Birthdays: Alice Meynell (1847), Elizabeth Bear (1971), Fay Weldon (1931), Rosamunde Pilcher (1924), Esphyr Slobodkina (1908), Jo Beverley (1947),

Tip: Beware of overusing profanity in your story. A few words here and there are okay, but not every sentence. You’ll risk turning off more readers than you’ll gather.

Thought for the day: “The real writer will write. He has something inside of him that must come out. If a person has a book in him, he will sit down and write it.” – Kurt Vonnegut

Jumpstart: You’ve been stuck in meetings all morning and are starving. When you get back to your desk, you find a plate of cookies there with a note that says: for emergencies only. Do you eat them? What kind are they? Who sent them?