Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 363

A Writer Of And For Her Time

“My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the next.” – Nora Ephron
Ephron was a journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger born into a family of writers on this date in 1941.  Not only were her parents both writers, but she also was the first of 4 sisters to follow the profession.  And she married a writer – a quite famous one at that.  She and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post (and Watergate reporting fame) were married for a dozen years and had a son, Jacob, who (of course) also grew up to be a writer.  
Ephron was nominated for three Academy Awards for her writing of Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle.  She won numerous awards for When Harry Met Sally, and had there had been an award for best original scene, she probably would have taken that home too.  It depicts an elderly woman sitting in a restaurant watching Sally and telling the waitress “I’ll have what she’s having.”   If you haven’t seen it, take a look on You Tube to brighten your day.                                   “I try to write parts for women that are complicated and interesting,” Ephron said.  “Just as women actually are.”                                                                                                                                                                      Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: A Writer Of And For Her Time

A Writer's Moment: A Writer Of And For Her Time: “My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the ...

A Writer's Moment: The Poetic Power of Robert Creeley

A Writer's Moment: The Poetic Power of Robert Creeley: “The awful thing, as a kid reading, was that you came to the end of the story, and that was it. I mean, it would be heartbreaking that the...

The Poetic Power of Robert Creeley

“The awful thing, as a kid reading, was that you came to the end of the story, and that was it. I mean, it would be heartbreaking that there was no more of it.”– Robert Creeley

Born in Massachusetts in May of 1926, Creeley authored more than 60 books of poems and one novel.   Associated with the Black Mountain Poets, he was widely recognized as one of the most important and influential American poets of the 20th century. 
His poetry was noted for its concision, emotional power, and for giving prominence to the ongoing experiences of an individual’s life.   The winner of numerous awards, he was named for the prestigious Bollingen Prize and served as New York Poet Laureate.  In 2003, shortly before his death, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.   For Saturday’s Poem, here are Creeley’s, 
Love Comes Quietly        and                       Oh No !
Love comes quietly,                                 If you wander far enough                           
finally, drops                                              you will come to it
about me, on me,                                      and when you get there
in the old ways.                                         they will give you a place to sit    

What did I know                                       for yourself only, in a nice chair.
thinking myself                                         And all your friends will be there
able to go                                                     with smiles on their faces,alone all the way.                                     they will likewise all have places.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Vivid Imagination, Vivid Results

A Writer's Moment: Vivid Imagination, Vivid Results: “Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus ...

Vivid Imagination, Vivid Results

“Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity.” – L. Frank Baum
Born in mid-May 1856 in upstate New York, Baum earned lasting success and several spots in the lexicon with his creative writing imagination, especially in creating The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  But he was not a “one-trick” pony.  He employed his own vivid imagination to write 60 novels, 83 short stories, 200 poems and countless scripts for both the stage and the fledgling movie industry.
Also a newspaper editor for several years, he was working at the Saturday Evening Pioneer, in Aberdeen, SD, when he started writing his Wonderful Wizard books.  He credited his experiences on the prairies of drought-stricken South Dakota (my own home state, by the way) for his setting at the beginning of Dorothy’s journey to Oz, although as everyone knows, he changed the location to Kansas.                                                 And thus, along with the names Dorothy and Toto and his idea that a magical land could be found “Over The Rainbow,” his phrase “I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” became one of the most recognizable in the English language.   
Another line from the Wonderful Wizard that I’ve always liked is his advice to the Tin Man, whose quest was for a heart.   “A heart,” he said,  “is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”
 Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Listening To Your Writing Dreams

A Writer's Moment: Listening To Your Writing Dreams: “Ideas are all around you - everything gives you ideas. But the real source is the part of your brain that dreams.” –...

Listening To Your Writing Dreams

“Ideas are all around you - everything gives you ideas. But the real source is the part of your brain that dreams.” – Bruce Coville

Born in Syracuse, NY on this date in 1950, Coville is primarily a Young Adult author, although he has more than 100 titles to his name in virtually all genres ranging from children’s books to adult.   And, he has served as an editor and sometime writer for magazines serving retirees.
Coville said he first started thinking about becoming a writer when he was in 6th grade, inspired by a writing assignment to create a “long story.”  He said he loved the assignment and decided this might be the career for him.     He started working seriously at the writing profession when he was 17.    “Like most people, I was not able to start selling my stories right away,” he said.   “So I had many other jobs along the way to becoming a writer, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, assembly line worker, and elementary school teacher.”   
He is the winner of numerous writing awards, including the "Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Young People" (awarded by the New York Library Association).  Among his most popular books are Into The Land of the Unicorns and the My Teacher Is An Alien series.  While he said he sometimes feels pressure, he rarely hesitates to dive into a writing project.  “If you don’t jump,” he said,  “the wings never come.”


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Born To Write

“For me, being a writer was never a choice.  I was born one.  All through my childhood I wrote short stories and stuffed them in drawers.  I wrote on everything.  I didn’t do my homework so I could write.”– Laura Hillenbrand
Hillenbrand – born in Fairfax, VA, on this date in 1967 – became the writer she felt destined to be, telling stories about two amazing sports figures from the 1930s; one the great horse Seabiscuit, the other the great 1930s Olympian Louis Zamperini. 
The first story became the bestselling book and award-winning movie Seabiscuit.  The second, one of the most gripping reads of the past decade and also a popular movie was Unbroken.  These two books dominated bestseller lists in both hardback and paperback with combined sales (to date) of more than 13 million.                                        Hillenbrand, as she says above, was born to be a writer, and that meant writing through some of the most debilitating pain and isolation a person might ever experience.  Confined to her home for 20 years because of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she still pressed on to create these two remarkable works.    She says being confined while writing helped her live her stories more completely in her mind, and (she believes) made them more interesting and exciting.
“While it's really hard to do, at the same time, I'm escaping my body, which I really want to do,” she said of her writing style.  “I'm living someone else's life. I get very intensely into the story, into the interviews and the research. I'm experiencing things along with my subjects. I have a freedom I don't have in my physical life.”


Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com

A Writer's Moment: Born To Write

A Writer's Moment: Born To Write: “For me, being a writer was never a choice.   I was born one.   All through my childhood I wrote short stories and stu...