Why Lifelong Learning Matters for Writers (I Am Graduating Still)
I attended a college graduation recently and got strangely emotional before the ceremony began. I started analyzing why, and I finally landed on the fact that I love learning, and haven’t stopped doing so, really, since I was a kid. I took out a notebook, started jotting down some thoughts, and before long I had the makings of an article on the topic that dips into nostalgia, yes, but also touches on a prophecy made by one of my professors way back in journalism school.
The article is up at SleuthSayers, the mystery writers’ blog, today, and I hope you’ll check it out. The post is entitled:
And here is part of what I am saying:
It is only when I step back and recall that I entered my freshman dorm toting an electric typewriter…
It is only when I recall that the journalism school taught us to set type by hand, just to give us a feel for the origins of that quaintly ancient technology…
It is only when I recall that the journalism school ditched that entire type lab—sold off all those wooden trays of backwards lead letters to the art school across the street, retired the elderly pressman who ran the hand-cranked press…and filled the lab space with gleaming IBM computers in my senior year…
It is only then that I can appreciate the shift in time.
One of the real-life characters of this post is Professor William A. Babcock, who was one of my professors back in the day. I’ve tried to find him online, just to see if he remembered his prediction that we—his students—would probably have no fewer than seven radically different jobs in our lifetimes—but I haven’t had luck getting a contact for him.
As I explain in the post, I actually haven’t had that many radically different jobs, but I have mastered more skills than I ever expected to, for a writer and editor.
If you’re still out there, professor, you might want to know that I remembered this tidbit from one of your classes. Indeed, it might be the only thing I remembered from it.
Anyway, dear reader, I hope you will check out the story. It seemed important to pin this particular feeling down, and sort out what it was all about. Now I know, and so do you. Hope you enjoy it.
That said, I usually try to mention one of my books when I post here. Preferably, one that fits the topic I’m writing about. My bookshop mystery fits the bill today. Sure, it’s about murder, but my detective is a bookseller who is a lifelong learner.
I recently spent several days designing T-shirts set in this world for our new online store. I hope you’ll check that out as well. (Not all the shirts are up, but there are a few.)
The book is a cozy mystery called Murder on Book Row, which has a great new cover. The image below will take you to the world headquarters of our new store, Joe & Denise!
