Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 93
April 18, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Speaking to the thoughtful mind'
April 17, 2024
Sports, music and inclusivity: The Hornby Style
“Idon't want my books to exclude anyone, but if they have to, then I would ratherthey excluded the people who feel they are too smart for them!”– Nick Hornby
Hornby, born in Surrey, England onthis date in 1957, writes about ordinary people in ways that translate intobestsellers, like Fever Pitch, About a Boy and High Fidelity. Fever Pitch, while written about a fan’s obsession (based on hisown) with English soccer, was made an even bigger hit as an American movieadaptation, where it focused on Jimmy Fallon’s character’s obsession with theBoston Red Sox.
That’s the universality of writingsports – one situation or type of sport can be easily adapted intoanother. I used the technique myselfwith my Tweens’ book Kelli’s Choice. There, I took what I knew from my baseballplaying days - and stories told to me by both my grandfather and father abouttheir days on the diamond - and adapted it to girls’ softball, something Iobviously never played. It becomes, of course, all about the people.
Music has an even bigger role inHornby's writing, mostly based on his own experiences. Hornby has had long and fruitfulcollaborations with the rock band Marah and even toured in the United Statesand Europe with the band, joining them on stage to read from his essays.
Dedicated to helping kids withspecial needs, Hornby has donated all of his royalties from some of his booksto helping kids with autism. He is co-founderof the nonprofit Ministry of Stories,dedicated to helping children and young adults develop their writing skills,and to support teachers who inspire students to write.
“If you can get everykid to have found a book that he or she loves,” Hornby said, “then you've donea great job.”
@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
A Writer's Moment: Sports, music and inclusivity: The Hornby Style
April 16, 2024
'Seeking and portraying the lofty'
“Iregard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way inwhich a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be ahuman being.” – Thornton Wilder
Born in Madison, WS in April of 1897, Wilder was both a playwright and novelistextraordinaire. He won 3 PulitzerPrizes— 1 for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and 2 for his plays OurTown (perhaps one of the “most performed” in American Theatre) and TheSkin of Our Teeth. He also won a U.S. National Book Awardfor his novel The Eighth Day.
Born into one of America’s most“accomplished” families – his parents were noted writers and diplomats and all4 of his siblings were leading lights in their chosen professions ranging fromeducation to archaeology to religion – Wilder began writing as a high schoolstudent. Fluent in 5 languages, he alsoplayed a key role in the U.S. Military Intelligence field during World War II.
TheBridge at San Luis Rey, published in 1928, has been named oneof the top 100 novels of the 20th century and his many theatricalsuccesses began with 1938's Our Town. While he continued writing novels, it wasplaywriting that held most of his interest from that point forward.
“Seek the lofty,” Wilder once said, “byreading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment each and every day.”
@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
A Writer's Moment: 'Seeking and portraying the lofty'
April 15, 2024
'In childhood,' the vivid years
“Idon't necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with thepart of the story that's most vivid in my imagination and work forward andbackward from there.” – Beverly Cleary
Cleary, who was born in Oregon onApril 12, 1916 lived to be nearly 105. She created outstanding characters that had a huge impact ongenerations of young people who might not have had the impetus to pick upa book or listen to a story until they saw or heard something she had written.
From TheMouse and the Motorcycle to iconic “real life” characters like Beezus andRamona to Henry Huggins and Mitch and Amy, her characters vividly deal with the fears,joys and “daily minutiae” that children everywhere experience.
“Kids,” she once said, “need to feel safe, be close totheir families, like their teachers, and have friends to play with. Quite often somebody will say to me, ‘Whatyears do your books take place?’ and the only answer I can give is, ‘Inchildhood’.”
@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
A Writer's Moment: 'In childhood,' the vivid years
April 13, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Laugh, Cry , Write a Poem'
'Laugh, Cry , Write a Poem'
“Thevery least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The mostyou can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching thewalls on both sides.” — Barbara Kingsolver
On April 8 I wrote a few words aboutKingsolver’s creative writing. She alsowrites poetry. “Her poems,” onereviewer wrote, “ . . . are songs of hope and longing.”
“When you find yourself laughing andcrying both at once, that is the time to write a poem,” Kingsolver said. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Kingsolver’s,
Apotheosis
There are days when I am envious of myhens:
when I hunger for a purpose as perfect and sure
as a single daily egg.
If I could only stand in the sun,
scratch the gravel and blink and wait
for the elements within me to assemble,
asking only grain I would
surrender myself to the miracle
of everyday incarnation: a day of my soul
captured in yolk and shell.
And I would have no need
for the visions that come to others
on bat’s wings, to carry them
face to face with nothingness.
The howl of the coyote in the night
would not raise my feathers, for I,
drowsy on my roost, would dream
of the replicated fruits of my life
nested safe in cartons.
And yet I am never seduced,
for I have seen what a hen knows of omnipotence:
nothing of the miracles in twelves,
only of the hand that feeds
and, daily, robs the nest.
@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
April 12, 2024
'Stumbling upon cause and effect'
Writing a story or a novel is one wayof discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect inthe happenings of a writer's own life.” – Eudora Welty
Welty went on the trail of such writing and self-discovery in the early 1930sdiving into journalism and photojournalism to help care for her family afterher father died from leukemia. Ultimately, she became one of America’s premiere writers about the AmericanSouthern Experience and the first living author to have works published by theLibrary of America. Honored just beforeher death in 2001 with the Medal of Freedom for her life’s work, she also won aPulitzer Prize for her novel TheOptimist’s Daughter.
Bornin Jackson, MS on April 13, 1909 she developed a deep love of reading thatwas reinforced by her mother who believed that "any room in the house, atany time in the day, was there to read in, or to be read to."
Asa WPA employee in the mid-1930s, Welty documented daily life and the effect ofWPA efforts in Mississippi through both her words and photos. In 1971 she published one of the definitivephoto books about the experience, OneTime, One Place. Many of her booksand short stories are reflective of the hard times and individual hardships sheobserved.
“All serious daringstarts from within,” Welty said. “Toimagine yourself inside the life of another person . . . is what a storywriterdoes in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too, Isuppose.”
@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
