'You can't go wrong if it's real'

 

“If we judge others it is because weare judging something in ourselves of which we are unaware.” – John Camp

 

Novelist and journalist Camp, whowrites as author John Sandford, was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on this date in1944.  I first met him in 1985 when hewas writing feature stories for the St.Paul Pioneer Press & Dispatch.   As a feature writer myself, I admired Camp’s craftsmanship and style.

 

At the time of our meeting in the Pioneer Press newsroom, Camp was writinga series about the life and struggles of a farm family in southwestern Minnesota – not far fromwhere I had lived as a child on a nearby South Dakota farm.  We had a pleasant talk and I asked him whathe might be doing next.  “I want to write books,” hesaid.  “I like newspapers, but I thinkI’ve got a book or two in me.”  That nextspring, he won the Pulitzer Prize for that farm series so I was positive hewould stay in journalism. 

 

ButCamp followed his dream and started writing thriller/suspense/crime novels abouta loner detective (Lucas Davenport) who goes against the grain to solve crimes,written with the same realism Camp put into his feature writing.   This year Camp/Sandford is releasing his 58th novel, Toxic Prey, and still going strong, althoughit’s sad the journalism world lost his gifted voice.  

 

“Writeit as you see it.   Just go outside and look at something andwrite it down and you’ll find it’s a very nice piece of writing.  You can’t go wrong if it’s real.”

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