Diana Wynne Jones RIP
Diana Wynne Jones is gone.
I met her a couple of times (most memorably in Minneapolis, at an early Fourth Street, where she was very kind to me), but mostly I knew her through her books. Her imagination was unconfined, her characters particular and living, her voice unmistakable. Archer's Goon has given his name (and his purpose) to a loose network of writers who send one another pages once a week (in writing season) mostly to keep each other moving on first drafts of novels. In my world, a Goon is a chapter or a portion of a chapter from a friend, and I think of Diana whenever I send or read one (it has to be turned around fast, and "I WANT MORE" is the only allowable response).
All unknowing, through writing books I've read and re-read until their rhythms have become part of my brain, she has taught me how to put a book together, how to reveal what must be revealed and not a detail more, how to take chances, how to hang in there, writing the books she wanted to write, until the wider world caught up with her. She was a remarkable woman and a remarkable writer, and she'll be much missed.
And now I think I'll go and read Charmed Life again. Or maybe Witch Week. Or The Pinhoe Egg. Something, anyway.
I met her a couple of times (most memorably in Minneapolis, at an early Fourth Street, where she was very kind to me), but mostly I knew her through her books. Her imagination was unconfined, her characters particular and living, her voice unmistakable. Archer's Goon has given his name (and his purpose) to a loose network of writers who send one another pages once a week (in writing season) mostly to keep each other moving on first drafts of novels. In my world, a Goon is a chapter or a portion of a chapter from a friend, and I think of Diana whenever I send or read one (it has to be turned around fast, and "I WANT MORE" is the only allowable response).
All unknowing, through writing books I've read and re-read until their rhythms have become part of my brain, she has taught me how to put a book together, how to reveal what must be revealed and not a detail more, how to take chances, how to hang in there, writing the books she wanted to write, until the wider world caught up with her. She was a remarkable woman and a remarkable writer, and she'll be much missed.
And now I think I'll go and read Charmed Life again. Or maybe Witch Week. Or The Pinhoe Egg. Something, anyway.