Birthdays: Allegra Goodman, Bill Watterson, Jean Cocteau, Jill Murphy, Marcel Achard, Sebastian Barry

Tip: Read your story out loud or have the computer read it to you if you have the capability. Really listen as you read it. Are there places you skip over? Words you change? Fix them.

Thought for the day: “There is only one trick that marks the writer. He is always watching. It’s a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it.” – Morley Callaghan

Jumpstart: For a lark, you go to a palm reader. At first, she smiles broadly, then her eyes get wide and she shakes her head. What is your reading?