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<![CDATA[www.richardjespers.com - Blog]]>Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:27:52 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: LAURA PEDERSEN]]>Thu, 08 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-laura-pedersen3942700

Friends are people not bound to you by accident of birth, legal documents or vows recited before clergy, but a connectedness that endures solely within the heart. Treasure them because they’re allowed to replace you.
Laura Pedersen, American Author & Playwright
Author of Going Away Party: A Novel
Born October 8, 1965

L. Pedersen

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: STEVEN ERIKSON]]>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-steven-erikson

All art is an intensely vulnerable gesture, and it is made with no small amounts of risk, and fear. So, I have plenty of sympathy for self-defense mechanisms, especially among artists.
Steven Erikson, Canadian Novelist
Author of The Bonehunters
Born October 7, 1959

S. Erikson

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Laura Pedersen
FRI: A Writer's Wit | K. A. Applegate

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: PETER MCGEHEE]]>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-peter-mcgehee

The Arkansas River is “the saddest little river / That you ever saw,” sings Stellrita, the Black domestic who dominates the lives of three generations of the family of Zero MacNoo, McGehee’s fictional counterpart in Boys Like Us . . . .“Nobody writes books about it, / Nobody here’s got nothin’ to say. / ’Tain’t ’cause it ain’t worth mentionin’, / It’s just nobody smart stays.”
—Raymond-Jean Frontain,
encylopediaofarkansas.net
Sharing work of Peter McGehee, American-Born Canadian Author of Novel and Short Stories
Author of Boys Like Us
Born October 6, 1955

P. McGehee

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Steven Erikson
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Laura Pedersen
FRI: A Writer's Wit | K. A. Applegate

]]><![CDATA[CALLING ALL WRITERS: GET UNSTUCK]]>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/calling-all-writers-get-unstuck

When you've heard one bagpipe tune, you've heard them both.
Jack Finney, Author of Thrillers and Science Fiction
Author of The Body Snatchers
Born October 2, 1911

J. Finney

Ausubel, Ramona. Unstuck: A Writer’s Guide (101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page). New York: Tin House, 2026.

This colorful case laminate book (no dust jacket) is as bright with ideas on the inside as the cover is on the outside. Between 2011 and 2014, I reviewed two of Ausubel’s New Yorker stories in my blog. One I liked, one I didn’t. Both are quite imaginative, and that is one of the great qualities Ausubel brings to this book written to help creative writers move their work along.

She structures the book with four sections: Part 1, “Doorways In: Beginning”; Part 2, “Doorways Through: Continuing”; Part 3, “Doorways Up: Getting Perspective”; and Part 4, “Doorways Out: Later Drafts and Moving On.” Ausubel’s format is quite easy to follow: Each doorway is about a page or page-and-a-half in length followed by a paragraph or so titled “Key,” in which she lists a prompt so that you can carry out what she’s described. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this format makes the book an easy read. I find that after plowing through about ten doorways, I must stop for the evening and let my mind absorb what she’s suggesting. Each time, I conclude my reading with every page having received at least one underline or annotation!

In Part 1, “Doorway #24,” Ausubel instructs you to do a Save As for something you’re working on with word count; mark it 50%, because you will eliminate half of your document (elements not needed). Then you do it again and mark it 25%. You do this until you’re down to one word. Don’t worry about your cuts; you place them in a separate folder in case you want them back! Ausubel explains: “You are not here to write a one-word story or poem, though. The first half of this exercise is meant to discover what the piece is by defining what it is not (my italics)” (63). The second half of the exercise asks you to rebuild the piece with a clearer sense of what you’re doing.

“Doorway #33” of Part 2 is designed to get the writer out of their “known world.” She claims that “write what you know” does not mean write only what you know (85). Also write about your curiosities. In her Key section she asks you to start your own list, and these are some of mine I wrote in the blank space of page 87: 1) How do lonely people (or single people) meet someone new, especially old gay men? 2) How many bird species still survive in North America, the world? 3) What happens to all the stuff people don’t get rid of before they die? And 4) Can AI be used exclusively for good (curing cancer, reducing warming of the earth)? Why must evil always exist as an “equal” to good? Is it? Now I must try to quench my curiosities!

