I once wrote for Garrison
Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show. It was not a long gig. Almost as
soon as I had started, GK decided to end the show and move to Denmark. I don’t
think my writing was the reason. It was the Danish woman. I’m sorry for him
that the marriage to the Danish woman did not work out, but I’m glad he moved
back to the US. Humor, and poetry, and music, and story-telling are all so much
better for his contributions to those arts every Saturday evening.
One of his staff members
was once asked about how to approach him so as not to interrupt him. “Any time
you approach him, you’re interrupting,” she said, “because he is writing in his
head ALL the time.”
I think that is true of
most writers. We are working on our writing all the time—doing the dishes,
mowing the lawn, driving to Mother’s, just staring into space.
When William Faulkner went
to Hollywood as a screen writer, his producers complained that he didn’t work
hard. “All he does is stare out the window,” they said. He may well have been
working harder than anyone there. Kierkegaard would have approved.
So if you speak to a
writer, if just to say “Hey,” you are interrupting.
How, as a writer, do you
deal with this? I have no answer, except to say that we learn as much through
sacrifice as any other way. Sacrificing for the sake of those we love, and who
love us, by accepting the interruption to pay attention to them, is better than
any mental writing we might do. Everything, to a writer, is material, including
the interruptions, including the sacrifices.
John Robert McFarland
My novel, VETS, will be
published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.
In case you missed it, a
Tweet Repeat: “When will there be good news?” When you read Kate Atkinson.
I tweet as yooper1721
I also write Christ in
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life
and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher,
but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,”
though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do
something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL
and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball
poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
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