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'Magicians' Author Conjures Career Magic

Jin
/
Flickr via Creative Commons

The end of the school year is approaching.  Millions of students will leave school, and some of them will fall flat on their faces.

Time magazine senior writer and New York Times best-selling author Lev Grossman knows this and knows it well. He didn't set out to become a professional journalist.  After college Grossman made some missteps along the way.  His struggles as a young man inspired the topic of a lecture at Bradley University this week:  "The Accidental Journalist:  The highly unprofessional education of a professional writer."

Grossman is a book critic for Time, and the author of the bestselling "Magicians" fantasy trilogy, which this year was adapted for television by SyFy.  The success is that much sweeter for him after the struggles in his youth to find his path.  

'When I left college, I just had so little sense of how to conduct myself in a way that would result in my having a career. I had a strong sense that I didn't need other people.  I was going to be  a writer, and so I could just sequester myself and just write away.  I didn't understand how dependent I was on other people, how important it was for me to keep up friendships, to leave the house occasionally, be nice to people to do favors for people.  I didn't understand how important that was, not just professionally making connections, but just keeping my own mind on my own relationships. Even more than that, I had to learn to believe in myself.'

Grossman said he entered into any number of careers that he wasn't particularly interested in, such as teaching.  After a few false starts, Grossman found his footing as a novelist.  He wanted to write serious fiction, but soon realized his true calling was fantasy, utilizing a mythic register that goes back to the ancient Greeks.  His "Magicians" trilogy climbed the best-seller lists and attracted the attention of Hollywood. SyFy has adapted the books for a series that debuted earlier this year.

Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.