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Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick episode 053 celebrates and recognizes the teachers — literal and literary — that helped your host become a creator, a writer, and an author.
Who are the teachers in your creative life, past or present? I encourage you to share them with the world by giving them a shout out in the comments!
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode
- Get Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started,” my freely offered fiction serial, and enjoy well over a year and a half of weekly free fiction, when you subscribe. For free!
- October means returning with a vengeance to my next novel, Shadow of the Outsider, the follow-up to Light of the Outsider and “The Perfumed Air at Kwaanantag Bay.”
- This episode owes a debt of gratitude to Natalie Goldberg and her book Long Quiet Highway, which you should read. You might recognize her as the author of the classic Writing Down the Bones, which you should also read.
- You might consider this episode an extension of the last, “In Gratitude.”
- My beloved elementary school teachers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region were Mrs. Thomasser and Mr. Giles.
- Mr. Giles gave little Matt a hardcover single-volume edition of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and fully expected me to read it. Which I did.
- My survival as a child and teenager depended on stealing from the playbooks of Hawkeye Pierce and Peter Benjamin Parker.
- The quote I paraphrased to jab at Mr. Giles was spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope: “Who is the greater fool? The fool, or the man who follows him?” Or something like that.
- Gerry Conway, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman wrote my Amazing Spider-Man comics, and taught me how to write dialogue.
- Karen Winn was my high school journalism instructor. She made sure we each got the ball and plenty of yards to run with it. Thanks, Karen; I’m still in the game.
- Paul Pflueger was my high school “contemporary world problems” instructor. You either loved him or hated him… and apparently the ones who hated him got him run out of a job. I thought he was the best.
- Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. Le Guin sit at the heads of the table populated by my story family. For more about story families, check out this episode of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick.
- So long as I’m recommending excellent memoirs about the writing life, let’s never forget Gail Sher‘s One Continuous Mistake and Anne Lamott‘s Bird by Bird. Go get them! Seriously!
- I taught scores of people how to be booksellers, and it was the beginning of my mission to add to the culture. I’m very proud of my time at Borders Books and Music.
- My patron community receives the uncut, unedited version of every episode. For this episode, they’re privy to over eighteen minutes of extra content! Want in on that? Become a patron for at least $5.00 per month (cancel any time) and get a bunch of other perks and special access, too.
- Around thirty people listen to each new episode of this show during the first week it’s released. If most of the listeners became Exceptional patrons ($5.00 per month), patron revenue would surpass $100 per month, and I could begin donating 10% every month to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!
- Oh, and speaking of patronage: This episode was made possible in part by the patronage of listeners like you, including J. C. Hutchins and Ted Leonhardt. Want to support the show and be listed in the credits, plus get lots of other goodies, perks, and exclusive access? Become a patron with a $3, $5, $10, or $20 monthly pledge!
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