Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 77

'Like cracking a safe - when you're in, you're in'

 

“Writinga nonfiction story is like cracking a safe. It seems impossible at thebeginning, but once you're in, you're in.” – Rich Cohen

  

Born in Lake Forest, IL, on thisdate in 1968 Cohen is a contributing editor at both Vanity Fair and RollingStone magazines, and co-creator with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger andTerence Winter of the HBO series Vinyl.   His works have been New York Timesbestsellers, New York Times Notable Books, and collected in the Best American Essaysseries.             

 

Sometimes called one of the greatest“cultural and social” historians of the late 20th and early 21stcenturies, Cohen has won numerous awards – and some criticism – for hisworks.  But regardless of how hiswritings are received, they always generate a lot of commentary, whether aboutpeople portrayed or the times in which they are set.

 

His most recent book is 2023’s Whenthe Game was War: the NBA's Greatest Season about the 1987 rivalry betweenNBA greats Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan.  Just 5 years later Johnson, Bird and Jordanwould play as teammates on the Olympic “Dream Team.”

 

Sports figures and entertainmentstars are often his subjects. “I have long believed thatcelebrity, the way we worship and package and sell our pop stars, is whatfilled the need for gods that was once filled by the pictures in stained glass.”   

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A Writer's Moment: 'Bit by bit the chemical process unfolds'

A Writer's Moment: 'Bit by bit the chemical process unfolds':   “Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way th...

'Bit by bit the chemical process unfolds'

 

“Somethinghappens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process ofdeveloping photographs, the way they did it before the digital age.  The photograph, as it was printed in thedarkroom, became visible bit by bit.  Asyou read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place.”– Patrick Modiano

 

Born in France on July 30, 1945Modiano was honored for his life’s work with the 2014 Nobel Prize, and hisanalogy of the development of the novel “before our eyes” is an apt descriptionof his style.   He is noted for lettingthe picture slowly unfold, sometimes leaving us startled, sometimes satisfied,sometimes angry, but always interested in what’s coming next.

The winner of almost every major European and French writing award, he washonored for his life’s body of work even prior to winning the Nobel and was –up until that award – one of the few international writers whose work had neverbeen translated into English. But, of course, it has now.

 

Modiano says he writes for a fewhours – “every morning” – and that, for him, “getting started” has sometimesbeen a challenge.  “I quickly realized that it is difficultto get started when writing a novel. You have this dream of what you want tocreate, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump inbecause the water is too cold.”

 

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'Soaring' to greatness

 

Chief DanGeorge, born inCanada on July 24, 1899 was chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation inBritish Columbia.   Both a writer and actor, he was 71 when he did the movie Little Big Man, a role that earned him numerousacting awards including a “Best Supporting Actor” Academy Award nomination.

 

His famousline in the movie was “My heart soars like a hawk,” based in part on his poem“My heart soars.”  The poem wasrecited by Donald Sutherland at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 WinterOlympics in Vancouver, B.C.  In honor ofthis year’s Olympians and for Saturday’s Poem, here is Chief George’s,  

 

MyHeart Soars

The beauty of thetrees, the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass ... speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky,
The rhythm of the sea ... speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning,
the dewdrop on the flower ... speaks to me.
The strength of the fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away ... they speak to me.
And my heart soars.

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A Writer's Moment: 'Soaring' to greatness

A Writer's Moment: 'Soaring' to greatness:   Chief Dan George, b orn in Canada on July 24, 1899 was chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in British Columbia.    Both ...

'Avoiding Tangles; Following the Rules'

 

“Somany people think that if you're writing fantasy, it means you can just makeeverything up as you go. Want to add a dragon? Add a dragon! Want some magic?Throw it in. But the thing is, regardless of whether you're dealing withrealism or fantasy, every world has rules.” – V. E. Schwab

 

 Born in July of 1987, VictoriaElizabeth Schwab is best known for her novels – 2013’s Vicious and 2020’sThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,nominated for a Locus Award as Best Fantasy.  The daughter of aBritish mom and “Beverly Hills” dad, she grew up on both the West Coast and inthe Deep South, a lover of fairytales, folklore “and books that make me wonderif the world is really as it seems.”

 

A graduate of Washington Universityin St. Louis, she studied everything from Physics to Film to Art History andEnglish and held a wide variety of jobs before turning to writing in the20-teens. 

 

Her work has received criticalacclaim, been translated into morethan a dozen languages, and been optioned for TV and Film.  She said she loves working in many differentgenres and writing for all ages.   “Istill get rejections - frequently - and my goal isn't to never fail, to neverbe turned down, but simply to succeed more often than I don't,” she said.   That having been said, her next novel Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil has been accepted for publication in 2025.

 

“Ithink a lot of writers are tempted to add complexity by over-complicatingthings, but always remember that most natural rules/laws are, at their core,simple. Start simple and build from there, or you risk getting yourself andyour readers tangled.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Avoiding Tangles; Following the Rules'

A Writer's Moment: 'Avoiding Tangles; Following the Rules':   “So many people think that if you're writing fantasy, it means you can just make everything up as you go. Want to a...

'Raising Questions; Finding Answers'

 

“Youcan have all the information you want in the world. If you don't have thepeople raising questions and looking beneath the surface, and people being paidto do this, you're not going to find the answers." – Lowell Bergman

 

Born in New York City on July 24,1945 Bergman has had one of the most prestigious careers in Americanjournalism, working nearly 6 decades in print and television news and teachingjournalism while earning almost every major journalistic award. 

 

A native of New York City, Bergman studiedat the University of Wisconsin and UC-San Diego and co-founded the San Diego Free Press.  After stints at the San Francisco Examiner and RollingStone, he moved over to TV as a producer, reporter and then executive incharge of investigative reporting at ABC News. An original producer of 20/20, he joined CBS News as a producerfor 60 Minutes, where over the course of 14 years he produced more than50 stories, many Emmy winners.

 

His investigative story into thetobacco industry was chronicled in the film The Insider, a gripping taleof investigative journalism.   Afterleaving CBS he worked 10 years as an investigative correspondent for The NewYork Times, winning a Pulitzer Prize for the series “A Dangerous Business,”which detailed a record of worker safety violations coupledwith the systematic violation of environmental laws in the cast-iron sewer andwater pipe industry.

 

 Namedby the Society of Professional Journalists for its James Madison Freedom ofInformation Award for Career Achievement, Bergman retired in 2019.

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A Writer's Moment: 'Raising Questions; Finding Answers'

A Writer's Moment: 'Raising Questions; Finding Answers':   “You can have all the information you want in the world. If you don't have the people raising questions and looking...

A Writer's Moment: Living up to 'an inner image of yourself'

A Writer's Moment: Living up to 'an inner image of yourself':   “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner imag...