Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 7

A Writer's Moment: 'Where miracles happen'

A Writer's Moment: 'Where miracles happen':   “The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.” – Thomas Wolfe   Born in...

'Where miracles happen'

 

“The reason a writer writes a bookis to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to rememberit.” – Thomas Wolfe

 

Born in Ashville, NC on this date in1900, Wolfe is considered one of America’s leading 20th centurywriters.  William Faulkner called him “the greatest talent of ourgeneration,” and his home state often lists him as the greatest writer ever tocome from there.

 

Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels aswell as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas before his early death(at age 37 from tuberculosis).  His works are often studied for theirinteresting mix of writing styles and for their reflection on America’s rapidlychanging culture in the 1920s and ’30s.

 

Wolfe studied theatre and planned tobe a playwright, but he could never keep his works short enough for the popularstage, so he turned to fiction.  His first novel, LookHomeward, Angel, was nearly 350 thousand words before being drasticallyedited by the famous Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins (also the editor forboth Hemingway and Fitzgerald).  Often at odds with people in hishometown (both for including versions of them in his works and for excludingthem in others), he based some of You Can’t Go Home Again onthat turbulent relationship.    

 

Wolfe lived for a time in Europe,seemingly estranged from his home country, but after witnessing the growingbrutality of Hitler’s Germany, he came back to America to stay.  

 

“America - it is a fabulous country,the only fabulous country,” he said.   “It is the only placewhere miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Where we're headed that matters most'

A Writer's Moment: 'Where we're headed that matters most':   “What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't w...

'Where we're headed that matters most'

 

“What makes a river so restful topeople is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going,and it doesn't want to go anywhere else.” – HalBoyle

 

While he wrote mostly of nature inhis final years, Boyle (born in Missouri in 1911) is best known for his syndicatednewspaper column, and his work as a war correspondent and writer at conflictsand troubled spots around the world.  Hewon the first of his Pulitzer Prizes in 1945 for “Distinguished Correspondence”for his Front Line reporting during WWII.  The Overseas Press Club continues to honor Boyle’s legacy with an annual award inhis name.

 

Boyle also won the Pulitzer for hisnewspaper column, which became a staple in over 700 newspapers and was a “mustread” for millions. In his lifetime he wrote the column nearly 8,000 times, spawning a couple of bestselling books, including The Best of Boyle and The World of Hal Boyle.  To see and hear Boyle, check out the 1945 film dramatization of Ernie Pyle'sbook, The Story of G.I. Joe, where Boyle portrayshimself. 

 

Shortly before his death in 1974 andthoroughly disgusted and ashamed by how people treated each other and theearth, he noted, “We need not worry so much about what man descends from - it'swhat he descends to that shames the human race.”

Pathway to 'undisciplined' success

 

“Sometimes the characters developalmost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't plannedon, and then you have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm notrecommending it as a way to write. It's very sloppy, but it works for me.”  –Barbara Mertz

 

 Born in Illinois on this datein 1927, Mertz wrote under her own name as well as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.   Best known for her mystery andsuspense novels – especially as Peters – Mertz (who held a Ph.D. in Egyptology)also wrote two scholarly books on ancient Egypt.  

 

 Her 20-book “Amelia Peabody”mystery series earned her wide acclaim and millions of readers with the finalbook – The Painted Queen – published in 2017 just after herdeath.  Her heroine is an Egyptologist and the stories allrelate to the "Golden Age" of Egyptology, beginning with Crocodileon the Sandbank (set in 1884) and ending with Tomb of theGolden Bird –the discovery of Tutankhamen's (King Tut’s) tomb in 1922.

 

 Despite writing some 75 books,she called herself “undisciplined” as a writer, saying she really neverdeveloped a writing schedule or routine.  

 

“I work when I feel like it, and Iwork when I have to - mostly the latter, and it works for me,” she said.  “I can do a book in three months if I spendall day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.”

A Writer's Moment: Pathway to an 'undisciplined' success

A Writer's Moment: Pathway to 'undisciplined' success  “Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you planned on, and then you have ...

A Writer's Moment: 'Secret, dangerous . . . and delicious'

A Writer's Moment: 'Secret, dangerous . . . and delicious':   “Every afternoon, I would shut the door of my bedroom to write: Poetry was secret, dangerous, wicked and delicious.”  – Donald Hall   ...

'Secret, dangerous . . . and delicious'

 

“Every afternoon, I would shut thedoor of my bedroom to write: Poetry was secret, dangerous, wicked anddelicious.” – Donald Hall

 

Born on Sept. 20, 1928 in Hamden,CT, Hall (who died in 2018) wrote more than 50 books ranging from essays andshort fiction to plays, children’s books and 22 volumes of poetry. 

 

A “master” of simple, directlanguage to evoke surrealistic imagery, he was not only a popular writer butalso a popular speaker, teacher, and reader of his works.  Sometimes criticized for “the simplicity” ofhis poems, he responded, “Everything important always begins from somethingtrivial.”   For this weekend's poem, here isHall’s,

     An Old Life

Snowfell in the night.
At five-fifteen I woke to a bluish
mounded softness where
the Honda was. Cat fed and coffee made,
I broomed snow off the car
and drove to the Kearsarge Mini-Mart
before Amy opened
to yank my Globe out of the bundle.
Back, I set my cup of coffee
beside Jane, still half-asleep,
murmuring stuporous
thanks in the aquamarine morning.
Then I sat in my blue chair
with blueberry bagels and strong
black coffee reading news,
the obits, the comics, and the sports.
Carrying my cup twenty feet,
I sat myself at the desk
for this day's lifelong
engagement with the one task and desire.

'A glimpse over the edge'

 

“From a good book, I want to betaken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.” – MarkHaddon 

 

Born in England on Sept. 26, 1962Haddon is best known for his book and play The Curious Incident ofthe Dog in the Night-Time – about a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’ssyndrome and winner of the Whitbread Award, the Guardian Prize, and aCommonwealth Writers Prize.

                          

The author of 30 books and numerousshort stories, he said it was his “late” discovery of the joy of reading thattook him off a path headed toward a career in mathematics and onto one in thewriting world.   His most recent book Dogs and Monsterswas published in 2024.

 

Haddon utilizes a combination ofhumor, sensitivity and adventure in his writing.

 

He said his advice to new writers issimple: “Use your imagination, and you'll see that even the most narrow,humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A glimpse over the edge'

A Writer's Moment: 'A glimpse over the edge':   “From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.” – Mark Haddon    Born in England o...