Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 506

Finding that 'right' reader

“Writing is.... being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling, physicality, and spirit, and to then store it like a genie in tense, tiny black symbols on a calm white page. If the wrong reader comes across the words, they will remain just words. But for the right readers, your vision blooms off the page and is absorbed into their minds like smoke, where it will re-form, whole and alive, fully adapted to its new environment.” – Mary Gaitskill
An American author of essays, short stories and novels, Gaitskill’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories(1993 and 2006), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998).
A native of Kentucky, she said she chose to become a writer at age 18 because she was "indignant about things—it was the typical teenage sense of 'things are wrong in the world and I must say something.’”  Her fiction typically is about female characters dealing with their own inner conflicts.  Often her characters are controversial, but her writing style has won her many awards.
She said she’s always strived to write like the life that she’s lived and “My ambition was to live like music.”

That 'What If' factor

“Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of history that ends in a question mark.”– James Rollins
 One of two pen names forAmerican veterinarian James Paul Czajkowski, Rollins is a writer of action-adventure/thriller novels who had been practicing veterinary medicine when he decided to "mostly" switch careers.   An amateur spelunker and a certified scuba diver, he also found those pastimes to be great background and settings for many of his writing. 
“But, I don't actually have a one wellspring of inspiration,” he said. “I subscribe to National Geographic, Scientific American, Discover, and a slew of other magazines. And it is while reading articles for pleasure and interest that an interesting 'What if?' often will pop into my head.”
[image error]
Dr. Czajkowski, aka James Rollins and James ClemensBorn on this day in 1961, he didn’t start writing until 1999 but has been almost unstoppable since, penning 35 novels, and counting.  Among them is the wildly successful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Hisfirst novel, Witch Fire – written under his other pen name James Clemens – was “discovered” as an entry in a contest sponsored by the Maui Writers' Conference. 
People sometimes pooh-pooh writing competitions as a waste of time, but as Rollins proved, it’s worth exploring.  If you think your work is worthy, why not give it a shot?   Rollins also continues to practice veterinary medicine, particularly helping abandoned or abused animals.  And, he says he’s found a secondary benefit from his writing. “Generally, if you preface a request with, 'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot of doors.” 

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One label doesn't fit all

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are. – Jonathan Coe
An English novelist and writer, Coe – born this day in 1959 – has spent his writing career focusing on novels about politics.  But while he has had an underlying preoccupation with political issues, this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire, and he’s one of the best.
And his nonfiction book Humphrey Bogart: Take It And Like Itis one of the best written on the late actor and one of the first pieces by him that I discovered, since I’ve always enjoyed Bogart and the interesting life that he led.  
Jonathan Coe[image error]
Besides his literature, Coe has had a burgeoning career in music, playing keyboards in the band The Peer Group and writing a number of songs for both that band and others.   He’s collaborated with many other writers on a wide range of songs and continues to toy with the idea of “just focusing on music, which is why I can’t decide what I really want to be” although writing continues to lead the way.
“I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories.  They just seem to turn into novels.” 

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Opening new doors

“Through my writing, I have made new friends and continued to learn about this world of ours in all its wonder, with all its challenges.”– Sonia Levitin
Sonia Levitin is a German American novelist, artist, producer, Holocaust survivor, and author of over forty novels and picture books for young adults and children, as well as several theatrical plays and published essays on various topics for adults.
A great role model for the young adult audience she strives to reach, her semi-autobiographical characters have a somewhat common theme of courageous main characters who are faced with difficult challenges and who must "take charge" in order to overcome obstacles.
This terrific writer is marking her 81st birthday today and showing us a new side of her creativity – as a painter.  Her expressionist paintings are being displayed to great critical acclaim in a new Los Angeles show.  But, of course, it’s her writing that continues to shine – something she determined to do as she recovered at the end of World War II.
“When I was only eleven years old, I decided to become a writer,” she said.   “I told this ambition in a letter to Laura Ingalls Wilder, (and) the die was cast. How could I go back on my word?”   Thankfully, she never did.
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Looking at yourself, through the words

I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them. – John Ashbery
In 2008 Langdon Hammer, chair of the English Department at Yale, said "No figure looms so large in American poetry over the past 50 years as John Ashbery" and "No American poet has had a larger, more diverse vocabulary, not Whitman, not Pound.”  Since then Ashbery has done nothing to diminish that assessment, continuing to produce his work well into his 6thdecade of writing.  His most recent work, Breezeway, was just on the market in time for his 88th birthday earlier this month.
Ashbery has now published 29 volumes of poetry, earning every major award for the genre’, including a Pulitzer Prize for Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.   In 2012 he was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.
One key to his success is his effort to write for everyone and make the work as accessible as possible.  “I don’t want my poems to be a private dialogue with myself.  I don’t look on poetry as closed works,” he said.  “I feel they’re going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length to share.”
John Ashbery[image error]
As poet and critic Melanie Rehak wrote in reviewing one of his books, “…reading an Ashbery poem is also a little bit like being let loose inside a house of mirrors —things don’t always make sense on the surface, but on some gut level, you know you’re still looking at yourself, which is about as much as you can hope for.”
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'Catching' that rare air

“How to Write a Poem?  Catch the air around the butterfly.”– Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
Katerina’s poems have appeared in publications throughout the U.S. and Europe, including The Louisville Review, Margie, Adirondack Review and others.   The leader of a poetry group in Lexington, KY, she also hosts “Accents,” a radio show for literature, art and culture on WRFL Radio in Lexington.  And she operates the independent Accents Publishing “for brilliant voices.” Accents has published or announced books by local, national and international authors.

