leading journalist – he served as managing editor of Harper’sWeekly, setting editorial standards that nearly all other magazines stroveto emulate. 

 

He had manysuccessful novels including the bestselling Soldiers of Fortune – also adaptedinto two different movies.  And he authored 25 plays, hundreds ofnewspaper features, and several nonfiction books, led by his massive bestsellerNotes of a War Correspondent.   

                                         

Constantly on the move andmaintaining an arduous work schedule, Davis died of a heart attack just days shyof his 52nd birthday (in 2016) while working on deadline for yetanother story.

 

“That the situation appears hopeless,”he once said, “still should not prevent us from doing our best.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Creatiing' from freedom and flexibility

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating' from freedom and flexibility:   “The deadlines are much, much longer with books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment rig...

'Creating' from freedom and flexibility

 

“The deadlines are much, much longerwith books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., getan assignment right away, interview somebody, turn the story in by 9:30, andhave the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon.” –Margaret Haddix

 

“Write tight and write quick” arethe daily mantras for journalists, and how Haddix, born in April of 1964, startedher writing career.  She worked on newspapers in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Indiana beforeswitching to the creative side in the mid-1990s and has never looked back.

Best known for her series’ ShadowChildren and The Missing and her stand-alone books RunningOut of Time and The Girl With 500 Middle Names, she hasauthored more than 50 books and won the International Reading Association’sChildren’s Book Award for her body of work.  Her most recent book is2024’s The Secret Key in her newest series Mysteries of Trash andTreasure.

 

Haddix said she’s very glad sheswitched from Journalism to the creative side three decades ago.   “It'sjust so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about astory,” she said.  “I have so much freedom and flexibility to dowhatever I want.”

Embracing All; Excluding None

 

I don't want my books to excludeanyone, but if they have to, then I would rather they excluded the people whofeel they are too smart for them!” – Nick Hornby

 

Hornby, born in England on April 17,1957 writes about “ordinary people” in ways that translate into bestsellerslike Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity.  FeverPitch, while written about a fan’s obsession (based on his own) withEnglish soccer, was made an even bigger hit as an American movie adaptation,where it focused on Jimmy Fallon’s character’s obsession with the Boston RedSox.

 

His most recent novel is 2020s JustLike You, and in 2022 he released the nonfiction book Dickens and Prince.

 

Also dedicated to helping kids withspecial needs, Hornby has donated many of his royalties – from nearly 6 millioncopies of his books sold – to helping kids with autism.  And, heco-founded the nonprofit Ministry of Stories to help children and youngadults develop their writing skills, and to support teachers who inspirestudents to write.

 

“All the books we own” Hornby said,“both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at ourdisposal.”

A Writer's Moment: Embracing All; Excluding None

A Writer's Moment: Embracing All; Excluding None:   I don't want my books to exclude anyone, but if they have to, then I would rather they excluded the people who feel they are too smart...

'Embrace ALL the possibilities'

 

“Do not mind anything that anyonetells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything foryourself.” – Henry James

 

Born in New York City on this datein 1843, James aspired to be a writer while still in elementary school and wasinto a full-time writing career by his late teens.  By his mid-20s he already was regarded as oneof the most skillful writers in America. Ultimately, he relocated to Europe and eventually settled in England forthe last 40 years of his life.

 

A major figure in trans-Atlanticliterature, he developed a fundamental theme of the innocence and exuberance ofthe New World clashing with the corruption and wisdom of the Old; a theme illustratedin novels like Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of aLady (1881), and The Bostonians (1886).

 

James wrote hundreds of shortstories, novels, books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, andplays, earning numerous writing awards along the way.  He was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prizein Literature. 

 

In an interview shortly before hisdeath in 1915, he passed along this advice to aspiring writers: "Live all you can; it's a mistake not to,” he said.  Adding, “I think I don't regret a single'excess' of my responsive youth - I only regret, in my chilled age, certainoccasions and possibilities I didn't embrace,”