News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Local & Bistate

Getting ‘A Place Near Home’

• Mike Lunsford’s new book, “A Place Near Home,” published by Shade Tree Press, is available at $15 a copy at BookNation, 675 Wabash Ave., Terre Haute. Purchase information is available online at: http://mikelunsford.com/order.htm.
• This latest collection of Lunsford’s Tribune-Star columns constitutes his third book, following “The Off Season: The Newspaper Stories of Mike Lunsford” and “Sidelines: The Best of the Basketball Stories.”

Related Photos

  • Tribune-Star columnist Mike Lunsford's third book, "A Place Near Home," is available at BookNation in Terre Haute. (Submitted photo)

    Mike_Lunsford_2011.jpg

  • This latest collection of Mike Lunsford's Tribune-Star columns constitutes his third book, following "The Off Season: The Newspaper Stories of Mike Lunsford" and "Sidelines: The Best of the Basketball Stories." (Submitted photo)

    A Place Near Home book cover.jpg

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
October 16, 2011

MARK BENNETT: The significance of writing: T-S columnist Mike Lunsford pens third book

Mark Bennett The Tribune-Star

Our nerves buzz with anxiety for different reasons.

For some people, giving a speech — whether to high school classmates, co-workers or the Rotary Club — makes their hands tremble. Others develop a nervous tic when they discover, at 6:45 in the morning, that the coffee can is empty. Yet for many, the most unsettling nonviolent predicament in life is the prospect of facing a blank sheet of paper with pen in hand (or an empty text box on a computer screen with fingers resting on the keyboard).

Writing feels dangerous. It exposes our mind. Thinking is one thing; etching our thoughts into a notebook or a Microsoft Word document is another story, literally. (And I literally mean “literally.”)

Mike Lunsford makes that process look far easier than its reality.

It is pure coincidence that the release of his third book, “A Place Near Home,” occurs in the same month as the third-annual National Day on Writing. That celebration on Thursday toasts “the significance of writing in our national life,” according to its founding organization, the National Writing Project.

The significance of writing in Lunsford’s life becomes obvious as a reader flows through the 59 stories inside “A Place Near Home.” He finds stories in people, places and things most of us overlook. A power outage. A roadkill skunk. Dragonflies. Coyotes. An ice storm. Hedge apples and road apples. A belated thank-you. Walking at night. Each tale originally appeared as an installment of Lunsford’s popular “The Off Season” column published in the Tribune-Star. His words have captivated the newspaper’s readers since 1995, exploring those simple themes with every ounce of his five senses.

The story of his Grandpa Roy exemplifies the power of description.

“Memories of my grandfather will never travel far from me; he was my best friend,” Lunsford writes. “As long as I can write words on paper, he will float through them, not as a ghost who haunts, but as a companion.”

Later, Lunsford details his grandfather’s passion for the outdoors. “I knew when I saw him sitting on the tailgate of his truck, peeling his socks off and rolling up his pants’ legs, that he planned to use his fly rod and wade the creek,” Lunsford recalls. “His fly rod might as well have been a magician’s wand, because I never learned how to use it.”

The ability to express perceptions and ideas through the written word can be innate or acquired. Lunsford knows from experience. He’s taught English, as well as American history, at Riverton Parke High School since its doors first opened. One obstacle in learning to write well, for 21st-century students, is the competition for their attention. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iPhones, iPads, iTunes, apps and ChaCha. Questions get answered in seconds on Google.

It’s hard to get a youngster — or even a mildly tech-savvy adult — to sacrifice the time and effort to smell the roses. Or the sassafras, an act deftly described by Lunsford in his “The Hunt for a Red October” column: “All summer long I walk past those trees, sometimes snapping off the end of a twig as I lope by so I can hold it under my nose. It has a scent that takes me all the way back to my first home place, to a pocketknife and the whittled end of a green, speckled stick.”

You can’t Google that.

“What we are losing is our willingness and ability to pay attention to things,” Lunsford said in an interview last week. “And I think writing is a reflection of paying attention. We’ve created so many avenues where we don’t have to be patient anymore.”

