Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 403

A Writer's Duty

“I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write the story.” – Eric Brown

Born in England on this date in 1960, Brown began writing in 1975, but didn’t officially break onto the scene until the 1982 with the publication of his children’s play, Noel's Ark.  His career took off in the late 1980s with a succession of short stories, led by "The Time-Lapsed Man," also the title of a best-selling collection of his stories.  In 1988, “Time-Lapsed Man” was selected by the Interzone magazine’s readers' poll as its most admired story.   
Brown also has been voted the Best New European SciFi Writer of the Year (in 1991) and has twice won the British Science Fiction Award for his short stories "Hunting the Slarque” and "Children of Winter.”  Since the early 1990s he has published two dozen novels, over a dozen novellas, numerous children’s books, and 10 story collections.  His newest book, just out this month, is Buying Time, a clever and hard-to-put-down time travel adventure.  As for advice to new writers, he says this about writing short stories:
“The market for short stories is hard to break into, but a magazine editor isn't always looking for big names with which to sell his magazine - they're more willing to try stories by newcomers, if those tales are good.”




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That 'Capacity To Create'

“There is an element of autobiography in all fiction in that pain or distress, or pleasure, is based on the author's own. But in my case that is as far as it goes. “ – William Trevor
Born on this date in 1928, Trevor was an Irish novelist, playwright, and widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in English language history.  And, while he was Irish through and through, he made his home in Southwest England for over 50 years, dying there in 2016. Trevor was a three-time winner of the coveted Whitbread Prize and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize.  In his final decade he was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature, particularly after his final novel Love and Summer not only garnered rave reviews but also was an international best seller.  
He was such a prolific writer of short stories that he had a remarkable 20volumes of them published during the time he also was producing 16 novels, 6 plays, and a number of nonfiction works and major essays.   He attributed his output to an intangible capacity to create.

“The capacity you're thinking of is imagination,” he clarified.  “Without it there can be no understanding, indeed no fiction.”



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For The Pleasure of Writing

“I don't wait for inspiration. I get up and write every day.”– Cathy Marie Buchanan
Born on this date in 1963, Buchanan makes her home in Toronto, Canada after growing up in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  Her stories have appeared in many of Canada’s most respected literary journals, and she has received awards from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Day the Falls Stood Still, her debut novel, was a New York Times bestseller and she followed it with the mega-selling The Painted Girls, inspired by both a notorious late-19th century criminal trial and Edgar Degas’ real-life model, Marie van Goethem, who posed for Degas’ masterpiece “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.”
Buchanan’s writing moves fluidly from one era to another and to subjects that are wide-ranging and always riveting.  “I write to explore something that fascinates me, and I write the way I do because it is the only way I know how to write,” she said.                                        “I keep writing because it is deeply pleasurable to me.”


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The Characters and Lessons of Life

“We all lose somebody we care about and want to find some comforting way of dealing with it, something that will give us a little closure, a little peace.”– Mitch Albom
Albom, a best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, radio and television broadcaster, philanthropist and musician has written books that have sold over 35 million copies, about 14 million of those being copies of one of the best-selling memoirs of all time, Tuesdays With Morrie.  That book, which chronicles Albom’s weekly visit with Morrie Schwartz, his one-time professor afflicted with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), was written to share their weekly conversations about life and death, and as a way to help Schwartz’s family with rising medical bills.  At first rejected by multiple publishers, it was finally published as a thin volume with just a small press run.  But, as word of mouth took over, the book skyrocketed to a 205-week run on the New York Times Bestseller List.  It went on to become an Emmy-winning television movie and a long-running Broadway play and continues to touch people’s lives through the wisdom shared by the dying professor.
Born in May 1958, Albom was first a successful sportswriter before becoming – almost by accident – a phenomenal chronicler of people’s lives and hopes and the inspiration they brought to others.                                                            “I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages, sometimes I write them in a column, sometimes in a novel, sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction,” Albom said.   “But at the core I always say to myself, 'Is this something people want to read?'  I believe that you live on inside the hearts and minds of everyone you've touched while you were here on earth." 
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Sharing Some 'Slices of Life'

“I hope people will like my novels after I'm dead. And I hope my children think about me in good ways, by and large.” – Clyde Edgerton
Edgerton’s works are influenced in some way by his personal experiences and much of his prose feels like reading a slice-of-life narrative.  His books, generously sprinkled with humor, are best known for their endearing characters and small-town Southern dialogue.
The North Carolina native, who celebrated his 54th birthday yesterday, couples his writing with teaching creative writing at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and also is a well-known speaker at writing conferences and workshops around the country.   The winner of 5 “Notable Book of the Year” awards from the New York Times, he also is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been honored with a North Carolina Award for Literature.                    One of Edgerton's recent best sellers is Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers: Advice to Dads of All Ages, offering timely, down-to-earth, and humorous "suggestions" on the art of being a dad.
“It's nice to have more than one little one,” he says (with tongue firmly in cheek) “because then . . . while one is pushing you in a wheelchair, the other one can open the doors for you. “