In Part 3’s “Doorway #65” Ausubel asks writers to re-type a draft (yes, like in the old days). “Your goal is to go slowly, to listen to sentences and change them so they feel and sound right. Add new lines, move pieces around. Adjust images. Rewrite dialogue. Let the retyping become a generative process of its own” (173).

Because these deal with an entire manuscript, my favorite Doorways are “#86-88: One Thing at a Time 1, 2, and 3.” First, Ausubel explains that in revision she concentrates on careful examination of one “thread” (e.g. character, theme, setting, emotional texture) at a time—straight through to the end. She begins with her characters by examining each one and trying to deepen or sharpen them. The important thing is that you can design your own threads (no more than twelve), starting with heftier items, ones that provide backbone to your piece. Then shift to smaller “lacier” elements: body language and gesture.

Finally, “Doorway #88,” she asks the writer to use their Neon Paintbrush to “make sure every page lights up . . . by the end of the draft, there should be a line, moment, or image on every page that pops or sparks. Something odd, funny, mean, noisy, bright” (231). Ausubel is the first writer/instructor I’ve ever read who suggests such a complete list for revision. It is so . . . logical, thorough, procedural! The writer is not merely using intuition to finalize the MS but is employing a creative and yet coherent approach. Even though I thought I was “finished” with a collection of short stories, I plan to subject my MS to many of Ausubel’s doorways to see if I can’t polish the sheen yet a bit more.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Peter McGehee
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Steven Erikson
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Laura Pedersen
FRI: A Writer's Wit | K. A. Applegate

]]><![CDATA[A WRITERS' WIT: MARIELLE HELLER]]>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-marielle-heller

With all of the bad things that are happening in the world right now, I think we need a message of togetherness and true unity. I believe that starts with personal reflection and then we can find kindness toward each other.
Marielle Heller, American Director and Screenwriter
Author of Diary of a Teenage Girl
Born October 1, 1979

M. Heller

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: TRUMAN CAPOTE]]>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-truman-capote9041086

Islands are like ships at permanent anchor. To set foot on one is like starting up a gangplank: one is seized by the same feeling of charmed suspension—it seems nothing unkind or vulgar can happen to you . . .
Truman Capote, American Novelist and Playwright
Author of Other Voices, Other Rooms
Born September 30, 1924

T. Capote

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Marielle Heller
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Jack Finney

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: MARISSA MOSS]]>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-marissa-moss4144595

Notebooks allow for all kinds of record-keeping, and I kept one myself as a kid. I was attracted to mixing up words and pictures freely, since that's how I think.
Marissa Moss, American Children's Book Author
Author of Amelia's Notebook
Born September 29, 1959

M. Moss

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Truman Capote
THURS: A Writer's Wit |Marielle Heller
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Jack Finney

]]><![CDATA[LETTER WRITING AT ITS BEST]]>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/letter-writing-at-its-best

A WRITER'S WIT
A romance novel focuses exclusively on two people falling in love. It can't be about a woman caring for her aging mother or something like that. It can have that element, but it has to be primarily about the male-female relationship.
Kristin Hannah, American Writer
Author of The Four Winds
Born September 25, 1960

K. Hannah

MY BOOK WORLD

Evans, Virginia. The Correspondent. New York: Crown, 2025.

The Correspondent is a novel about a woman in her late seventies who, in the 2010s, writes to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways: traditional letters that have to be stamped and posted, emails, handwritten notes, and “unsent” letters that the woman writes more or less for herself, to herself. I’m always amazed at how yet a different author can alter the epistolary form of writing fiction to make it yet her own.

Sybil VanAntwerp, herself adopted as an infant, is a distinguished retired attorney who once worked elbow-to-elbow with a distinguished male judge. She also is divorced with two adult children, a brother who is adopted as well, and loads of friends and acquaintances with whom she corresponds—including noted authors like Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, and Larry McMurtry (all of whom respond). She reminds me of a feisty Elizabeth Strout character like Olive Kitteridge. Opinionated and always right (mostly), she takes no nonsense from anyone. Anyone.

