MightyWriters

“Physical power is essential. Many authors
don’t respect that. They drink too much
and smoke too much.”

—Haruki Murakami

Prepare: 16 days until the movie opening of “Where the Wild Things Are“… and the many spinoffs.

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From today’s Wall Street Journal: “Philadelphia is a logical place for Mr. Duncan to kick off his promotional tour, which he and Messrs. Sharpton and Gingrich plan to take to four other states this fall. The Philadelphia school district, with more than 220,000 students, has been wracked by the sort of problems that have plagued big-city school systems: crumbling buildings, high dropout rates, low test scores and mediocre teachers…” Read rest of story here.

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Meanwhile, an Inquirer editorial calls for School District to “get real.”

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Cup half empty: FOX News says Obama’s call to extend the school year would have “dire” economic effects.

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Bonus: A literary agent’s revision checklist.

“There’s no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.”

—Martin Scorcese

Grew up: “In Philadelphia, Center City, around people of all different races and orientations. It means I’m comfortable talking to people from all walks of life, and the more people you talk to, the more stories you have to tell.”

What I read as a kid: “Anything with words, basically. I ate books for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Person who inspired me to write: “My Dad. He was a writer when I was growing up, and he made it seem like so much fun. People I met would ask if I was related to him. It made me feel like writers were important.”

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“Get out and observe things.”
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Books I read now: “I’m really into contemporary fiction, like Michael Chabon and Zadie Smith. I just finished reading a hilarious novel called ‘And Then We Came to the End’ about people working in an ad agency. The whole book is written in the plural: We did this, we did that. It’s amazing how he pulls it off, and how great it is.”

Favorite all-time author: “Dostoyevsky, because everything is stuffed in there: beautiful writing, suspense, deep relationships, sadness, happiness, ideas—the stuff of life. I cried when I finished one of his books because I felt like I couldn’t live outside of the book.”

Hardest thing about writing: “Getting started. But once I have the first paragraph, I’m good to go.”

Writing makes me happiest when: “It’s funny or makes someone connect.”

Advice on becoming a good writer: “Take a walk. One of the big mistakes young writers make is trying to write by sitting and looking at a blank sheet of paper. Get out and observe things. Look around you. Talk to people. Then sit down.”

Liz Spikol writes frequently on mental health issues and the trials of everyday life among other topics. You can learn a lot more about her in this interview.

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Know Your (Grown Up) Mighty Writers:

Jason Fagone

Mary Beth Keane

Lauren McCutcheon

George Miller

Ashley Parker

Duane Swierczynski

Tina Brown’s latest Beast of a brainstorm:
faster, cheaper, shorter books. Really?

(Plus: Tina Brown’s must reads.)

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President Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan
visits Philly; says he wants kids to have longer school
days and shorter summer breaks: “Six hours a day just
doesn’t cut it. Our school calendar’s based on a
19th-century agrarian economy. I’m sure there weren’t
too many kids in Philadelphia working in their parents’
fields this summer.” Rest of the story here …

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Disney Digital Books: Get this, “For $79.95 a year, families will soon be able to access electronic replicas of hundreds of Disney books, from ‘Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too’ to ‘Hannah Montana: Crush-tastic!’”

But can digital books replace “snuggle” time?

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And for all you grammar nerds, have fun subjunctivating this…

“Writing is a question of finding a
certain rhythm. I compare it to the
rhythm of jazz.”

—François Sagan

A Mighty Writers story
by Khari Evans

Will looked at the map.

Hopeden City was 23 miles away, but there was a storm coming and Will did not want to get in its way. On the news they were calling it the storm of storms with 125 mph winds. It didn’t sound nice.

A heavy fog came down. A big building suddenly appeared. Will looked inside. The building was empty except for a golden pen on an altar. It filled the room with a golden light.

Will touched the pen and a voice said, “I am the Pen of Light and this is the Temple of the Pen. You are the chosen one. Take this pen and no one can stop you, for you are The Writer.”

Will woke up back in Hopeden. It was just a dream.

But then why was the golden pen on the table?

Will got out of bed thinking this was some sick joke played by one of his friends.

“Where are you?” Will asked, looking to see where someone could have hidden. But his small room consisted of little more than a bed, a table on which the pen rested, and a 16-inch TV.

“It’s only in my mind,” Will said to himself.

He closed his eyes then opened them again, but the pen still lay on the table. Will got a piece of paper, picked up the pen, and wrote “c-a-t.”

The paper glowed like a neon light and caught fire, then a small ball of fur began purring at his feet.

Jim Carroll, author of cult-classic “The Basketball Diaries,” had a very long trip home.

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Mighty Writers recommends: “Invisible Children,” a documentary about the plight of kids in Northern Uganda. (Tip via our friends at Vintage Blue).

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A Mighty thanks to the City Paper for these nice words.

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Say it ain’t so: Writers are boring speakers?

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We should have known: There’s money in swine flu!

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