Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 387

That rich foundation for writing

“Stories are the rich, unseen underlayer of the most ordinary moments.”– Mary Gaitskill
A native of Kentucky, Gaitskill was born on this date in 1954 and started writing while living in California in her late teens.  Today, she is not only a best-selling novelist but also an essayist, and short story write whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine and Esquire.  She has won numerous awards and accolades including being part of The Best American Short Stories on three occasions and being selected twice for publication in The O. Henry Prize Stories.
Her most recent book, 2017’s Somebody With a Little Hammer, is a collection of her recent essays.   She has taught in several college writing programs and also is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops.         She expressed mixed feelings about such writing “opportunities,” especially for new writers.

“I think that with the proliferation of writing programs,” she said, “people tend to forget that you also have to get used to working alone, and you have to be your own support.”


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The first goal is communication

“The aim of the poet, or other artist, is first to make something; and it's impossible to make something out of words and not communicate.”– James Schuyler
Pulitzer Prize winnng poet Schuyler was born in Chicago in November 1923 and became a central member of the New York School in the 1960s and ‘70s, publishing his first major poetry work Freely Espousing in 1969.  His Pulitzer winner The Morning of the Poem appeared in 1980.       Also a novelist, he once said of his poetic writing,  “I have declined to comment on my own work, because, it seems to me, a poem is what it is; because a poem is itself a definition, and to try to redefine it is to be apt to falsify it; and because the author is the person least able to consider his work objectively.”  For Saturday’s Poem here is Schuyler’s,
Poem (The Day Gets Slowly Started)
The day gets slowly started.
A rap at the bedroom door,
bitter coffee, hot cereal, juice
the color of sun which
isn’t out this morning. A
cool shower, a shave, soothing
Noxzema for razor burn. A bed
is made. The paper doesn’t come
until twelve or one. A gray shine
out the windows. “No one
leaves the building until
those scissors are returned.”
It’s that kind of a place.
Nonetheless, I’ve seen worse.
The worried gray is melting
into sunlight. I wish I’d
brought my book of enlightening
literary essays. I wish it
were lunch time. I wish I had
an appetite. The day agrees
with me better than it did, or,
better, I agree with it. I’ll
slide down a sunslip yet, this
crass September morning.




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Art & Writing; Life Imagined

“I make money using my brains and lose money listening to my heart. But in the long run my books balance pretty well.” – Kate Seredy
Born on Nov. 10, 1896, in Hungary, Seredy was a writer and illustrator of children's books who won the prestigious Newbery Medal for best children’s book, the Newbery Honor (twice), the Caldecott (for children’s book illustration), and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.  
After growing up in Hungary and spending time in Paris, especially during World War I, Seredy emigrated to the U.S., ran a children’s bookshop, and started her career as a children’s book illustrator.  Encouraged by editor May Massee to write down bits and pieces of her “growing up” years, she wrote the children’s novel The Good Master, published in 1936 and winner of a Newbery Honor (runner-up for best book).
She wrote up until her death in 1975 and dedicated her last book, Lazy Tinka, to Massee.  Seredy’s papers and illustrations are mostly part of the May Massee Collection at Emporia State University where I had the honor of speaking to writing classes and as part of the ESU Writers’ Series a couple of years ago.
Seredy wrote 12 children's books and illustrated dozens more, considering herself an illustrator first. She had a unique style, primarily based on drawing, and said she considered all her books "an excuse for making pictures."      “For yesterday and for all tomorrows,” she said, “we dance the best we know.”


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Art, Writing, Life Imagined

“I make money using my brains and lose money listening to my heart. But in the long run my books balance pretty well.” – Kate Seredy
Born on Nov. 10, 1896, in Hungary, Seredy was a writer and illustrator of children's books who won the prestigious Newbery Medal for best children’s book, the Newbery Honor (twice), the Caldecott (for children’s book illustration), and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.  
After growing up in Hungary and spending time in Paris, especially during World War I, Seredy emigrated to the U.S., ran a children’s bookshop, and started her career as a children’s book illustrator.  Encouraged by editor May Massee to write down bits and pieces of her “growing up” years, she wrote the children’s novel The Good Master, published in 1936 and winner of a Newbery Honor (runner-up for best book).
She wrote up until her death in 1975 and dedicated her last book, Lazy Tinka, to Massee.  Seredy’s papers and illustrations are mostly part of the May Massee Collection at Emporia State University where I had the honor of speaking to writing classes and as part of the ESU Writers’ Series a couple of years ago.
Seredy wrote 12 children's books and illustrated dozens more, considering herself an illustrator first. She had a unique style, primarily based on drawing, and said she considered all her books "an excuse for making pictures."      “For yesterday and for all tomorrows,” she said, “we dance the best we know.”


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Interesting themes, interesting people

“I want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the themes of books to stick around for a reader. I'm always trying to find a way to balance characters and theme.” – Guy Gavriel Kay
Born in Canada on this date in 1954, Kay has had a knack for creating “page turner” books over several decades. He cut his teeth on fantasy writing by traveling to Oxford to assist Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, with editing J.R.R.’s unpublished work The Silmarillion.  With that experience as inspiration he began his own career with The Summer Tree. 
Many of Kay’s novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I, or Spain during the time of El Cid.  His current bestseller, Children of Earth and Sky, is in the Balkans, Italy and Turkey in the 15thCentury.      Kay’s 13 best-selling novels have been translated into some 30 languages, with settings and lead characters from almost every era.
He’s won multiple awards, including The World Fantasy Award for Ysabel, set in modern day France while also putting his teenage lead into direct contact with characters from both the distant past and a “parallel” world to ours.   “I have always argued,” he said, “(that) in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people, no matter who they are or where they are from.” 

