Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 43
February 26, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'The greatest of the arts'
February 25, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'It's our job to touch the reader'
'It's our job to touch the reader'
“It is the job of the novelist totouch the reader.” – Elizabeth George
Born on Feb. 26, 1949 in Warren, OH,George is best-known for her “Inspector Lynley” series of books set in GreatBritain and often featured on PBS in America. Her mystery-suspense novelshighlight the crime solving skills of the titled and wealthy British InspectorThomas Lynley and have earned her a devoted following in both Britain and theU.S. She’s written some two dozen books in theseries.
George’s work has been honored withthe Anthony and Agatha awards, France’s Grand Prix de LittÉrature PoliciÈre,and the MIMI, Germany's prestigious prize for suspense fiction.
A graduate of Cal-Riverside, shetaught high school English for many years before starting to write and had herfirst major success with A Great Deliverance in 1988. Her most recent Lynley book is 2022’s Somethingto Hide. Also the author of a great self-help book, Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel, she’s been a much sought after guestlecturer at colleges, universities, writers' retreats and international conferences.
“Writing is no dying art form inAmerica,” George said, “because most published writers here accept the wisdomand the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps.”
February 24, 2025
'(Then) nothing can hurt him'
“Let us forget such words, and allthey mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; letus renew our faith and pledge to Man, his right to be Himself, and free.”– Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Born in Maine on Feb. 22, 1892, St.Vincent Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry – only the third woman to winthe award in that category – in 1923. And just to show that shewasn’t a “one hit wonder,” she won the Frost Medal for her lifetimecontribution to American poetry 20 years later.
In between, she wrote plays, proseand many, many great poems earning accolades from many other writers, includingfellow poet Richard Wilbur who noted, “She wrote some of the best sonnets of thecentury.”
“A person who publishes a bookwillfully appears before the populace with his pants down,” she said. “Ifit is a good book nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book nothingcan help him.”
Here is one of Millay’s terrific poems,
Afternoon on a hill
I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.
And when lights begin to show
Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
And then start down.
A Writer's Moment: '(Then) nothing can hurt him'
February 22, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'The music of words'
'The music of words'
“You have your identity when youfind out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mindoff.” – A. R. Ammons
Born in North Carolina in Februaryof 1926, Ammons was a writing professor at Cornell University where he also authoredhundreds of poems up until his death in 2001. Ammons’ Collected Poems, 1951–1971won a National Book Award, and his Selected Poems is anexcellent introduction to his works
“Poetry," Ammons said, “is themusic of words.” For Saturday’s Poem,here is Ammons’,
Eyesight
It was May
beforemy attention
cameto spring and
myword I said
tothe southern slopes
I've
missedit, it
cameand went before
Igot right to see:
don'tworry, said the mountain,
trythe later northern slopes
orif
youcan climb,
climbinto spring: but
saidthe mountain
it'snot that way
withall things, some
thatgo are gone
February 21, 2025
'I used everything you gave me'
“Ifyou can't make it better, you can still laugh at it.” – Erma Bombeck
Bornin Ohio on this date in 1927, Erma Bombeck was perhaps the “most read”columnist in America and Canada in her lifetime, with more than 30 millionreaders per week in some 900 newspapers across the two nations.
Aself-proclaimed “chronicler of suburban life,” she wrote over 4,000 newspapercolumns and published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers under titleslike The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. Shedied at age 69 after battling a lifelong kidney problem complicated further bya bout with breast cancer. Even during treatment she found humor,once noting, “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.”
Bombeck’swriting began at the University of Dayton where she worked for the schoolnewspaper. After college she wrote for the Dayton Herald butsaid “straight news” was not her forte'. “I wasterrible at straight items,” she said. “When I wrote obituaries, mymother said the only thing I ever got them to do was die in alphabeticalorder.”
Her writing popularity led to regular appearances on radio and television and even as a catalystfor the 1986 Rose Parade theme – “A Celebration of Laughter” – where she wasnamed Grand Marshal. Bombeck also wrote eloquently for human rightsand against poverty, disease and hunger. Her book IWant to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children SurvivingCancer raised millions for medical causes and received the American CancerSociety’s Medal of Honor.
While battling her own illnesses, she said she planned to write as long aspossible. “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I wouldhope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I usedeverything you gave me'.”
A Writer's Moment: 'I used everything you gave me'
February 20, 2025
'Using history as the writing engine'
“Onceyou have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.” – Alan Furst
Born in New York City on this date in 1941, Furst is arguably the “inventor” of the historical spynovel. And, he said he doesn’t write plots but rather writes aroundhistory and historical things to create his books. “I use history asthe engine that drives everything.”
After earning degrees from Oberlin College and Penn State, Furst returned to New York where he took writing classes atColumbia and worked at Esquire magazine. After trying his hand at several novellas and a novel, which were modestly successful, he took a job at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. It was there that he began working on his historical spynovels. To date, he has written 15 of them -- known as the "Night Soldiers" series -- mostly set in the late1930s and World War II and all loosely connected. His most recent is Under Occupation.
Furst, who now lives on Long Island, said it takes him 3 months of research and 9 months of work to produce a book.“When I start writing, I do 2 pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160days.” Hiswriting advice is to find a time, place and idea and make it yourown. Then do the research to make it believable. “Peopleknow accuracy when they read it,” he said. “They can feel it.”