[image error]  Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
A native of Bulgaria, she holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville.  For a look at her interesting poetic style, here’s her short 2008 poem "The Most."
Welcome,
Last Resort.

We meet at last,
Plan Z.

I’ve heard a lot about you,
Worst Case Scenario.

I look forward to
working with you,
When-all-else-fails.

It’s going to be you and I now.
Do you feel lucky to end up with me?
Hey, it’s okay.

After the initial shock
wears off,
you too,
will try to make
the most of me.


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Story by story, writing life

“Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death.” – Edna Ferber
Born this day in 1885, Edna Ferber was a novelist, short story writer and playwright, whose novels were wildly popular and won her a remarkable four Pulitzer Prizes – for So Big, Show Boat, Cimarron and Giant, the latter three also made into award-winning movies.  Show Boat also was adapted for the stage as a Broadway musical and Cimarronwon the Academy Award for Best Picture. 
 [image error]  Edna FerberFerber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons, demonstrating her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.
“I like to look at all sides of people and be open to any idea,” she said.  “A closed mind is a dying mind.”

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Belonging to all ... and each of us

“My job is essentially that of an entertainer, no different to that of a musician, no different to that of an actor. I just happen to be an author.” – Bryce Courtenay 
A South African novelist who also held Australian citizenship. Courtenay, born this day in 1933, became one of Australia's best-selling authors, although most of his notoriety came from his South African-based book The Power of One.
Published in 1989 and, despite Courtenay's fears that it would never sell, The Power of One quickly became one of Australia's best-selling books by any living author. The story was made into a film, as well as being re-released in an edition for children.
The author of 23 books, mostly novels, Courtenay was one of Australia's most commercially successful authors. A career advertising director, he helped build his own success over the long term by promoting himself and developing a relationship with readers as much as marketing his books; for instance, he gave away up to 2,500 books free each year to readers he met in the street.
 [image error]  Bryce CourtenayMany of his works are written from first person narrative, allowing the reader to put himself or herself into the lead role as if the story could become their own.  “I like to share my thoughts and perspectives,” he said.  “And remember, the only thing that's authentic about what a writer writes is his work.  Everything else belongs to us all.”

Getting that 'best of' look

“If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist.” – Neil Gaiman
English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films, Gaiman's work The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted 2014 Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.  The story follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began 40 years earlier.
A prolific (to say the least) writer, Gaiman has won some 100 top writing awards and is also one of the top speakers on writing, traveling the world to talk about the hows, wheres and whys of his craft. 
And he found an interesting way to get into the writing world, working as a journalist and focusing on reading and reviewing other writers’ books, all the while studying what made their work great and why he might like to try to attempt something like it himself. Thus, his "style" incorporates a sort-of "best of" look.
"I always was a reader. I loved reading. Reading things gave me pleasure. I was very good at most subjects in school, not because I had any particular aptitude in them, but because normally on the first day of school they'd hand out schoolbooks, and I'd read them—which would mean that I'd know what was coming up, because I'd read it."   It not only opened doors for him then, but led to a nearly unequaled writing life.

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Opening a portal for readers

“I never know how to give advice to a writer because there's so much you could say, and it's hard to translate your own experience. But of course, I always try. The main thing that I usually end up saying is to read a lot. To read a great deal and to learn from that.” – Sue Monk Kidd
Author of a dozen top-selling books, Monk Kidd’s perhaps best known for her novel The Secret Life of Bees, which tells the story the story of a white girl who runs away from home to live with her deceased mother's former black nanny, who now works as an independent bee-keeper and honey-maker with many of her sisters.  This terrific book – a wonderful study of relationships and understanding – has also been made into both a Broadway play and long-running movie.
Born on this date in 1948, Monk Kidd got her start in writing when a personal essay she wrote for a class was published in Guideposts, then reprinted in Readers’ Digest.  She went on to become a Contributing Editor at Guideposts and a regular writer for many other magazines and journals.
[image error]A strong advocate for keeping daily journals, she not only journals about her life but also  about her writing process.  “Particularly when I get the ideas, and I am trying to brood over the chaos phase,” she said. “In writing a novel, you really have to brood over a lot of chaos of ideas and possibilities.”
Now the author of a dozen books, including her current best-seller The Invention of Wings, Monk Kidd said she always is glad to hear that readers feel immersed in her stories, noting,  “I want my words to open a portal through which the reader may leave the self, migrate to some other human sky and return 'disposed' to otherness.”

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