The letters that relate this story begin in 2012 and end in 2021. They slowly unveil the life that Sybil has lived. One day she receives a threatening letter from someone who signs it with the initials DM—as if the author of the letter has set up a guessing game for Sybil, as if the person wishes to get “caught.” The intensity of these letters increases until one day the flower garden she adores cultivating is destroyed at the height of its beauty.

As an adopted person, Sybil has always held a muted curiosity about her biological parents, but when she is confronted with the opportunity to swab her mouth and submit to a DNA test, she is hesitant—also hesitant to mark the box indicating that she would like to correspond with any relatives who might pop up in the research. She marks it but almost immediately “forgets” that she has done so (haven’t we all done something like this, subliminally indicated our wishes?).

When Sybil eventually receives the results (and through some additional efforts), she finds that she has a sister living in Scotland with whom she shares 49% of her DNA. This strand of the novel may be the most important because it helps Sybil more firmly to establish her identity. But there are other threads: a gay brother living in France whose partner has cheated on him; the revelation that one of Sybil’s sons drowned as an eight-year-old. Near the end of the novel, Sybil reveals to readers in one of those set-aside letters how little Gilbert actually drowned, how she was negligent, how she hid what feels like a crime from everyone for decades.

This event from the past proves to be a powerful climax for the novel. Everything following this revelation is goodnews: her son resumes life with his partner after a short separation; Sybil discovers who DM is (the embittered son of an innocent man she once frivolously confined to prison), and they form a friendship; she visits Scotland to become acquainted with her newly discovered sister; she reunites with a daughter who has always felt ignored by her mother. Oh, and she develops a romantic relationship with a neighbor widower, and he moves in with her. So much seems to be resolved in the denouement, a satisfying situation that the narrative has “earned,” because readers know the hell Sybil has lived through to achieve such an innocent peace.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marissa Moss
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Truman Capote
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Marielle Heller
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Jack Finney
My Book World | Ramona Ausubel, Unstuck: a Writer's Guide

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: ELEANOR CATTON]]>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-eleanor-catton

Fiction is supposed to be immersive and supposed to be entertaining and narrative, so structures have to be buried a little bit. If they come foregrounded too much, it stops being fiction and starts being poetry—something more concrete and out of time.
Eleanor Catton, New Zealand Novelist
Author of Birnam Wood
Born September 24, 1985

E. Catton

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: JERRY B. JENKINS]]>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-jerry-b-jenkins

Good fiction must be entertaining, but what makes fiction special—and True—is that the realness of a novel allows it to carry a larger message.
Jerry B. Jenkins, American Writer
Author of Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages
Born September 23, 1949

J. B. Jenkins

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Eleanor Catton
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Kristin Hannah

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: MORLEY CALLAGHAN]]>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-morley-callaghan

I had my success too soon. Three books published with Scribner's in New York before I was thirty.
Morley Callaghan, Canadian Novelist & Playwright
Author of That Summer in Paris
Born September 22, 1903

M. Callaghan

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jerry B. Jenkins
THURS: A Writer's Wit |Eleanor Catton
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Kristin Hannah

]]><![CDATA[BOTTOM OF THE SEA]]>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/bottom-of-the-sea

A WRITER'S WIT
Half of the ills we hoard within our hearts, are ills because we hoard them.
Edna Dean Proctor, American Writer & Poet
Author of A Russian Journey
Born September 18, 1829

E. Dean Proctor

MY BOOK WORLD

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Penguin, 2001 (2000).

When I recently read Moby Dick for the second time in fifty years, a friend suggested that I peruse her copy of Philbrick’s book. The Essex’s tale of being rammed and sunk by an eighty-five foot sperm whale west of the Galapagos Islands is purportedly the story upon which author Herman Melville bases the climax of his novel: Captain Ahab’s battle with the white whale.