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Balancing characters and themes

“I want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the themes of books to stick around for a reader. I'm always trying to find a way to balance characters and theme.” – Guy Gavriel Kay
Born in Canada on this date in 1954, Kay has had a knack for creating “page turner” books over several decades. He cut his teeth on fantasy writing by traveling to Oxford to assist Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, with editing J.R.R.’s unpublished work The Silmarillion.  With that experience as inspiration he began his own career with The Summer Tree. 
Many of Kay’s novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I, or Spain during the time of El Cid.  His current bestseller, Children of Earth and Sky, is in the Balkans, Italy and Turkey in the 15thCentury.      Kay’s 13 best-selling novels have been translated into some 30 languages, with settings and lead characters from almost every era.
He’s won multiple awards, including The World Fantasy Award for Ysabel, set in modern day France while also putting his teenage lead into direct contact with characters from both the distant past and a “parallel” world to ours.   “I have always argued,” he said, “(that) in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people, no matter who they are or where they are from.” 

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The worthwhile endeavor of storytelling

“To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.”– Joyce Maynard
Born on Nov. 5, 1952, Maynard is known for her critically acclaimed books in several different genres ranging from young adult, to crime and general fiction, to nonfiction memoirs.  And she has had considerable success as a screenwriter.  She has authored 17 books, is a columnist for The New York Times, and a regular contributor to NPR and many magazines.               Her memoir At Home In The World about her years living with reclusive author J.D. Salinger drew both praise and scorn from the literary world.    “I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?”

   The daughter of a journalist (Fredelle Bruser) and sister of a writer/journalist (Rona Maynard), Joyce has this advice for writers, “You write about what you know, and you also write about what you want to know.”
As for her works about parenting, she said that raising three kids not only influenced those writings but also helped that writing become stronger. “It's not only children who grow. Parents do too,” she said.  “As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself.”


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Make music, not tweets

“Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that's fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.” – Bryan Adams
Not a fan of social media would certainly be a good tagline for singer/songwriter Adams, born on Nov. 5, 1958, in Ontario, Canada, and one of the best songwriters – especially for his lyrics – in the past 30 years.  Adams first rose to fame with his 1983 album Cuts Like a Knife and turned into a global star with Reckless, which produced some of his best known songs, including "Run to You,”  "Summer of '69,” and "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You.”  That last song holds the distinction of being number one on the worldwide charts in both the 1980s and the 1990s, the second time around catapulted up in the charts as the primary song in one of my favorite movie versions of Robin Hood.
Also a noted photographer, Adams has done a number of major covers for magazines and albums.  And he uses both his photography and music to raise money and awareness for a variety of causes, especially animal rights and for aid to victims of earthquakes and other major calamities.   And, he said he doesn’t spend time on Facebook or Twitter.                            “If your music is great, you will have fans.  Not because you have spent time chatting on social media.”   To hear (and see) the Robin Hood version of his most famous song, check out this YouTube link.  Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppuWCTnTQRA

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Settling Only For The Best

“If I were to die thinking that I'd written three poems that people might read after me, I would feel that I hadn't lived in vain. Great poets might expect the whole body of their work, but most of us - well, I would settle for a handful.” – Andrew Motion
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009, Motion’s poems are known for the insightful way in which they explore loss and desolation.   He has been a champion for poetry readings and supporting poets in the reading of their own work.  Toward that end he founded “Poetry Archive,” an online resource of poems and audio recordings of poets reading their own works.  Motion, born Oct. 26, 1952, is also the author of several acclaimed biographies including The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; and Keats: A Biography.                                                “Keats writes better about poems than anybody I've ever read,” Motion said.  “The things that he says about what he wants his own poems to be are the ideals that I share.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Motion’s,
Diving
The moment I tire
of difficult sand-grains
and giddy pebbles,
I roll with the punch
of a shrivelling wave
and am cosmonaut
out past the fringe
of a basalt ledge
in a moony sea-hall
spun beyond blue.
Faint but definite
heat of the universe
flutters my skin;
quick fish apply
as something to love,
what with their heads
of gong-dented gold;
plankton I push
an easy way through
would be dust or dew
in the world behind
if that mattered at all,
which is no longer true,
with its faces and cries.

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'Experiencing' what you write

“The thing that I like about magazines, paper magazines, and papers in any kind of tangible format is the surprise factor of turning the page and not necessarily knowing what you're going to see. You're not looking for something. You're just experiencing something.” – Debbie Millman
Born on this date in 1962, Millman is best known as the host of the podcast Design Matters and as the author of 6 books on design and branding.  Co-founder of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, she also serves as Editorial and Creative Director of Print magazine.                                                     She is a leading advocate of taking words and finding a way to illustrate those words.  “Visual storytelling utilizes both language and art to pass on the essence of who we are,” she said. Millman also is a regular keynote speaker at a variety of global educational institutions, covering topics on design and branding, how to write about them, and how to plan for the long term.  "One bit of advice I can give people," she said, "is to remember that anything worthwhile takes a long time."


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