What About the Rest of Us?

     Penelope Lively, at 84 , just published her 21st book. No slack in Penelope. No drying up of ideas. No inability to move beyond short prose. I wager she doesn't write six word stories. 

      "Brevity" say those folks who read in spurts and bursts, who digest capsule sized news clippings, and who adore 1000 word or shorter stories. 

     And then there are those who delight in Trollope sized novels. ,

     Dear Penelope just keeps writing for her enthralled audience. 

     Bertha Wood published her memoir at the age of 100. This accomplishment earned her a place in Guinness. Then there's Herman Wouk, a bit better known, who published The Lawgiver, at the age of ninety-seven.

     From a New York Times interview:  

    "And don’t, whatever you do, ask if he ever plans to stop writing. 

    “What am I going to do?” he said. “Sit around and wait a year?” 

     He acknowledged, though, that he occasionally worried what was left to say. 

     “Sometimes, when I’m down, I feel like I’ve shot my bolt,” he said. “But it passes, and I go back to the computer.”

     In fact, his next book is already well under way. “I have written a large section, of which I will tell you nothing,” he said, smiling. "

     So Penelope you have many more years and many more books to go.