But as I recall, Melville seems to romanticize nineteenth century whaling, spending entire chapters on the minutiae of whaling equipment; Philbrick does not. The author develops Nantucket as a place whose character changes over the centuries. First, it is a quaint village, all houses similar and nicely taken care of by their successful merchant class, most with a “widow’s walk” on the roof where family members can keep an eye on the sea for when a ship such as the Essex has returned. When whaling dies out, the town does poorly. It is revived yet again in an era when it becomes a tourist trap, particularly during the summer months.

The narrative seems to come alive when the Essex is downed by the whale in Chapter 5. “Instead of fighting with its jaws and tail—the way whales commonly dispatched whaleboats—the Essex whale rammed the ship with its head, something that, Chase [first mate] insisted, ‘has never been heard of amongst the oldest and most experienced whalers.’ But what most impressed [him] was the remarkably astute way in which the bull employed its God-given battering ram. Both times the whale had approached the vessel from a direction ‘calculated to do us the most injury, by being made ahead, and thereby combining the speed of the two objects for the shock’” (89). At this point, the Essex’s tragedy is just beginning.

Spoiler: Through a series of events reflecting poor judgment, miscalculation, and mere bad luck, the crew of twenty load themselves onto three surviving whaleboats (used to actually attack and take down a whale) and attempt to make their way to the shores of Chile. Only two men ultimately survive, the captain and the first mate, both tending different whaleboats. The crew are so emaciated and weak that many die en route or after they make it to shore. This in spite of the fact that when one man would die of natural causes (the black sailors, who have the weakest constitutions to begin with because of poor lifelong nutrition, fail first), the remaining men would feast off the remains. And yet the nutrients would last but for a few hours before the crew members would become hungry again.

Philbrick is not the first author to write of the demise of the Essex. In the final sixty pages of the book—comprised of Notes, a Select Bibliography, Acknowledgements, and an Index—the author shares the telling of this story with many others who have told it and retold it from different points of view. These accounts include one from the captain, George Pollard, Jr., and one from the first mate Owen Chase.

The story of the Essex is one that abounds with wonder. Why does one whale take upon itself the aim of destroying this particular ship? Has the bull been attacked before and is now exacting revenge against our species? How do crew members survive the impact well enough to take off in three whaleboats, using only the most rudimentary procedures (i.e. dead reckoning) enabling them to make their way? Why would a ship be entrusted to a mediocre captain? And why would the first mate take advantage of the captain’s weaknesses for his own gain? How and why does this tale capture the imaginations of more readers than just the descendants of Nantucket for more than a century? Why, even now, does the saga keep someone like me reading for hours on end—as if I were again a fifth-grader lying on his bed whiling away a hot summer afternoon? Perhaps for the same reason I did so back then. To be carried away—without fear of drowning, myself—on one of the greatest seafaring mishaps in recorded history.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Morley Callaghan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jerry B. Jenkins
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Eleanor Catton
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Kristin Hannah
My Book World | Virginia Evans, The Correspondent

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: FRANK O'CONNOR]]>Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-frank-oconnor

All I know from my own experience is that the more loss we feel the more grateful we should be for whatever it was we had to lose. It means that we had something worth grieving for. The ones I'm sorry for are the ones that go through life not knowing what grief is.
Frank O’Connor, Irish Author & Translator
Author of Guests of the Nation
Born September 17, 1903

F. O'Connor

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: GWEN BRISTOW]]>Wed, 16 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-gwen-bristow

Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.
Gwen Bristow, American Writer & Journalist
Author of Celia Garth
Born September 16, 1903

G. Bristow

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Frank O'Connor
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Edna Dean Proctor

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER]]>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-james-fenimore-cooper

America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.
James Fenimore Cooper, 19th Century American Writer
Author of The Last of the Mohicans
Born September 15, 1789

J. Fenimore Cooper

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Gwen Bristow
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Frank O'Connor
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Edna Dean Proctor

]]><![CDATA[A COLD, COLD NOVEL]]>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-cold-cold-novel

A WRITER'S WIT
East is East, and West is San Francisco, according to Californians. Californians are a race of people; they are not merely inhabitants of a State.
O. Henry, American Writer of Short Stories
Author of "The Gift of the Magi"
Born September 11, 1862

O. Henry

MY BOOK WORLD

Cialente, Fausta. A Very Cold Winter. Translated by Julia Nelsen with an introduction by Claudia Durastanti. Berkeley: Transit, 2022 (1966).

