Posts Tagged ‘author birthdays’
Happy Birthday Fannie Flagg!
This week’s Fodder for Fiction Birthday Bash is a celebration of Fannie Flagg! In honor of this special occasion, I thought I’d share some insights and advice about life from one of Fannie’s many colorful characters. Mrs. Tot Whooten sets the stage before Standing In the Rainbow begins. She’s a trip!
“…I cannot depend on my children but that’s another story. Enough said. You get the picture. I have a lot of nervous energy but I am not perky. There is nothing worse than a perky old person. It is not natural. Although I am not a main character, being in a book has made me stop and think. So before I get myself out of the way and let you start, I will say this: people’s lives are sure ruled by a lot of what-ifs, aren’t they? For example, on a personal note . . . what if I had died giving birth to Dwayne Jr. (not an unpleasant thought, considering recent events). I would not even be here, but more important to the story you are about to read, what if Dorothy Smith had never met the Oatman Family gospel Singers? What if Betty Raye Oatman had never even met Hamm Sparks? What if Hamm Sparks had not met up with foul play? Oh, I could go on and on but I won’t. I hate when somebody tells me how something ends. And a word to the wise: don’t be like me and skip to the last page. I have ruined many a book doing just that. As I said before, I am only included in the story every once in a while but after you finish, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts you will wonder how I have managed to wind up as good-natured as I have.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Tot Whooten
P.S. Don’t ever marry a man that drinks.
Excerpt from the Foreword of Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
I hope you enjoyed the party!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
Happy Birthday Joyce Carol Oates
Fodder for Fiction Weekly Author Birthday Bash
Happy Birthday to Joyce Carol Oates! I couldn’t resist sharing the following excerpt in honor of her special day. It may not feel very celebratory – and I hope Joyce Carol Oates feels happy on her birthday. However, there is something so moving about how loss can change our perception.
The river! Marina recalled how from Adam’s studio, at the rear of his house, you could stand staring across the river, those long mesmerized moments as light faded on the agitated waves, and dusk deepened at the edges of things; dusk, a quality of earth; while an eerie oily-glistening light remained on the water. In the west, the sun was chemical red and gorgeous, bleeding at the horizon like a burst egg yolk.
On both sides of the river fireworks erupted. Fourth of July: the American holiday celebrating gunfire, rockets, aggression, death to the enemy. Across the river on the east bank of the Hudson, in the vicinity of Tarrytown, gaudy pinwheels of crimson, gold, blinding-white light were rising, soaring and falling soundlessly into the river. And a moment later replaced by more explosions, gaudy glittering colors rising, sinking soundlessly to extinction. “Stop. Stop. Stop.” This idiotic celebration, at a time of death. As if in mockery of a man’s death. Even in Jones Point, where death awaited her. Lurid bright carnival colors pitching up into the now-darkening sky over the river. Exploding yellow calyxes, crimson eyeballs, streamers of rainbow guts. Hideous, hellish. Marina recalled that fireworks are jokey symbols of sexual orgasm, and the thought repelled her. Never us. And now never.”
Middle Age by Joyce Carol Oates
Paradoxically, I find the passage beautiful as it describes something the narrator sees as abhorrent. It’s precisely why I am in awe of the masterful craft of Joyce Carol Oates. Thank you, Joyce, and many happy returns of the day!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
Happy Birthday Kathleen E. Woodiwiss!
It’s time to honor the birthday of author Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Her title character Shanna had a father who put a lot of pressure on her to marry before her birthday.
“You have a year to settle your fancies,” he roared. “Your period of grace ceases on your first-and-twentieth year, the day marking your birth. If you have not wed into a family of the aristocracy by then, I’ll name the next ready swain still young enough to get you with child as your husband. And if I must drag you to the altar in chains, you will obey!”
Yikes! I hope author Kathleen Woodiwiss never had that kind of problem! Those kinds of decisions should be personal and be in one’s own time. I hope you enjoyed this little ditty in honor of another great author’s birthday!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA!
FODDER FOR FICTION WEEKLY AUTHOR BIRTHDAY BASH
Let’s celebrate the birthday of Booker Prize winning novelist and writer of over 25 screenplays, including two Academy Award-winning screenplays, Howards End and A Room with a View, as well as Remains of the Day – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. To honor the occasion, I’m sharing a passage from her Booker Prize winning book, Heat and Dust, where she takes her readers through a party game. Enjoy!
“Now he was in an excellent mood and the party began to go with a swing. The servants had unpacked the picnic hampers, filling the sacred grove with roasted chickens, quails, and potted shrimps. The young men were very lively and entertained sometimes with practical jokes which they played on each other, and sometimes with songs and Urdu verses. One of them had brought a lute-like instrument out of which he plucked some bittersweet notes. The lute also provided the music for the game of musical chairs they played, with cushions laid in a row. It happened – whether by accident or design Olivia didn’t know – that she and the Nawab were the last two players left. Very, very slowly they circled around the one remaining cushion, keeping their eyes on each other, each alert to what the other might do next. Everyone watched, the lute played. For a moment she thought that, as an act of courtesy, he was going to let her win; but quite suddenly – he heard the music stop before she did – he flung himself on the one remaining cushion. He had won! He laughed out loud and threw up both his arms in triumph. He was really tremendously pleased.”
