Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 358

A Writer's Moment: Authoring 'Real Life' Poetry

A Writer's Moment: Authoring 'Real Life' Poetry: “I do think I have an ability to record sensual and emotional facts and factoids, to construct a convincing surface of what life feels lik...

Authoring 'Real Life' Poetry

“I do think I have an ability to record sensual and emotional facts and factoids, to construct a convincing surface of what life feels like, both physical life and emotional life.” – Anne Carson
Born in Canada on June 21, 1950, Carson is a poet, essayist, translator and Professor of Classics who taught first in Canada and then at both the University of Michigan and Princeton University in the U.S.         Winner of both Guggenheim and MacArthur (the “Genius Grant”) Fellowships, she also won the prestigious Pushcart Prize for her poetry, often lauded for both what the poems say and how they are portrayed on paper. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Carson’s,                          Room In BrooklynThis
slow
day
moves
Along the room
I
hear
its
axles
go
A gradual dazzle
upon
the ceiling
Gives me that
racy
bluishyellow
feeling
As hours
blow
the wide
way
Down my afternoon.

Writer’s Momentwith a friend at httpe://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: A Key To Writing Success

A Writer's Moment: A Key To Writing Success: “I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I...

A Key To Writing Success

“I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I’m able to conceal the information I’m trying to conceal.  And that is, at the end of the day, what writing suspense is all about.”– Dan Brown
Born in New Hampshire Brown (who turns 55 tomorrow) has utilized his technique to perfection.  His thrillers exude suspense and his readers flock to them, having purchased well over 200 million copies since his first success, The Da Vinci Code in 2003.  Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, and feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes and conspiracy theories.  They’ve been translated into 52 languages. 
While writing is his life it wasn’t that way until the mid-1990s when he was on vacation, read a thriller by Sidney Sheldon, and decided that’s what he really wanted to do.  Up until then he had been a successful singer, songwriter and pianist.
 Brown likes the real people in his life as key characters – a great writing technique that every writer should consider.   And it certainly helps answer that old question often tossed a writer’s direction: “Where do you get your characters?”       His secret to his success (besides having writing talent, of course): “Hard work.  I still get up every morning at 4 a.m.  I write seven days a week, including Christmas.  I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don’t really care how many books I’ve sold.

Writer’s Moment with a friend at httpe://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Comic Book Superhero

“Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ultimately, you'll have more of whatever you love for yourself and the world.” – Julius Schwartz
Perhaps few people even know Schwartz’s name, but he left readers with a lasting legacy by helping develop some of our most iconic comic book “superheroes” during his lifetime. Schwartz also came up with the concept (and title) of the Justice League of America.
Born on this date in 1915, Schwartz (who died in 2004) was DC Comics’ primary editor in the development of DC’s flagship superheroes Superman and Batman.  Also a literary agent, he co-founded the Solar Sales Service Literary Agency, where he represented such writers as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H. P. Lovecraft, including some of Bradbury's first published works and Lovecraft's last.                                                  He is credited with helping organize the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939 and is one of just a few editors to be inducted into both the Comic Industry’s Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, something he found almost unbelievable.   “Not too many people,” he said,  “ever know who the editor is.”

Writer’s Moment with a friend at httpe://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: A Comic Book Superhero

A Writer's Moment: A Comic Book Superhero: “Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ultimately, you'll ...

A Writer's Moment: From Storytelling To Redemption

A Writer's Moment: From Storytelling To Redemption: "Storytelling makes possible redemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Do...

From Storytelling To Redemption

"Storytelling makes possible redemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Donaldson

While Donaldson is American, he has been “other-worldly” in his writing, developing a wide range of fantasy and science fiction novels that have cemented his position as a leading writer in the genre’ and had him knocking around in an alternative universe as his primary setting.   His most well-known series is the 10-novel fantasy The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.                Donaldson’s writing – sometimes characterized by its psychological complexity and use of an arcane vocabulary – has generally attracted critical praise for its "imagination, vivid characterizations, and fast pace."   I think he also deserves high marks for great choice of titles (one I especially like is The Rune of Earth).
A graduate of The College of Wooster and Kent State (both in Ohio), he currently makes his home in New Mexico where he celebrated his 72nd birthday in mid-May.   “I may not yet be as old as dirt,” he said,  “but dirt and I have an awful lot in common.”


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An 'Understanding' of Truth

“All of us create our own versions of an event, of our lives, even, not because we're liars, necessarily, but because we can only see and understand the truth from our own viewpoint, and a shifting viewpoint at that.”– Deb Caletti
Born in California on this date in 1963, Caletti is an award-winning writer, primarily of young adult fiction, although she has several adult novels to her credit as well.   Caletti studied journalism at the University of Washington, received some recognition for playwriting, but always wanted to try novels.  "When my son was two,” she said,  “I got serious about writing. I didn’t want to be one of those people who talked about their dream but never did anything about it.” 
All of her works are set in the Pacific Northwest and her YA books are noted for tackling difficult issues related to relationship dynamics, family (including stepfamilies), change and resilience, and the connections between human nature and animal nature.            A National Book Award finalist (for Honey, Baby, Sweetheart), and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book medalist (for her most recent book A Heart in a Body in the World), she said she’s been a passionate reader and writer from an early age, and speaks glowingly of libraries and their influence.  
“I understood right from the start that every set of library doors were the sort of magic portals that lead to other lands,” she said.  “My God, right within reach there were dinosaurs and planets and presidents and girl detectives!“



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A Writer's Moment: An 'Understanding' of Truth

A Writer's Moment: An 'Understanding' of Truth: “All of us create our own versions of an event, of our lives, even, not because we're liars, necessarily, but beca...