I often don’t enjoy reading translations. Unless the translator is particularly gifted and sensitive, the novel can seem to lack a certain life or articulation. I claim this as a weakness on my part, but it plagues me nonetheless as I conclude this novel.

In 1946, after World War II, the country of Italy is in shambles, and Milan is no exception. Rather than the stylish metropolis I visited in the 2010s, it is at this time a pile of rubble. People are scraping to get by. A woman named Camilla is such a person. She and her family illegally occupy the attic of what is called a squat. The number of characters is so large, sixteen, including an infant, that I must keep referring to the Cast of Characters page until I learn them, but that may be a problem of my age, not the fault of the writer. Yet one does have to ask: What is the purpose of developing so many characters? Perhaps it is to demonstrate what it is like for a large number of people to occupy such a small place. They do tend to get on one another’s nerves, and there really is no place for them to go. Sometimes, one or two gather on a “terrace” to talk or smoke. But the titular season does not allow for one to linger. Cialente must refer to the cold scores of times throughout the book, each instance, as if it is something new. Yet each reminder has a cumulative effect on the reader. One shivers though it may be one hundred degrees outside, and only 76 degrees inside my Texas home—a temp certainly warmer than this attic dwelling where heating is primitive and limited to certain times of the day.

So what are these characters about? Camilla has been abandoned by her husband for at least a decade. The only males in her life are her son, Guido, a boy interested in film, and an acquaintance named Enzo occupying an adjoining room. Otherwise, the crowded attic is largely female. Lalla, one of Camilla’s daughters wants to be a writer. Alba, the other daughter, quite a beauty, isn’t sure what she wants except to be rich, out of her mother’s house, out from her mother’s control, and, and one point she gets her wish. She will come to a bad end. Her disappearance may be the one tension that propels the novel forward, for the household is not the same without her. And when her death is announced, the characters seem to take a collective gasp and sigh at the same time.

Spring does arrive, but not until perhaps the last pages, when there are still traces of snow on the ground. I’m struck by three sentences from near the end:

“She would go downstairs, across the meadow, the courtyard, and the garden, and walk upon the soft snow that would melt under her feet” (271).

“Like it or not she was part of a ceaseless flow—a ceaselessness that is eternal” (272).

“‘Come, let’s have a look,’ Martina said, setting out along the garden path. Camilla followed, walking slowly upon the last snow” (272).

Even until the last word, “snow,” the novel seems cold, but the characters see themselves as part of a larger picture, a “ceaseless flow,” and, at last, the snow becomes soft. It will be gone soon. And for their sakes, perhaps the scourge of war will be, if not gone, at least lessened, as they rebuild their lives.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | James Fenimore Cooper
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Gwen Bristow
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Frank O'Connor
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Edna Dean Proctor
My Book World | Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: VICTORIA STRAUSS]]>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-victoria-strauss

Every famous writer was once an unknown writer. If publishers never published new writers, they wouldn't be publishing anyone at all after a while.
Victoria Strauss, Writer of Fantasy Novels
Author of Worldstone
Born September 10, 1955

V. Strauss

Up Next:
FRI: A Writer's Wit | O. Henry
TUES 9/15: A Writer's Wit | James Fenimore Cooper
WEDS 9/16: A Writer's Wit | Gwen Bristow
THURS 9/17: A Writer's Wit | Frank O'Connor
FRI 9/18: A Writer's Wit | Edna Dean Proctor
My Book World | Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: MARY HUNTER AUSTIN]]>Wed, 09 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-mary-hunter-austin6163284