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The 'Magic' Of Literacy

“I discovered writing children's books was a way to keep living in my imagination like a child. So I wrote a number of books before I started 'Magic Tree House.' Then, once I got that, I never looked back because I could be somewhere different in every single book.” – Mary Pope Osborne  Born in Oklahoma on this date in 1949, Osborne has authored more than 100 books for children and young adults, including novels, retellings of mythology and folklore, biographies and mysteries.  She is best known for her award-winning Magic Tree House series, now translated into 35 languages with nearly 150 million copies in print.   Her writing, she said, has opened doors for her to the world and allowed her to experience some of the thrills of traveling. "Without even leaving my home, I’ve traveled around the globe,” she said.  Osborne is an ardent advocate and supporter of children’s literacy and created the Magic Tree House Classroom Adventures Program with the mission of inspiring children to read and to love reading.  Free of charge, the program provides a set of online educational resources for teachers and allows for Title 1 schools to apply for free Magic Tree House books.   In partnership with First Book, her program has donated hundreds of thousands of Magic Tree House books to underserved schools.  It is, she said, her way to share her love of reading with kids everywhere.                                            “I love reading all kinds of books. I usually have about ten books going at any one time - books about the past, the present, novels, non-fiction, poetry, mythology, religion, etc.,” she said.   “Reading is my favorite thing to do.” 
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Day-to-Day Reflections On Life

“Being in this fine mood, I spoke to a little boy, whom I saw playing alone in the road, asking him what he was going to be when he grew up. Of course I expected to hear him say a sailor, a soldier, a hunter, or something else that seems heroic to childhood, and I was very much surprised when he answered innocently, 'A man.' “ – W. H. Davies

Born on this date in 1871, Davies was a Welsh poet and writer who spent a significant part of his life as a tramp or hobo, both in the United Kingdom and United States. He also became one of the most popular poets of his time.
Davies’ principal themes were on his observations about life's hardships, the ways in which the human condition is reflected in nature, and his own tramping adventures and the people he met.  For Saturday’s Poem here is Davies’
A GreetingGood morning, Life - and all
Things glad and beautiful.
My pockets nothing hold,
But he that owns the gold,
The Sun, is my great friend -
His spending has no end.

Hail to the morning sky,
Which bright clouds measure high;
Hail to you birds whose throats
Would number leaves by notes;
Hail to you shady bowers,
And you green field of flowers.

Hail to you women fair,
That make a show so rare
In cloth as white as milk -
Be't calico or silk:
Good morning, Life - and all
Things glad and beautiful.

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Real Life, Great Stories

“The best stories come from real life.” – Diane English

Born in Buffalo, NY, on this date in 1948, English is a screenwriter, producer and director, best known for creating the television show Murphy Brown and writing and directing the 2008 feature film The Women.
After studying communications at Buffalo State University, English began her career at WNET, the PBS affiliate in New York City, working first as a story editor for The Theatre in Americaseries, and then as associate director of TV Lab.  From 1977 to 1980, she wrote a monthly column on television for Vogue magazine.
Among the many awards she has earned over the past 30 years are 3 Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her television work,  and “The Women in Film’s” Crystal Award (it’s most prestigious), for her work on The Women.                                                                          Her advice to writers trying to break into the market is succinct.  “You have to be creative. It's the basics. You can't be Picasso unless you know how to draw a real face.  (After that) you can turn it upside down.”

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Get Ready To Jump ... And Fly

“Ideas are all around you - everything gives you ideas. But the real source is the part of your brain that dreams.” – Bruce Coville
A native New Yorker born on this date in 1950, Coville said he became enamored with the idea of becoming a writer in 6thgrade and started working on it seriously by age 17.  Today, as an author of young adult fiction, he has over 100 books in his repertoire … and counting.  
His first novel, The Foolish Giant, came out in 1977 and he has produced two to three books a year ever since.  Among his many award winning works are his novels My Teacher Glows in the Dark and  I Was a 6th Grade Alien, and  his audio adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones.                                        In 2012, Coville was named for the "Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Young People,” presented by the New York Library Association.
“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, and assembly line worker. Eventually, I became an elementary teacher and worked with second and fourth graders.”  All of those things, he said, shaped his life and writing.  And he encourages beginning writers to to dream big.
“If you don’t jump,” he said,  “the wings never come.”


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Living Vicariously Through Her Writing

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 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 Olympian Louis Zamperini. 
The first story became a bestselling book and award-winning movie simply called Seabiscuit.  The second, one of the most gripping reads of the past decade, was called Unbroken. These two books dominated bestseller lists in both hardback and paperback. Combined, they have sold more than 13 million copies.
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 years because of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she still pressed on and created remarkable works.   And, 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.                                         As she was writing, she said, “I’m looking for a way out.  I can’t have it physically, so I’m going to have it intellectually.  It was a beautiful thing to ride Seabiscuit in my imagination.  And it’s just fantastic to be there alongside Louie as he’s breaking the NCAA mile record.  People at these vigorous moments in their lives – it’s my way of living vicariously.”




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