Birthdays: Robert W. Service (1874), Margaret Wilson (1882), Anthony Hecht (1923), William Kennedy (1928), Norman Podhoretz (1930), Susan Sontag (1933), Magadalen Nabb (1947), Ruth Reichl (1948), Julie Anne Peters (1952), Mary Karr (1955), Marla Frazee (1958), Craig Johnson (1961), Rebecca Stead (1968), Garth Ennis (1970),

Margaret Wilson won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Able McLaughlins”.

Anthony Hecht won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

William Kennedy won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel “Ironweed”.

Julie Anne Peters writes YA fiction about LGBTQ issues.

Marla Frazee is a two-time Caldecott Honor winner.

Rebecca Stead won the 2010 Newbery Medal for “When You Reach Me”

Craig Johnson is noted for his “Longmire” series.

Quote: “My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.” – Susan Sontag

“The myth is that you make a lot of money when you publish a book. Unless you write a blockbuster, that’s pretty much untrue.” – Mary Karr – best known for her memoir “The Liars’ Club”

Tip: Figure out what length story you want to write. Flash fiction, short stories, novellas, novels, and running series all require different skill sets. Yes, you can write more than one, but you need to know how to write each.

Jumpstart: Select five words at random from the dictionary. Use them in a scene along with: I saw the stapler on the floor…