Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 414

Life Experiences - Your Next Bestseller

“Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of the pieces.” – Judith Viorst
While the multi-talented Viorst has authored dozens of books, it's one in particular that has given her lasting fame - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.   Her “Alexander” series is based on the escapades of her youngest son – frozen forever at age 5 in Viorst’s clever stories.   Alexander’s real life brothers Anthony and Nick also are captured in time as Alexander’s brothers in the books.   
Viorst has written many other books for and about children, including the terrific The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, which looks at the death of a beloved pet, and the often poignant Sad Underwear, a collection of poems that examines a wide variety of feelings and experiences from a child's point of view.
A journalist first, Viorst (who turned 86 on Groundhog Day) still writes often for The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Her “adult” books (and she’s written many) often focus on her own life experiences, many with a humorous twist.  When Did I Stop Being 20 and Other Injustices and How Did I Get To Be 40 and Other Atrocities – are written in such wonderfully universal language that they remain relevant decades after publication, great examples of writers’ moments taken from the daily life that swirls around every author, and just waiting to be shared.   “Everything I have ever written about has been about what's going on inside of us,” she said.         “I like to take all my feelings and thoughts and put them down in different ways on paper.”


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Life Experiences - Always A Bestseller

“Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of the pieces.” – Judith Viorst
While the multi-talented Viorst has authored dozens of books, it's one in particular that has given her lasting fame - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.   Her “Alexander” series is based on the escapades of her youngest son – frozen forever at age 5 in Viorst’s clever stories.   Alexander’s real life brothers Anthony and Nick also are captured in time as Alexander’s brothers in the books.   
Viorst has written many other books for and about children, including the terrific The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, which looks at the death of a beloved pet, and the often poignant Sad Underwear, a collection of poems that examines a wide variety of feelings and experiences from a child's point of view.
A journalist first, Viorst (who turned 86 on Groundhog Day) still writes often for The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Her “adult” books (and she’s written many) often focus on her own life experiences, many with a humorous twist.  When Did I Stop Being 20 and Other Injustices and How Did I Get To Be 40 and Other Atrocities – are written in such wonderfully universal language that they remain relevant decades after publication, great examples of writers’ moments taken from the daily life that swirls around every author, and just waiting to be shared.   “Everything I have ever written about has been about what's going on inside of us,” she said.         “I like to take all my feelings and thoughts and put them down in different ways on paper.”


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Leadership and the power of the pen

“I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience.”– Pramoedya Ananta Toer  Born on this date in 1925, Toer was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemics and histories of his homeland and its people, and a leading writer of stories about the Indonesian struggle for independence during the mid-20thcentury.
Political criticisms were often subtle in his writing, and as outspoken as he was against colonialism, he also stood up for the rights of minorities and against racism and corruption of the Indonesian new Government after independence had been achieved.  Because of his views he was imprisoned on several occasions and became a cause célèbre for advocates of human rights and freedom of expression.                               Considered a major candidate for the Nobel Prize before his death in 2006 (only living authors can receive the prize), he earned many of the world's top writing awards including the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, the Fund for Free Expression Award, and the P.E.N Centre Award.
His most notable (and famous) works are the “Buru Quartet,” written during a long period of his second imprisonment for his outspoken views.  Those books – This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass – were smuggled from prison and subsequently banned in Indonesia until 2000.  Widely acclaimed they've now been published in more than 20 languages.
Despite his celebrity, he was a quiet man who let his writing speak for on his people's behalf.  “Even though no one admits it,” he once said,  “writers are leaders in their communities.”



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That 'ghostly' art of writing

“I was an only child who was never really good at anything else. I had no other option. I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote. Otherwise, I was unemployable.” – Susan Hill
Born in Scarborough, England (Yep, that one with the famous Fair) on this date in 1942, Hillchose her profession wisely and has gone on to author numerous works, particularly tales of ghosts and spirits.  In 2012 she was named for the high honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth for her long and distinguished services to literature. 

Among Hill’s award-winning novels are the ghost tales The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of the Castle, for which she received the acclaimed Somerset Maugham Award.   In recent years she has founded her own press, Long Barn Books, publishing a variety of books and short stories as well as more of her own writings, including some with her popular detective hero Simon Serrailler.
In addition to her many novels, nonfiction books, and short stories, Hill also authored several plays, including some for the Young Adult market.     “I've never written poetry,” she said.  “I'm not a poet, but I think the nearest you get is either the short story or the novella, in that you can't waste a word. There is no hiding place: everything's got to be seen to relate, and the prose counts.”


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A 'ghostly' talent for writing

“I was an only child who was never really good at anything else. I had no other option. I could write; I wanted to write; I wrote. Otherwise, I was unemployable.” – Susan Hill
Born in Scarborough, England (yep, the one with the famous Fair) on this date in 1942, Hillchose her profession wisely and has gone on to author numerous works in both fiction and nonfiction.  In 2012 she was named for the high honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth for her long and distinguished services to literature. 

Among Hill’s award-winning novels are the ghost tales The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of the Castle, for which she received the acclaimed Somerset Maugham Award.   In recent years she has founded her own press, Long Barn Books, publishing a variety of books and short stories as well as more of her own writings, including some with her popular detective hero Simon Serrailler.
In addition to her many novels, nonfiction books, and short stories, Hill’s also authored several plays, including some for the Young Adult market.     “I've never written poetry,” she said.  “I'm not a poet, but I think the nearest you get is either the short story or the novella, in that you can't waste a word. There is no hiding place: everything's got to be seen to relate, and the prose counts.”


