“Not writing for me would be like not breathing.” – Pat Bean
It’s hot in Tucson right now, so I have been doing more inside reading than outside birdwatching, which I love to do as much as I love writing. But I saw this gila woodpecker on a recent early morning walk with Pepper. — photo by Pat Bean
And Writers
“A writer who hates the actual writing, who gets no joy out of the creation of magic by words, to me is simply not a writer at all … how can you hate the magic which makes a paragraph or sentence or a line of dialogue or a description something in the nature of a new creation? – Raymond Chandler, who liked to think of his words as those that got up and walked.
Chandler introduced his hard-boiled detective, Phillip Marlowe, in The Big Sleep, which was published the year I was born. He decided to become a become a mystery writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression at the age of 44. The Big Sleep has been named one of the top 100 fiction novels of the century.
And right beneath the woodpecker, in the same tree, was a white-winged dove. — Photo by Pat Bean
“The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you have to do every day. There are two reasons for this: Getting the work done, and connecting with your unconscious mind.” – Walter Mosely.
Mosely is Black, Jewish and grew up in poverty. One of his writing teachers told him that these things provided him with riches for the page. Mosley started writing when he was 34, and says he has written every day since, turning out over 40 books in a variety of genres. Perhaps his best known are the Easy Rawlins detective series, which are a favorite of Bill Clinton, and which became more popular when the president said as much.
I remember back when JFK said his favorite author was Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond series. I had already read all of Flemings’ books at the time, but they got more popular after Kennedy said he liked them.
“Writing is really a way of thinking – not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.” –Toni Morrison
Morrison, who has writing awards too numerous to list that include a Pulitzer and a Nobel, takes on epic themes in her books, the best known of which are Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula and the Song of Solomon.
Blog pick of the day. Check it out.
Bean Pat: Laughter Therapy http://tinyurl.com/qxpht3q I’m all about the chocolate – and belly laughing.
Pat Bean's blog 
I can’t seem to get beyond writing my blog even though I want to!
I feel the same way about writing! Each time I finish writing a book I promise myself I’m going to take a break. Then I wander around like a lost soul for a few days, and then next thing I know I’m writing the first chapters of the next book. I even love editing. Maybe someday it’ll stop being fun, but until then I’m going to enjoy it for all it’s worth!