Godwin's journals delightful

At the urging of her friend and fellow writer Joyce Carol Oates, the prolific Gail Godwin has published her journals (at the same time her newest novel "Queen of the Underworld" is also being published).

Godwin is the author of 12 critically acclaimed novels, and her journals — under the title "Gail Godwin, the making of a Writer: Journals 1961-1963" — begin when she was an aspiring writer at the age of 24 and provide penetrating insights into her philosophy and approach to writing.

Her writings here are more mature than you would expect from someone in her 20s, and Godwin wouldn't have success in the publishing world for another six years.

Random House is so impressed with these journals that it will publish the second volume, "Those Intervening Years: 1963-1970," next year, along with a novel Godwin is currently writing, "The Red Nun."

Godwin's journals allow her exuberant personality to shine through, as well as her ambitious determination to succeed in a writing career. As a young woman full of talent, she wrote, "I have a disease. I am trying to think of a word to describe it. It is that I want to be everybody who is great: I want to create everything that has ever been created . . . I want to have written all the good stories, said all the clever things. I want to buy all the clothes, try all the gourmet suggestions, and travel to all the countries."

This collection begins in 1961 after the breakup of Godwin's first marriage and her tenure as a reporter for the Miami Herald. She is working as a waitress to earn enough money for a trip to Europe. In her off hours she is busy writing a novel. Finally, she embarks on a ship to Copenhagen. On Oct. 6, she writes: