Wednesday, October 26, 2016

      An Evening with...Candice Millard                   
"I've always been interested in the idea of self-reinvention." 
                                                                        --Candice Millard


Great leaders are born, not made and one name stands alone as a virtual synonym for leadership - Winston Churchill, said Candice Millard, introducing her newest book, Hero of the Empire.

"Winston Churchill was a master politician and one of the most famous people in history but we don't talk about what created him," she added, speaking to a large audience at Unity Temple in Kansas City, MO. 

As a way of discovering what drove Churchill to such political heights, Millard researched his early years. By the time Churchill was 24 years old, he had been in three wars. He loved the gallantry of the military and was fascinated by power. "He (Churchill) was the first to sign up and the first to show off," Millard said. "He worked as a journalist and was a very good writer." Hero of the Empire is the story of what happened when Winston Churchill was hired to cover the Second Boer War as a correspondent and was subsequently captured and held as a prisoner of war. Churchill hated every minute of captivity, said Millard.

After his escape and return to England, Churchill was nearly unstoppable. He ran for a seat in Parliament and won. As a man and leader, Churchill was far from perfect, Millard said. He could an elitist and arrogant, but from him "we get lessons on grit and the power of words," she added. "He lived for 90 years. It was a crowded life." 


His crowded life is well documented. Millard traveled to England and South Africa to research Churchill's life during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and his rise to political power.  She was happy to find a wealth of primary sources which are "important for narrative non-fiction," she said. "This is such a great story."

Digging into history isn't new to Millard.  Her first book, River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey chronicled TR's exploration of the Amazon River. Her second book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President examined James Garfield's presidency, assassination attempt and later death, largely because of deplorable medical care. Hero of the Empire joins these earlier books as a New York Times bestseller. 

When the former National Geographic editor isn't researching or writing, she enjoys reading novelists Ian McEwan and Hilary Mantel. Millard's favorite non-fiction writers are no surprise - both are noted historians - Stacy Shiff (Cleopatra) and Nathaniel Philbrick (Valiant Ambition). Millard said it was "a thrill" to meet acclaimed historian David McCullough (The Wright Brothers) at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. 

There are already ideas for the next book but a final decision will be made in early 2017 when her book tour is finished, Millard said. Although the topic will almost certainly be history, Millard maintains she is not a historian, instead, she "writes about history."

For more information about the life of Winston Churchill, browse the website of the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri:  https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/ 

                   "Writing a book is an adventure" - Winston Churchill

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

                 Pencil, Paper, Plot...Go!

"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: do not use semicolons."
                                                                                       -- Kurt Vonnegut


Sharpen your pencils. Settle into your chair. Organize your thoughts. Take a deep breath. Write.

It's almost time for National Novel Writing Month, or as it is affectionately known, NaNoWriMo . Every November, the good folks at http://nanowrimo.org/ encourage us to get busy with a goal of writing every day. By the end of the month, a 50,000 word novel is born. 

In 2015, more than 430,000 people heeded NaNoWriMo's invitation to write.The annual challenge has paid off for novelists. Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and Eric Morgenstern's The Night Circus are NaNoWriMo creations.

For those of us not interested in writing a novel, daily work on a memoir, poem, essay or children's picture book is also good exercise. Think of it as pilates with a pencil or keyboard.

Let those nouns and verbs flow from brain to paper or screen. Don't edit as you write - get the first draft written. All of it. As William Wordsworth said, "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." 

Most of all, have fun writing in November. Imagine yourself as a writer in a threadbare sweater drinking gallons of hot tea and searching for the perfect verb while writing the next Great American Novel. You won't be alone because according to Cornelia Funke, "all writers are lunatics."

Indeed.

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If you need a gentle shove in the right direction, get to a bookstore or library and check out these helpful guides.

Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel - Dan Cooney

The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing - Tom Clark

Zen in the Art of Writing - Rad Bradbury

Lawrence Block's Writing the Novel

On Writing - Stephen King

Element of Style - William Strunk Jr.

Escaping Into the Open - Elizabeth Berg

Writing Fiction - Gotham Writers' Workshop

Writing Fiction - Janet Burroway & Elizabeth Stuckey-French

                                      
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Monday, October 10, 2016

            Going Old School in October


Autumn was upon them. Here and there, leaves struggled to turn color, and the day was cloudy and cool. from Karen Cushman's Grayling's Song


It started with buying a journal (or two) embellished with photos of old typewriters or QWERTY art. Then I rediscovered a vintage Underwood typewriter in our basement. My husband reminded me that his mother bought it at a garage sale and toted it home for her five children. It now sits in our living room with various black and white postcards (Samuel Beckett, Flannery O'Connor, et al) dressing it up. 

I have typewriter stickers and artwork. I have books about typewriters. When I text, the sound is a clickety-clack straight from a 1950s typing pool.

After hemming and hawing for a few months, I reached a decision today. Sitting in the back seat of my car is a typewriter. Black. Metal. Not electric. It has an ink ribbon. It won't self-correct. It won't offer suggestions of similar words.

Why is there a typewriter in my back seat? I'm not a total Luddite. I depend on the Internet for wide-ranging searches. For news updates. For shopping/browsing. But I also feel sad when I scan a restaurant and see entire groups seated together, heads down and texting, posting or searching. Or people taking selfies continuously during a concert while not paying any attention to the singer/musician on the stage.

We're incredibly connected and totally disconnected at the same time.

Why is there a typewriter in my back seat? I want to hear the clickety-clack and see words magically appear on paper, not just on a screen. I want to reverse decades and be 17 again with a typewriter, crisp white paper, a plot and a dream. I want to hear the crank as I roll in the sheet of paper and listen to the ping(!) of the carriage return lever.

It may be another whim that I'll regret by the end of the year. But it'll be fun getting there.

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October is Children's Magazine Month, Emotional Wellness Month, National Art and Humanities Month, National Cookbook Month (yum), Photographer Appreciation Month, National Go On a Field Trip Month and National Stamp Collecting Month.

If that doesn't keep you busy, look for new thrillers/mysteries by John Grisham,Stephen King, Vince Flynn, John Sandford, Stuart Woods, Tana French or Charlaine Harris. If you enjoy tales told by celebrities, this is your lucky month. Check out books by Dolly Parton, Bryan Cranston, Brian Wilson, Phil Collins, Elvis Costello (new in paperback), and Princess Leia herself - Carrie Fisher. More ideas? Try Randy Wayne White, W.E.B. Griffin, Jennifer Weiner, J.K. Rowling, Jodi Picoult, George R.R. Martin, Maria Semple, Elin Hilderbrand, Karen Kingsbury, Alexander McCall Smith, Pat Conroy, Debbie Macomber, Mary Engelbreit, Laurell Hamilton, Nancy Grace, Iris Johansen, David Macauley and Stan Lee.


                                               October Days


2-8-     Great Books Week

4-        National Taco Day (perfect for National Cookbook Month)

5-        In 2000, series premiere of Gilmore Girls 

6-        American Libraries Day

7-9-     National Storytelling Weekend

13-      Silly Sayings Day

16-22  National Friends of Libraries Week

17-23  Freedom of Speech Week

25-31  International Magic Week

28-      National Chocolate Day

30-      Checklist Day

31-      Boo! 

      
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