Tag: authors

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Ralph Ellison

For today’s episode of Silver Threading’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday my pick is from another one of my favorite authors, Ralph Ellison:

WQW

Woa, that picture came out wayy too big, but I digress 🙂

“By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication.”

– Ralph Ellison

So I love this quote, such wonderful advice about the importance of a writing identity as it is seen through the eyes of others. While you may know this within yourself (and I hope that you do) I think it’s also important to understand, as a writer, that it’s not just about you. The readers and even critics of your work play an important part in the molding and shaping of it as well. When someone who is not closely knit to you, not just a family friend or relative but a devoted reader, when he or she affirms who you are as a writer it isn’t to say you are dependent on that affirmation, it means you have properly communicated your message over to the reader. In a way it reminds me of Blog Awards. One of the most positive things about them, especially when different people nominate you for the same award, is that they prove that you have succeeded in communicating your blogging identity over to your readers. If your purpose was to create a creative blog for instance and you received a Creative Blog Award, it means you were successful in conveying that over to your readers, even if it’s just one person who gets it.

About The Author:

index

Ralph Ellison was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and studied music before moving to New York City and working as a writer. In his book of essays Shadow and Act, Ellison described himself and several of his friends growing up as “young Renaissance Men, people who looked to culture and intellectualism as a source of identity”. Ellison took up the cornet at the age of 8 and years later, as a trumpeter, attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he studied music with his eye on becoming a symphony composer. I was first introduced to Ellison’s work while attending Chicago State University and reading his bestselling novel Invisible Man for one of my English classes, which he published in 1952, and was hooked ever since. Ellison’s unfinished novel Juneteenth was published posthumously in 1999.

*********************

And that’s it for Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Be sure to click the picture (or the links) to find out how you can join the fun. 🙂

writers-quote-wednesday

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Wole Soyinka

This week, my Writer’s Quote inspiration comes from Wole Soyinka:

Wole

Also known as observation or people watching, you’d be surprised how much you learn just watching and listening. I think that not to pay attention to the works of others will only rob us of an important part of the growing process. It’s one thing to be taught something in the organized sense of the word, to be instructed and shown. We know that this is important in the cultivation of our minds, acquiring and using information (information that’s useful that is, can’t give ear to everything, it’s just not wise). However, I think everyone needs an example. For every question, there is someone living the answer. Somewhere someone is doing it right. They are usually not out in the front, not the most outspoken and not always aware of the pivotal role they play in just being themselves. But they exist and when it comes to writing or blogging, or photography or art or music or whatever it is we are seeking a better understanding of how to implement into our lives at this moment, for every craft there is someone who can give you a tangible example of how to get it done. But you gotta pay attention.

About the Author:

_57791113_000308748-1

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, author, and teacher, and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.

Wole Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934, in Nigeria and educated in England. In 1986, the playwright and political activist became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech to Nelson Mandela. Soyinka has published hundreds of works, including drama, novels, essays and poetry. As a result, colleges all over the world seek him out as a visiting professor.

*******************************

And that’s it for this week’s weekly dose of “Writer’s Quote Wednesday”. Hosted by Colleen of Silver Threading.

writers-quote-wednesday

What Do You Want?

author-quote-3Everyone has their own set of ideas about what makes good writing and marketing. But the key to it all, I think, is individuality. No one does a better job at being you than you, and no one knows the intricate details of your story like you. For this reason, it is important to stick to those methods that best fit your vision, values, and taste.

I think the most important question then for a writer is, “What do you want?” Everything else is extra.

Kindle App for i-Phone Users

Great info for readers and authors. And if you don’t have an iPhone, or a phone period, there’s Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac you can download for free.

Lisa W Tetting's avatarLisa W. Tetting

kindleapp

Hi guys,

Just a quick post while Scandal is on commercial break. Ha, ha! Earlier today I found something that should help all of us writers with sales. You may already know about it, but because it is new to me I’m posting about it. Usually I am a girl who needs a hard copy of a book, but I needed to read a book for some research I am doing and it is only available on Amazon as an e-book. My dilemma was I don’t own a tablet.

The Amazon Kindle App for i-Phone was the answer! I decided to go ahead, order the book and worry about how  to read it later. In the past I have downloaded PDF files and a cookbook or two and been was able to view them on an i-Books App so I thought there might be a way to open a Kindle…

View original post 81 more words

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – The War of Art

My choice for Writer’s Quote Wednesday this week is from Steven Pressfiled’s The War of Art:

WQW

Writers. People who second guess whether or not they have what it takes, and yet are still bold enough to go on. This quote reminds me of what it’s like to be nervous. We’ve all experienced it and we are all familiar with that feeling. Your heart beat races, your palms become sweaty and your body gets all jitterbug on you. Truth is you are scared to death of whatever it is you are about to do. It does not mean you have no confidence, it just means you are not so dependent on yourself that you forget about the big picture and you can’t stop thinking about the possibilities. You know that you can do it; you just don’t know whether or not it will succeed. But still you push forth and you show up at that place or do that thing. It is the war of art. You battle yourself until finally, you put pen to paper and you write. Writers. Sometimes fearful. Sometimes doubtful. Sometimes afraid. But always humble in confidence, and yet courageous in character.

About The Author: (from Wikipedia)

Steven Pressfield (September 1943— ) is an American author of historical fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays.

He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943, while his father was stationed there, in the Navy. He graduated from Duke University in 1965 and in 1966 joined the Marine Corps. In the years following, he worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout, attendant in a mental hospital, fruit-picker in Washington state, and screenwriter. His struggles to make a living as an author, including the period when he was homeless and living out of the back of his car, are detailed in his book The War of Art.

His first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was published in 1995, and made into a film of the same name, starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Matt Damon, and directed by Robert Redford.

His second novel, Gates of Fire, is about the Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae. It is taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico.

In 2012, he launched the publishing house Black Irish Books with his agent Shawn Coyne.

******************

And that’s it for Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click the pick to join the fun.

writers-quote-wednesday

http://silverthreading.com/2015/05/13/writers-quote-wednesday-sir-winston-churchill/

The Short Story

short-story“The short story….. wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.”

–V. S. Pritchett

“I have always enjoyed short stories and have now found them to be an added joy. They are easy to read and digest, quick to review and……….. a great introduction to an author’s work. They act as an appetizer if you like, tempting you to tackle the meatier course of someone’s novel where you need to commit serious time.”

– Georgia Rose Books

“The particular problem of the short story writer is how to make the action he describes reveal as much of the mystery of existence as possible…The type of mind that can understand [the short story] is the kind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.”

–Flannery O’Connor

“…the short story is a natural form for the presentation of a moment whose intensity makes it seem outside the ordinary stream of time, or the significance is outside the ordinary range of experience.”

—Wendell Harris