Today is International Museum Day, No Dirty Dishes Day, Visit Your Relatives Day, and the birthday of Omar Khayyam, Bertrand Russell, Patrick Dennis, Diane Duane

Tip: A story should make your reader “feel” something – anger, love, fear, etc. – make sure you’re drawing on emotions. If you’re not feeling it, neither will your reader.

Thought: “If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There’s a tremendous corruptibility for the fiction writer because you’re dealing mainly with sex and violence. These remain the basic themes, they’re the basic themes of Shakespeare whether you like it or not.” –  Anthony Burgess

Teaser: On this date in 1980, Mt. St. Helen’s erupted, coating the northwest in ash and soot. Imagine you character was there. What did s/he do? Where did s/he go? Or didn’t s/he?