Press release -
What is a GREAT author? - by author, Réal Laplaine
What is a GREAT author?
How do we define a great author? Is it based on how many novels they sell? Is it how well their name is remembered? Or is the platform based on what they write about, the quality of their composition, and the value of their words in terms of the impression left upon us?
The publishing industry would probably gauge “greatness” by the volume of sales. Whereas, to the reader, it is probably more about the experience and how we feel at the end of that book? Does it resonate our own lives? Does it parallel our dreams? Does that story pump the adrenaline into our veins and catalyze our hormones to charge through us. Does it leave us feeling greater, bigger, or at least more optimistic about our existence and our future?
The great authors, of whom I consider to be great, were men and women with a dream to deliver a message, to stand for a cause, to put up a banner – leading us to new insights, new levels of existence. Whether they wrote books, which on the surface, appeared to be purely fictional and entertainment value, the truth is that they imbedded a continuous thread of principles, and a message which echoed quietly or loudly, amongst their prose.
Of course, authors such as Shakespeare, classically classic, wrote with such beauty of prose, that few have matched his consistency in rhythm and pace, and color of language. Yet, within his words, is the heart of rebellion, the passion of resistance to oppression, and a call to arms to all humanity to wake up to a higher level of existence. His words exalt the human soul to another level, during a time in our history when civilization was not so exalted.
I doubt that there exists a one-size-fits-all definition of a great author. Richard Bach, the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which shook the philosophical and spiritual world, in a new-age sense, back in the 1970s, during a very troubled period of history, influenced countless millions with his book. I was part of that 70’s new-age revolution – and his book changed my life. Yet, we hear little of him today.
The great author is the man or woman, who propels us, through the imaginative and creative universe of words, to another level, where we can envision our dreams, experience what we have yet to touch and feel, and taste what can only be imagined, but enough to make us believe, or at least make us wonder – could that be? That is a great author.
Réal Laplaine - Author & Writer Website: www.reallaplaine.com Blog: www.reallaplaine.wordpress.com
Topics
- Literature
Categories
- real laplaine
- shakespeare
- authors
- richard bach
Réal Laplaine writes from both imagination and experience. He writes human stories, and while fictional in nature, they reflect the struggles to achieve dreams, to hold to principles and integrity, and to accomplish justice and human rights. Throughout his writings is a thread of realism - because in part, he has lived some of the things he writes of. He has experienced having a gun aimed at his head, or a knife put to his back. He has prevented women and men from being beaten. He has pulled unconscious people from a burning car, and he has fought fires from Hollywood to the range fires of California. His own background, and childhood, was no stranger to violence and abuse, so he understands the nature of the beast when he writes about people.
