Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 510

Fascinating life - shared

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories - and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories. – Alice Munro
Named for the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, Canadian author Alice Munro is truly one of the greatest contemporary writers of short fiction.  Celebrating her 86th birthday today, Munro has gifted us with some of the finest short stories of the 20th and early 21stCenturies, and she often is compared, rightfully, with Chekhov and Faulkner in her portrayal of the region in which she grew up and has lived most of her life.    Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time.   Her male characters are notable for their true portrayal of “everyman” and when we men read them it’s easy to put ourselves in their places.  Her female characters are much more complex and women say they see both themselves and other women in their lives when they read them.  Munro's writing creates for us a fascinating look at day-to-day life, love, and work and both the successes and the failings we all have known. 
 [image error]  Alice Munro
Besides the Nobel, Munro has been honored with about every possible major award including the Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work.  Unlike some writers whose style changes markedly over the years, her writing has been consistent and wonderful from the beginning.   “I want the reader to feel something is astonishing (when they read me),” she said.  “Not the ‘what happens?’ but the way everything happens.  These long short story fictions do that best, for me.”   And for all of us.  If it’s a story by Alice Munro, it’s worthy of your time, so take some of it to read her.  You won’t regret it.
 


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A wonderful escape

“Books were this wonderful escape for me because I could open a book and disappear into it, and that was the only way out of that house when I was a kid.” – Dean Koontz
When he was a senior at Shippensburg State in Pennsylvania, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and he’s been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and have sold over 450 million copies to date.
Turning 70 today, he is arguably America’s leading writer of suspense thrillers, and he shows no sign of easing up which many readers -- and other writers -- are grateful to know.  Bestselling science fiction writer Brian Herbert has stated, "I went though a phase where I read everything that Dean Koontz wrote, and in the process I learned a lot about characterization and building suspense.”
Reading Koontz’s work, in fact, provides a text on character development and how to draw readers  into a story.   “Each reader,” he says, “needs to bring his or her own mind and heart into the text.”
Fourteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Timeshardcover bestseller list, including the mega-selling Strangers, Sole Survivor, and What the Night Knows, making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback and also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.

 [image error] Dean Koontz
Koontz said he was abused as a child and because of that he has championed causes to help victims of alcohol and abuse.  “Even in the darkest moments light exists if you have faith to see it,” Koontz said.  “Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.”  


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A 'true thing' ... or two

“There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not an Ezra, a Walt, or a thing of beauty, a joy forever.” – Anna Quindlen
Born in Philadelphia on this date in 1952, Anna Quindlen started writing in high school and has never stopped, jumping right onto the New York Times staff at age 18 as a copy girl and working her way through college at the paper.  After college she spent some time at the New York Post before returning to the Times where she became only the third woman in Times’ history to write a regular column on the Op-Ed Page.
Her column, "Public and Private," won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. Other columns included "About New York" and "Life in the 30s." In 1995, she left the paper to devote herself to becoming a novelist – another excellent career move as she has now writtem five best-sellers, including three –  One True Thing, Black and Blueand Blessings –  made into movies. 
 [image error]Anna Quindlen
Quindlen's body of work includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, self-help and children's books. Thinking Out Loud, a collection of her "Public and Private" columns, also was a best-seller. She currently writes the Last Word column for Newsweek magazine where she noted: “I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

Definitely an author’s thought, and a writer’s moment.
 


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The story's all around you

 “I always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears open, you can't possibly live long enough to write all the novels you'll encounter.'” – Jill McCorkle
Born on this day in 1958 in Lumberton, NC, Jill McCorkle has established herself as one of America’s pre-eminent short story writers – and that coming despite the fact that she really only wanted to be a teacher “and maybe a novelist.”  Now a professor at North Carolina State University, she studied with a group of writers who have all had great successes and who have “rubbed off on one another” in their careers.  Before her current stint at NC State, she also taught at Tufts, UNC, Duke, Harvard and Bennington, but always finding time to do writing for herself, too.  In the process she’s amassed an amazing body of work and won numerous awards, including the prestigious "Dos Passos Prize."
And while her short stories continue to shine – particularly stories like Going Away Shoes – she recently released a wonderful novel, Life After Life, about the residents of a retirement center.  I can guarantee you all the emotions when reading this wonderful book.
Jill McCorkle[image error]  “For years, I felt I was a novelist, but now I know I can write short fiction,” she said.  “I work in a way that is not linear or chronological at all, even with the short story.  I will just be writing bits and pieces, and then when I have all the pieces on the table, that for me is when it feels like the real work begins.”

And, as any writer knows, also the fun.  Happy writing! 
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Let's rock ... and roll

“I sat down one night and wrote the line rock, rock, rock everybody. I was going to use the word ‘stomp’ – like rock, rock, rock and then stomp, stomp, stomp. But that didn't fit. I went from one word to another and finally came up with ‘roll.’” – Bill Haley
And so it sometimes is with writers in any genre, but in this case perhaps more than any other, Haley’s little idea turned into a mantra for a whole generation and changed the face of music forever.When Rock Around the Clock appeared as the theme song of the 1955 film “Blackboard Jungle,” it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks and is became the starting point for the rock and roll era.  Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll" by both media and teenagers who embraced the style.  Rock Around The Clock was the first million seller in three countries – U.S., Great Britain and Germany – and Haley the first international touring rock singer. 
  Born this day in 1924, Haley intended to hang his star on country music.  He was a professional entertainer at age 13, working as a singing cowboy and in C&W roadhouses.  He formed a band called The Saddlemen and also worked as a disk jockey before renaming his band Bill Haley and the Comets after reading about Halley’s Comet (which actually is pronounced Hal Lee and his is Hay Lee, “but it seemed like a good fit,” he said.).
[image error]Bill HaleyHaley had a whole series of number one hits after age 30, including Shake, Rattle and Roll, See You Later Alligator and Razzle Dazzle.  His records sold 25 million copies before his sudden death at age 57 in 1981.  He was inducted into the aptly named Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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Our freedom of expression

 “The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem .” – Michael Chabon
On this Independence Day, we who write can and should be thankful for our right as Americans to share free expression – truly the only writers in the world who have that right protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution.  To us, writing seems to be such a natural thing, but the majority of the world’s peoples do not freely have that right without restrictions, governmental interference, or outright censorship.
Thus, as we conclude this 4th of July weekend (our 240thbirthday), not only can we celebrate our freedom as a nation, but also our freedom of expression and of the press.  We are, indeed, blessed to have such rights.

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