Author Blog Challenge # 3
Who are the writers you most admire? Who are your writing
mentors?
The authors I admire most are those who have no pre-established
links or ease of entry into the industry through fame, notoriety, political or
other position,or contacts in high or low places and who, through sheer tenacity,
passion, skill and faith in their story manage to catch the eye of a mainstream
publisher and hold this through to seeing their book on the shelf. I may never
know their names until I hear them on radio or television talk shows or see it
on the back of a book jacket, but they have my admiration just the same. They
dared to dream, to write their own script. Other writers I admire are Ruth Park an Australian writer, who
wrote prolifically until her death in 2010. I love her realism style of writing
that takes the reader on a journey into the times and places she wrote about. Henry Lawson is an
enduring favourite, for his ability to tell a yarn in both prose and poetic form
to leave a vivid history of an Australia not always well recorded beyond the writers
and bush poets of the day. I have many others I admire, from Dickens – strange that I cling to
so many long deceased – something to do with age I suspect, to Tolkien and J K Rowling. Among the contemporary
writers I admire I include Roddy Doyle for his
raw ability to paint his stories in the colours of free speech and to dress his
characters in layers of understanding.
My writing mentors have been those willing to share their
knowledge of writing and pitfalls of the industry through workshops and
friendship, and continues with the people I meet in writing and poetry groups I
attend and others I facilitate. The informal mentoring that comes from contact
with likeminded people regardless of their age, experience, qualifications or
publishing history is invaluable, for they are also readers with an intuitive
knowledge as to what works and what doesn’t. I take my mentoring black, no
sugar, and copious amounts of it.
~ Merlene Fawdry
~ Merlene Fawdry
"The authors I admire most are those who have no pre-established links or ease of entry into the industry through fame, notoriety, political or other position,or contacts in high or low places and who, through sheer tenacity, passion, skill and faith in their story manage to catch the eye of a mainstream publisher and hold this through to seeing their book on the shelf."
ReplyDeleteI think there are some authors I'm going to have to check out. Awesome post, Merlene Fawdry.
You are so right about the informal mentoring further supporting my view that must develop circles or tribes of like minded people so we can all learn from each other x
ReplyDelete