Meeting Orson Scott Card

There is a trepidation that comes when you are about to meet a person who has been so influential in your life and that person doesn’t know it. A mixture of pure excitement, nervousness, and an over whelming fear of making a fool of yourself takes over. And then an oddity occurs. You walk into the room and sit down, and the person who, I can only say has been like the Wizard of OZ to me, steps out from behind the curtain. The person I admire and thought all knowing and perfect was unmistakably HUMAN, mixed with oddities and quirks (and a few opinions I don't agree with) and yet none of my trepidation left, for my respect for the author Orson Scott Card endures.

Late June I took what is called “Uncle Orson’s Writing Workshop,” at UVSU. As I wrote in January 2010, Orson Scott Card was the author who began my journey and my love for reading. I clung to his novels all through my teen years, not reading any other author. When I did finally branch into different genres and authors, Card was the one I pitted them against. Did they have his style, his ability to use words in such a way as though images and characters sprung from the pages? Could another author keep my interest?

Obviously they could keep my interest, and I found that every author has a unique voice. My passion for literature grew, but it was Card that began the whole process. And now I was sitting in a conference room listening to him speak to well over 60 writers who were all looking for him to guide them down his path.

I could write about all the tidbits of information on writing he gave us, but I feel as though that would be stealing his information. Instead I would like to write here about the things he said that gave me hope.

1- Forget everything you were taught in school on how to write. It took me two years after my Master’s degree to write anything good. You each have a unique voice, use it.

This, for me, was such a delight to hear. My style of writing has never been very academic or elite and I have paid for this in my educational undertakings. But to hear him say this made my heart leap. It wasn’t a matter of a rigged rule on how to write, but the idea that your voice is important and it is in the refining of that voice that each story will take shape.

2- Ideas are cheap.

So many of my friends have ideas for stories. I have heard the telling of idea upon idea, and yet I have never seen a written word on a page from these ideas (minus the rare exception). So if “Ideas are cheap,” action must be priceless. I have written a few of my stories down and it is now high time that I kick my butt in gear and begin sending them off to publishers.

3- You are a fellow skeptic, and I mean that as a compliment.

On the last day of the workshop, Card agreed to sign books and take a few photos with people. Standing in line, seeing all the others with there crisp hard cover additions, I stared at the two books in my hand. As I placed the books in front of Card I told him I was sorry they were a bit bruised. I handed him the mass-market additions of Ender’s Game and Xenocide I have held onto since I was 13. As he signed them, he said to me that I was a skeptic and that this was a good thing.

For eighteen years I have held onto Cards novels. And I am sure that they will continue to be in my possession well into the future. And as he said, I am a skeptic, always questioning the words placed before me, even his. But may I say, I cherish each and every question those words make me answer.

The Power of Story

An author is a catalyst, the words on a page a driving force, and for avid readers, a book can ignite a spark that burns and propels one on a path never intended. Reading takes an individual on a journey, not merely through forests of the unknown but a journey that is literally stepped, one foot in front of the other, day in and day out.

The power story contains is one of unraveling knowledge previously not mastered. Upon the closure of the final cover, or hearing the last syllable spoken--if you are open to listen, to hear, and to comprehend--it is possible to have the path lit, all obstacles banished, if even for mere seconds.

My path has been lit on several occasions, be various stories, from a mere fraction of authors. I never intended for my path to be one set in the field of Humanities, but moments happened, events took place, and books were read.

The irony of literary studies is that each reader is alone on their journey as they trail a step behind their friends (the characters, settings, and plots of each story). I'd like to take a moment here to discuss a few books and authors that I can pin-point as shaping my life.

It wasn't until my 12th birthday that I was given the gift that allowed me to find the true passion of reading, to escape for hours in the power of word. My sister gave me this gift. I continue to wonder if she recognizes the significance her gift has played in my life and the shaping of ME. The book "Ender's Game" was passed from her hand to mine. The author Orson Scott Card, was the only author I would read for years to come. His story still resonates even 18 years later. The works knitted so finely together that while reading I saw everything, felt the lose of gravity as I was propelled into war games, and fantasy and machine came to life in my hand. A year after reading the novel, I was lucky enough to see the author speak at Utah State University, his physical presence was so unlike my vision of him. Yet, his novels engulf my downstairs bookshelf to this day.

Seven years after this initial jolt into reading, I found myself in college with the intention to receive a degree in Marketing. Allowing myself to be discouraged by a professors words about my writing, I hadn't placed ink to paper creatively for six months. When I entered a Young Adult Literature course and the professor assigned "Weetzie Bat" by Francesca Lia Block to read, a new fire emerged. I remember finishing the story in my small little studio and immediately having to write. Mrs. Block's creative and poignant style of taking fairy-tales and merging them to modern pop-culture was electrifying and artistic. I switched my degree path to English the following semester and began the first steps on the quest of folklore.

A year later, my Mom informed me I had to read another story (check out first blog for full story). In my wildest dreams I never imagined child wizards would direct me to travel thousands of miles across the globe, to reenact wizard chess in Switzerland, to present in London, or to achieve a second college degree, but they did. Oh how "Harry Potter" has shaped my life and J.K. Rowling, the author, knows none of this.

If I could have but one wish, it would be to see Rowling (or Card, or Block) in a cafe one day. I would turn to my server and request that they take the author a drink--on me of course--and have the server tell them thanks. All this would happen as a silently got up, had the author give me a small look, and I leave with a smile on my face and allow them to finish their next story. One can dream, right?