By Ken Wong, Club correspondent
Rossmoor writer Menalcus Lankford will speak at the next meeting of the Published and Aspiring Writers of Rossmoor on Saturday, Aug. 2 in the Fairway Room of Creekside Clubhouse.
He’ll be discussing his latest novel, “End in Sight: Senior Seances, Sex, Spirituality,” set in a retirement community much like Rossmoor, where his colorful cast of characters faces the challenges and changes that accompany end of life.
As Amazon describes it, these challenges are “not necessarily negative. For some, it leads to a sort of rebirth, where old worries are set aside and new ways of being are discovered. They may experience a freeing understanding of what has gone before in their lives, and discover more fulfilling relationships, including sexual ones, than they have ever known.”
In writing “End in Sight,” Lankford strove for literary fiction, a genre suitable for dealing with “the complex issues of aging in a senior community like Rossmoor.” As he defines it, “literary fiction is looked to for in-depth understanding of human life. It’s not formulaic, but much more varied and complex, and not predictable.
“There is a focus on how his characters change or don’t change. It has originality. Though the literary writer has learned from the work of outstanding predecessors, there is something fresh and new in his or her work. And though most such writers never become famous, the ones who do are constantly studied for their insights and style: Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka, Woolf, O’Connor, etc. Many of the same considerations define great art, theater, musical composition, etc. Does it ‘pass the test of time’? Is it still valued in the culture generations after it was created?”
His writing process?
“I first invent general situations — for one scene or a sequence of scenes. Only when I’m excited by what I’ve imagined do I move to my desk and begin to turn it into text. (I think sitting at your desk expecting to create on your computer right away is a prescription for failure. It just makes you tense: ‘Why aren’t the words coming?’ Because you haven’t yet invented a character or event in your mind that excites you to write!)”
Lankford draws inspiration from his varied careers and life experiences. His work as movie theater usher, bank runner, general factotum at a newspaper, traffic engineer, Latin tutor, city planner, college professor, magazine editor and lay Episcopal minister introduced him to “all kinds of people with individual outlooks and lifestyles. I took a different job each summer from the time I was 15 and learned about different kinds of people, how they talked and thought. A literary writer should not be limited to the world of his parents and his schools.”
Author of seven novels and a collection of short stories, Lankford grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. He received a B.A. from the University of Virginia, spent two years in a theological seminary, and earned an M.A. in the writing program at San Francisco State University.
A Rossmoor resident since 2019, he keeps busy exercising, walking and doing work with the Dickens Society of Baltimore, which he founded. He is active in men’s groups, the History Buffs club and the Published Writers of Rossmoor and enjoys Rossmoor dances and concerts. He loves spending time with his family, including a granddaughter, 7, and grandson, 3.
The Published Writers group welcomes aspiring writers as well as accomplished authors and anyone interested in learning more about writing and publishing. Meetings are held on the first Saturday of each month in the Fairway Room at Creekside.
Visit the club’s website at publishedwritersofrossmoor.com for more information.