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When your world looks like a poem

“If after I read a poem the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so I'm sure it's a good one—and the same goes for paintings.”– Elizabeth Bishop
Bishop, who was both a poet and a painter, was somewhat obscure during her lifetime (she died in 1979) despite the fact that she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1955.   But her reputation has grown in recent years and she is now often called one of America’s most important 20th century poets.       Born on Feb. 8, 1911, Bishop spent long periods of time polishing her work, publishing just 101 poems (included in the 1984 volume The Complete Poems).  Her underlying themes include the struggle to find a sense of belonging, and the human experiences of grief and longing.   Here, for Saturday’s Poem, is Bishop’s,   
Intimate, Low-Voiced, Delicate Things
It is marvellous to wake up together
At the same minute; marvellous to hear
The rain begin suddenly all over the roof,
To feel the air suddenly clear
As if electricity had passed through it
From a black mesh of wires in the sky.
All over the roof the rain hisses,
And below, the light falling of kisses.

An electrical storm is coming or moving away;
It is the prickling air that wakes us up.
If lighting struck the house now, it would run
From the four blue china balls on top
Down the roof and down the rods all around us,
And we imagine dreamily
How the whole house caught in a bird-cage of lightning
Would be quite delightful rather than frightening;

And from the same simplified point of view
Of night and lying flat on one's back
All things might change equally easily,
Since always to warn us there must be these black
Electrical wires dangling. Without surprise
The world might change to something quite different,
As the air changes or the lightning comes without our blinking,
Change as our kisses are changing without our thinking.

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Touch the reader with your words

“Write about what you care about. If you do that, you're probably going to do your best writing, reach off the page and touch the reader. How are you going to make the reader care if you don't care yourself?”– Jerry Spinelli
Born in Pennsylvania on this date in 1941, Spinelli is author of nearly 40 novels for young people, including 2017’s The Warden’s Daughter. He is best known for Maniac Magee, winner of the Newbery Medal for Best Children’s Book, and Wringer, a Newbery Honor Book. 
An English major at Gettysburg College (“because they didn’t have a writing major”), Spinelli spent his spare time writing short stories and also was editor of the college literary magazine, The Mercury.

After graduation, he became a full-time magazine writer and editor while earning his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.  He intended to write novels for adults but couldn’t get publishers interested in any of  his first 4 works.  His 5th book, also intended for adults, drew the attention of a children’s book publisher (it was about a 13-year-old) and not only was published but became a top seller, starting him on a new writing path.       “Life is full of happy accidents,” he said.     “Sometimes I'm asked if I do research for my stories. The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first fifteen years of my life turned out to be one big research project.”


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Delving into the library for adventure

“Andrew Carnegie loved libraries; he knew their importance to an educated society and as anchors to our communities. And so, just as some loyal baseball fans travel to attend games at all 30 major league stadiums, over the last decade or so, I have slowly, casually, visited Carnegie libraries whenever I am on the road.”  – Sam Weller
An unabashed supporter of our public libraries, Weller won acclaim for his biographical works on fellow writer Ray Bradbury.  Among his writings about Bradbury, the renowned Fantasy and Science Fiction writer, are The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury and Listen to the Echoes, The Ray Bradbury Interviews, a collection of interviews, photos, mementos, and artifacts.
A journalist before he started writing short stories and biographies, Weller is a native of Lake Forest, IL, born on this date in 1967.  The one-time Midwest correspondent for Publishers Weekly, he also has written for The Paris Review, All Things Considered, Slate Magazine, and The Huffington Post.  His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, literary journals and magazines, and he teaches creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago.                                 His recommendation for every writer's success is to spend time within the halls of your local library.  “Browsing for books with a mouse and screen is not nearly as joyful an act as wandering the stacks and getting lost in the labyrinthine corridors of knowledge,” he said.   “The best libraries are places of imagination, education and community. The best libraries have mystery to them.”



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Success begins at the local library

“Andrew Carnegie loved libraries; he knew their importance to an educated society and as anchors to our communities. And so, just as some loyal baseball fans travel to attend games at all 30 major league stadiums, over the last decade or so, I have slowly, casually, visited Carnegie libraries whenever I am on the road.”  – Sam Weller
An unabashed supporter of our public libraries, Weller won acclaim for his biographical works on fellow writer Ray Bradbury.  Among his writings about Bradbury, the renowned Fantasy and Science Fiction writer, are The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury and Listen to the Echoes, The Ray Bradbury Interviews, a collection of interviews, photos, mementos, and artifacts.
A journalist before he started writing short stories and biographies, Weller is a native of Lake Forest, IL, born on this date in 1967.  The one-time Midwest correspondent for Publishers Weekly, he also has written for The Paris Review, All Things Considered, Slate Magazine, and The Huffington Post.  His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, literary journals and magazines, and he teaches creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago.                                 His recommendation for every writer's success is to spend time within the halls of your local library.  “Browsing for books with a mouse and screen is not nearly as joyful an act as wandering the stacks and getting lost in the labyrinthine corridors of knowledge,” he said.   “The best libraries are places of imagination, education and community. The best libraries have mystery to them.”



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Seeking answers, finding more questions

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” – Lloyd Alexander
Born on this date in 1924, Alexander authored more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. His most famous work The High King, part of his Chronicles of Prydain series, won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature.    Alexander also was awarded two U.S. National Book Awards.
A native of Philadelphia, Alexander grew up with a deep love of reading, particularly adventures and classics.  “Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers,” he said.            While he never finished college, his writing eventually earned him several “writer-in-residence” opportunities at colleges and universities – an experience he said was like being a favorite uncle who comes in and spoils the kids and then leaves them to their parents at days’ end.
A World War II veteran, Alexander – who died in 2007 – spent time in Wales late in the war and the landscape and history he discovered there shaped a number of his fantasy novels.   Enamored with adventures and tales of knights and dragons, he went into the army to get a taste of adventure for himself.  “I decided,” he said, “that my own adventure was the best way to learn about writing.”

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