Today is Beverage Day, Free Comic Book Day (first Saturday in May), National Tourist Appreciation Day, National Nurses Day, No Diet Day, and the birthday of Alain-Rene Lesage, Gaston Leroux, Christian Morgenstern, Harry Martinson, Ariel Dorfman

Tip: Practice your dialogue. Read it out loud. Does it sound like real people talk? Or is it too stilted and formal? Or maybe too slangy? Listen to how it sounds.

Thought: “A lot of people say you can’t teach writing, but I’ve never felt that was entirely true. You can’t make a great writer, but you can teach discipline, at least through example, and that’s the biggest part of writing, I think. If you don’t have the talent, you’ll probably figure out sooner or later that writing’s not for you, but you’ll never know if you don’t make a serious commitment to it.” – Dave Weich

Teaser: A publisher has bought your novel but you have to write a short bio for the back cover. What do you say? Write one now and file it for when this happens