Today is National Quilting Day. I used to go to a writer’s retreat and for several years we shared the space with a group of quilters. These ladies hauled their sewing machines, cutters, material, patterns, everything they would need to create beautiful quilts. We writers used to walk around their space admiring and commenting on them, while they, at the same time, commented on how they could never do something like write a novel. Artists we all were – and had a mutual admiration society for both our crafts.

Birthdays: Margaret Weis, Harding Lemay

Tips and Teasers:  Identify your characters by showing not only what they own, but how they treat their possessions. Given an expensive, but ugly, gift, how would they treat it? What would they do with it? Write a short scene from two different character perspectives.

Thought for the day:  “I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.” – Cormac McCarthy