Happy New Year! I hope 2019 holds blessings for
all. I have expressed my personal wishes elsewhere. This is my professional
greeting.
The year just started brings two related
anniversaries.
The first is the 30th anniversary of the
publication of my first book, the horror novel “Thunder Rise” (horror/sci-fi/mystery
is another of my writing lives) God willing and the creek don’t rise (you
Irish folks can appreciate that), I’ll post more about the book that began my
author career come September, 30 years (gasp) after “Thunder Rise” landed on shelves.
The second is far more recent: the two-year
anniversary of the debut of Story in the Public Square, the weekly and since
September 2018 the national PBS and SiriusXM Satellite Radio show that I
co-host and co-host with my good friend Jim Ludes.
The maiden Story broadcast, on January 14, 2017, featured
Tom Nichols, of the Naval War College. Tom was the first of more than 40
authors who have appeared on our weekly show (with many more lined up for
2019). Many of these individuals wear other hats, but they are authors and they know that entering the authorial world is a
milestone made possible only by means of dedication, discipline and old-fashioned
elbow grease that anyone who has worked hard to achieve in any field
understands.
Having myself passed that milestone 30 years ago and
having never stopped writing books – it becomes a nagging part of your DNA – you
fellow authors know whereof I speak! -- I began to support and encourage others
who aspired to be published, or already were.
I did my best to park my ego at the door and mentor,
applaud or listen to others I knew or who sought my counsel. Except for the
readings and appearances, writing books is a lonely and frequently fruitless passion
(think: trunk novel). It helps to have someone in your corner who has
experienced the allure and frustration of the blank page -- and the magic of
the filled.
So we have made a home for authors on Story in the
Public Square. They come to us from Rhode Island and around the country, and from houses
including Simon & Schuster, PublicAffairs, Penguin Random House and Harper
Collins, and many university and niche presses.
Some are friends and former Providence Journal
colleagues: Dan Barry and C.J. Chivers of The New York Times, and Kevin
Sullivan, who co-authors with his wife and fellow Washington Post writer Mary
Jordan. But most are people I had never met, except on the page, until they
journeyed to our flagship station, Rhode Island PBS, to go before the camera.
In random order, these authors (in addition to
Barry, Jordan, Sullivan and Chivers) have appeared on episodes of Story in the
Public Square:
Alan Lightman, John Kerry, Mark Blyth, Padma
Venkatraman, Sandeep Jauhar, Ross Douthat, Daniela Lamas, Larry Tye, Martin
Puchner, Timothy Edgar, Omer Bartov, Margalit Fox, Eve Ewing, Tara Copp, Chris
Brown, John Farrell, Tricia Rose, Julian Chambliss, Jeffrey Lewis, Sister Helen
Prejean and Jed Shugerman.
Also, Heather Ann Thompson, Kenneth R. Miller, Teja
Arboleda, David Jones, Paul Gionfriddo, Jason Healey, Allan A. Ryan, Oona A.
Hathaway, Scott Shapiro, Michael D. Kennedy, Christopher Vials, Daniel W.
Drezner, Robert B. Hackey, Adam Segal, Charles Dorn, Edward Luce and Gregg Easterbrook.
Thanks to our Story authors, and may 2019 bring
more wonderful words from all of you!
You can learn more about Story authors – and the
full list of all of our guests and links to their appearances -- at https://pellcenter.org/story-in-the-public-square/episodes/https://pellcenter.org/story-in-the-public-square/episodes/
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