Birthdays: Saul Bellow (1915-2005), Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), James Salter (1925-2015), Terence Rattigan (1911-1977)

Tip: Your book will never be finished to your satisfaction. At some point, you need to say “enough” and send it out.

Thought for the day: “A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for a minute.” – Terence Rattigan

Jumpstart: It’s the middle of the night and your character can’t sleep because they’re too on edge because of… what? Why are they on edge? How do they calm down to sleep?

Maurice Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children’s books. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are.

James Salter was an American novelist and short-story writer. His books include The Hunters, All That Is, and his memoir, Burning the Days: Recollection.

Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born American writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times for Herzog, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, and The Adventures of Augie March.

Terence Rattigan was a one of England’s most popular mid twentieth century dramatists. He wrote plays like The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, and The Deep Blue Sea.