The need for strong writing in not only schools, but also the workplace, is high. In a 2007 survey by the National Writing Project, two-thirds of the 1,501 Americans polled considered writing skills essential to success in college. And 74 percent believed good writing is essential to occupational success “regardless of what type of job it is.” By a margin of 2 to 1, those surveyed preferred putting more resources into helping instructors teach writing, rather than committing those same resources into testing students to discover how well they are learning to write, according to the NWP.

As the project puts it, we all are writers, whether it happens on a Facebook status update, a job application or in an email to the boss. A computer expert writes directions on operating a piece of software. Investment brokers write earnings reports. In each case, the message must be “put into language that lay people can understand,” Sharon Washington, executive director of the National Writing Project, said by telephone Friday.

Lunsford, always humble and self-effacing, insists the graceful simplicity of his writing occurs by necessity. “I think my column is easy to read because I’m hardly an intellectual,” he said.

Creating clear, concise and yet picturesque sentences requires talent and polish. The reader benefits and doesn’t have to break a sweat just to reach the next paragraph.

“If you’ve got to work at what you’re reading, you’re going to find something else to read,” Lunsford said.

His penchant for storytelling in 800 words or less is rooted in his newspaper background. Lunsford’s first foray into journalism came as a sportswriter for the Terre Haute Tribune during his college days at Indiana State University. After graduating and beginning his teaching career, he agreed in 1995 to write a basketball column twice a month for the Tribune-Star. His gift of narrating life’s simple pleasures quickly emerged, and his column evolved beyond hoops and into its current format.

That space occupied by Lunsford’s mugshot and ruminations is finite. Its limit forces focus. That structure suits him just fine.

“That’s the beauty of newspaper writing,” he said. “You get a lot out of that space.”

It’s a blessing for readers that Lunsford has the gumption and the knack to fill it.

Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Local & Bistate
Latest News
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
AP Video
Raw: Massive Funnel Clouds in Oklahoma Raw: Widespread Destruction in Moore, Okla. Raw: Rescue Workers Search Oklahoma School Raw: Tornado on the Ground in Oklahoma Raw: Aftermath of Massive Tornado in Oklahoma Raw: Aerials Show Path of Oklahoma Destruction Active Search for Utah Missing Mom Ends Huge Tornado Kills Dozens Near Oklahoma City Voters Could Elect LA's First Female Mayor Raw: Rescuers Pull Tornado Survivors to Safety Raw: Japan's WWII Atrocities Under Fire in Seoul Raw: Aussie Zoo Shows Off White Rhino Calf Oklahoma Gov: 'Hearts Are Broken' After Tornado Obama Pledges Urgent Aid for Tornado Victims Raw: Walking in a Flattened Okla. Neighborhood Horse Saved From Slaughter, Goes on to Win Big Raw: Tearful Reunion After Okla. Tornado MLB Hoping for Large Replay Expansion in 2014 OKC Hospital Describes Treating Tornado Wounded America's Cup Officials Say Race Will Continue
NDN Video
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal Arias Tells Jury What She'd Do if She Gets Life The all-new Xbox One RAW: Massive tornado strikes Oklahoma VIDEO: Teacher reunites mother and son after tornado levels elementary school in Oklahoma City Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble Jennifer Lawrence Gets Naked and Painted Blue as X-Men's Mystique Pickler's Dance Moves Cause A Stir Obama to tornado survivors: The country stands beside you Reporter Cries Over Devastation Sneak Peek: 'Modern Family' Says Good Bye Trailer: 'The Last Stand' Available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download IWitness Look at Moore, OK Tornado RAW: Moore, OK tornado touches down near school Robert Pattinson Moves Out RAW: Russian dash cam catches car 20 feet in the air Oklahoma tornado survivor: "Everything is gone" Khloe Lashes Out at Kim Kardashian's Critics Couple Argues As Woman's Lover Crawls Out Window RAW: Brad Paisley Forgets Lyrics To His Own Song
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

     

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News