Excerpt, Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
I’m so glad to celebrate another masterful story tellers special day here at Fodder for Fiction.
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
http://www.LLLeibow.com
It’s Harper Lee’s FFF Birthday Celebration!
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is a masterpiece worthy of its Pulitzer-prize winning acclaim. It’s been called “one of the best-loved stories of all time.” I’m right there with all of the other lovers of this novel. I first read it when I was in seventh grade, and have picked it up so many times since, I can’t count. Thank you Harper Lee for writing such a beautiful story.
This week’s Fodder for Fiction Author Birthday Bash celebration is for – you guessed it – Harper Lee!
In honor of her special day, I’m sharing a where-babies-come-from excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird.
Enjoy!
“Dill’s voice was his own again: “Oh, they ain’t mean. They kiss you and hug you god night and good mornin’ and goodbye and tell you they love you—Scout, let’s get us a baby.”
“Where?”
There was a man Dill had heard of who had a boat that he rowed across to a foggy island where all theses babies were; you could order one—
“That’s a lie. Aunty said God drops ‘em down the chimney. At least that’s what I think she said.” For once, Aunty’s diction had not been too clear.
“Well that ain’t so. You get babies from each other. But there’s this man, too—he has all these babies just waitin’ to wake up, he breathes life into ‘em. …”
Dill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions. He could add and subtract faster than lightning, but he preferred his own twilight world, a world where babies slept, waiting to be gathered like morning lilies. He was slowly talking himself to sleep and taking me with him, but in the quietness of his foggy island there rose the faded image of a gray house with sad brown doors.
“Dill?”
“Mm?”
“Why do you recon Boo Radley’s never run off?”
Dill sighed a long sigh and turned away from me.
“Maybe he doesn’t have anywhere to run off to. . . .”
Excerpt, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Share what you love about Harper Lee. I’d love to hear it. Come back again next Wednesday for another Fodder for Fiction Author Birthday Bash!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
Happy Birthday Eudora Welty!
FODDER FOR FICTION WEEKLY AUTHOR BIRTHDAY BASH
If you’re a regular visitor here at Fodder for Fiction, or if you’ve read any of my fiction, you probably realize that I love food – and I love what a given character notices about the smells, tastes, and presentations of food tells you about that character’s personality. In line with that, in honor of the birthday of Eudora Welty, who is one of my favorite prose-portrait artists, I thought I’d share a bit of dialogue from her work revealing the kind of lovely feast worthy of her special day. I only hope she researched these beautiful and delicious treats first hand in order to write this!
“Listen and I’ll tell you what Miss Nell served at the party,” Loch’s mother said softly, with little waits in her voice. She was just a glimmer at the foot of his bed.
“Ma’am.”
“An orange scooped out and filled with orange juice, with the top put back on and decorated with icing leaves, a straw stuck in. A slice of pineapple with a heap of candied sweet potatoes on it, and a little handle of pastry. A cup made out of toast, filed with creamed chicken, fairly warm. A sweet peach pickle with flower petals around it of different-colored cream cheese. A swan made of a cream puff. He had whipped cream feathers, a pastry neck, green icing eyes, A pastry biscuit the size of a marble with a little date filling.” She sighed abruptly.
Excerpt, The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
Are you hungry?… me too. Before you leave to grab a snack or watch the food network, tell me some of your favorite Eudora Welty stories. What better way to honor what would be her 101st birthday!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
http://www.LLLeibow.com
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA GLASS!
This week on Fodder for Fiction, we’re celebrating the birthday of one of my favorite authors, and one I consider a mentor! Happy Birthday Julia Glass!
I know Julia Glass would appreciate my focusing on an excerpt about birthday cake in honor of her special day. Happy Birthday Julia!
“The angel food cake that Ray had requested was to be a birthday cake. The birthday was Claudia’s, Ray told Greenie that afternoon, clearly pretending that this had just occurred to him. “How ‘bout with some kind of berry sauce?”
“That’s her favorite cake?” said Greenie.
“I have n o idea what the woman’s favorite cake is. Everybody likes angel food, right?”
“Maybe,” said Greenie suggestively.
Ray gave her a testy look. “I got cows to sell here.”
“How many candles?’ goaded Greenie.
Ray considered this. “don’t know as we have birthday candles on hand,” he said. “But you get McNally to fork over some sparklers from his personal munitions. And how about pink frosting? The feminine touch.” He walked out the door before she could tell him that Claudia did not look like a woman who needed or even wanted the feminine touch.
Excerpt, The Whole World Over by Julia Glass
I think she has a new book coming out in September! Stay on the look out for it. I can’t wait!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com