Literary Birthday – 9 October – Belva Plain

Belva Plain was born 9 October 1915, and died 12 October 2010.

Seven Quotes

Entertainment is a very valid need.
My advice to would-be writers? READ. Read the best there is and thereby learn. And keep trying. Writing isn’t easy-it is very hard work, requiring a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Many colleges offer extension courses in writing. I think these are very helpful.
I wrote Evergreen because I had to write it. I had no real idea that it might be published and that’s the truth. I know how competitive the world is and I did not want to become the sad victim of false hopes.
I thought it was time to write about the kind of people I know. I got sick of reading the same old story, told by Jewish writers, of the same old stereotypes – the possessive mothers, the worn-out fathers, all the rest of the neurotic rebellious unhappy self-hating tribe. I wanted to write a different novel about Jews – and a truer one.
I am an early riser, though, and morning is my work time. I do have a special workroom where no one interrupts me except my dog.
I write in long-hand on a yellow pad-I do not use a computer because, first of all I’m not computer literate and second because I like to take time to think about what I am saying.
I think it is as difficult for me to describe this process of inspiration as it would be for a composer to tell how a melody took shape in his/her head.

Belva Plain was an American author. Her first novel, Evergreen (1978) topped the New York Times bestseller list for 41 weeks and was made into a TV miniseries. There were over 30 million copies of her novels in print in 22 languages. 21 of her novels appeared on the New York Times best-seller list.