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Todays illustration was submitted by Barbara DiLorenzo who was featured on Illustrator Saturday April 14, 2012. Barbara is an author/Illustrator and her first picture book titled Renato and the Lion will be released by Viking in 2016. Very Exciting. Congratulations, Barbara! www.barbaradilorenzo.com  

David Caruba sent me an note saying that PW reported that one of the publishers will be publishing J.K. Rowland’s commencement address at Harvard University in book form. He looked it up on the Interent and her speech is on You Tube (it’s posted in its entirety) and it’s really great. Funny, moving, shocking, sincere–everything that makes her a wonderful author. Thanks David for sharing your find.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Todays illustration was submitted by Barbara DiLorenzo who was featured on Illustrator Saturday April 14, 2012. Barbara is an author/Illustrator and her first picture book titled Renato and the Lion will be released by Viking in 2016. Very Exciting. Congratulations, Barbara! www.barbaradilorenzo.com  

David Caruba sent me an note saying that PW reported that one of the publishers will be publishing J.K. Rowland’s commencement address at Harvard University in book form. He looked it up on the Interent and her speech is on You Tube (it’s posted in its entirety) and it’s really great. Funny, moving, shocking, sincere–everything that makes her a wonderful author. Thanks David for sharing your find.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

I'm sure this is all over the blogosphere by now... I can't even remember who spoke at my college graduation. What a treat this must have been!

Apparently not everyone was thrilled. Like this guy, "...They should have picked a leader to speak at commencement. Not a children's writer. What does that say to the class of 2008? Are we the joke class?"

Hmmm... so children's books are a joke? Perhaps he'd rather they just watch more TV. It sounds to me as if this guy could use a little bit more imagination in his life. As could many leaders. Given the state the of the world today, wouldn't more imagination be a good thing for everyone?

(**–J.K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address 2008)

This is what happens after 1: overdosing on two drinks, linguini with white clam sauce, and a Veal Francaise at the The Park Side Restaurant in Queens, where tuxedos and GODFATHER-types meet, 2: a sinus headache, 3: a snoring husband ruining any chances of a good night's sleep and 4: the curse of having a television in your bedroom and a remote control to keep you company, jumping from channel to channel until your eyes rest upon a 4 AM showing of THE GRAPES OF WRATH and you know you're not going anywhere until the credits roll.

I think, therefore I write.

You have anything better for me to do with my time in the middle of the night?

Don't answer that unless your thoughts are PG-rated. ;>

And hell if I didn't think so hard that I turned to keyboard and screen. Damn you, wretched and tempest-tossed writers. Can never keep these things to yourselves, can you? ;>

Great Characters Make Great Stories. These are the books we remember. The characters that transcend the page. The iconic voices we carry with us, speaking to us from beyond the confines of the novel and remind us, time and again, why literature is a powerful link between generations. These are the voices that inspire me to write. To paint words into life, to connect reader to reader, to be "a little piece of a big soul." Not just for today but for tomorrow.



citycatinwindow introduced me to ARTISTS FOR LITERACY, an organization that promotes music inspired by great characters and great literature. Their mission is to make literature more accessible, to marry music and the written word in order to "open doors" to a more critical analysis of a book that might otherwise be daunting to a young reader.

TOM JOAD from John Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH stands tall in my pantheon of literary heroic characters. His "I'll be there" soliloquy has moved many to tears, to action-- and to music. I know. Woody Guthrie was right there, compelled to create a homage to Tom Joad after Guthrie saw the movie, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Fast forward to another great writer who found truth and beauty in this quintessential American literary hero. Enter Bruce Springsteen. (Ah, there's always a tie that binds my words to Mr. Springsteen.)

It may not be the first question I ever ask should I have the chance to have a one-on-one moment with my muse (and, should that day ever come, I highly doubt any intelligible sounds would make it past my quivering lips), but this writer would love to ask that writer what about Steinbeck's Joad inspired him to paint his musical portrait of the Joad character in Bruce's GHOST OF TOM JOAD. Steinbeck's novel identifies a cultural war that is seeped in the soul of the American dream. After stuttering and stammering for 23 minutes in Bruce's face, telling him what hismusic has meant to me (everything), oh how I would love to ask him: "How do you see your music as a source of characters questioning what is wrong and what is right in America? Who are your characters speaking to? The choir or the disenfranchised- the believers or the estranged and alienated? Are your characters uniquely American and why? Would you rather sing to the church or a confused, wandering congregation?"

I suspect this would be his answer:



Then I would fall faint to the floor.

And... end scene!

Speaking of Page Turners: Here's to 2008-- and to you and your characters and the life you give them. (Or is it the other way around?)