What women have to stand on squarely is not their ability to see the world in the way men see it, but the importance and validity of their seeing it in some other way.
Mary Hunter Austin, American Nature Writer of the Southwest
Author of The Land of Little Rain
Born September 9, 1868

M. Hunter Austin

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Victoria Strauss
FRI: A Writer's Wit | O. Henry

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: LUDOVICO ARIOSTO]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-ludovico-ariosto

Fortune, who gives and takes away all other human blessings, has no power over courage.
Ludovico Ariosto, Italian Poet
Author of Orlando Furioso
Born September 8, 1474

L. Ariosto

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Mary Hunter Austin
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Victoria Strauss
FRI: A Writer's Wit | O. Henry

]]><![CDATA[SEDARIS GETS ME!]]>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/sedaris-gets-me

You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself believe in it.
Mary Renault, British Author
Author of The Persian Boy
Born September 4, 1905

MY BOOK WORLD

M. Renault

Sedaris, David. The Land and Its People. New York: Little, 2026.

I’ve always enjoyed reading Sedaris, particularly his journals: Theft by Finding: Diaries 1997-2002 and A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020. If I were to teach creative writing again, I would include excerpts of these two tomes in my syllabus, because Sedaris writes down everything that happens to him (or observes) and he is so brutally honest about it. New writers could learn from him, that some of their jottings could become fodder for their creative work. This book reads almost like another diary.

For me the most interesting essays seem to be about his growing older (like me). All the essays have been written since the COVID-19 pandemic, and like much writing taking place following that tragic debacle, they reflect changes in our society. When his partner Hugh must undergo hip replacement, Sedaris realizes that this level of caregiving is too much for him and he enlists the help of Hugh’s brother who flies from the West Coast to help out; he’s a person who actually enjoys and excels at caregiving, and the fraternal relationship sometimes excludes Sedaris. I can’t say that I blame the author for curbing his role. When my late partner sustained a bad fall over two years ago and landed in rehab for the twelve days Medicare would pay for, I delved into our savings to extend my loved one’s stay for two weeks because not only did I not think he could look after himself at home but neither did I feel I was equipped physically or emotionally to care for him myself. I love how Sedaris in one broad sweep expresses some regret but at the same time (like me) defends his choice. I get it!

The entire collection, while not providing me with the side-splitting laughs I find in his diaries, does cause me to smile a time or two with generous agreement. So nice to read someone who reinforces my own points of view and feelings! He gets me!

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: ALISON LURIE]]>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-alison-lurie

In a sense much great literature is subversive, since its very existence implies that what matters is art, imagination, and truth. In what we call the real world, on the other hand, what usually counts is money, power, and public success.
Alison Lurie, American Novelist & Academician
Author of The Truth about Lorin Jones
Born September 3, 1926

A. Lurie

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: CLEVELAND AMORY]]>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-cleveland-amory4763462

There are three terrible ages of childhood—1 to 10, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30.
Cleveland Amory, American Reporter & Television Critic
Author of The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Born September 2, 1917

C. Amory

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Alison Lurie
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Mary Renault

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: ANTONIO LOBO ANTUNES]]>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-antonio-lobo-antunes

I suppose I have become a sort of living monument in Portugal. But I come from a family with roots all over the world, so the idea of patriotism is not very strong in me. My country is the country of Chekhov, Beethoven, Velasquez—writers I like, painters and artists I admire.
Antonio Lobo Antunes, Portuguese Novelist & Medical Doctor
Author of The Land at the End of the World
Born September 1, 1942

A. Lobo Antunes

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Cleveland Amory
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Alicia Lurie
FRI: A Writer's Wit | Mary Renault

]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: THEODORE DREISER]]>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-theodore-dreiser

Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
Theodore Dreiser, American Novelist &
Journalist
Author of An American Tragedy
Born August 27, 1871

T. Dreiser

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]]><![CDATA[A WRITER'S WIT: MOTHER TERESA]]>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.richardjespers.com/blog/a-writers-wit-mother-teresa

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa, Nun, Catholic Saint, & Nobel Peace Prize
Born August 26, 1910

Mother Teresa

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