Birthdays: Carolyn Meyer (1935), Judy Sierra (1945), Sara Paretsky (1947)

Tip: Don’t quit your day job! Sad to say, very few novelists make a living at writing. For every Stephen King or Nora Roberts, there are a thousand others who barely make a few dollars each quarter. Most writers have jobs outside their writing lives. And many of them love those jobs so they’re not unhappy spending that time not writing. They manage to fit the writing in around the day jobs.

Thought for the day: “It takes a lot of cappuccino to get me through a book.” – Sara Paretsky

Jumpstart: Finish this scene: I followed the old map I found in my grandfather’s trunk and discovered… (use: spider web, crystal ball, old computer disk)