Birthdays: Edward Lear (1812), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828), Leslie Charteris (1907), Farley Mowat (1921), George Carlin (1937), L. Neil Smith (1946), Paul Starr (1949), Rafael Yglesias (1954) Jennifer Armstrong (1961)

Paul Starr won the 1984 Pulitzer for General Nonfiction for his book “The Social Transformation of American Medicine”

“Whether you want to entertain or to provoke, to break hearts or reassure them, what you bring to your writing must consist of your longings and disappointments.” – Rafael Yglesias

Tip: If you have a long passage in italics and there’s something you want to emphasize or something that would regularly be in italics, make that passage plain text to show that it’s different.

Jumpstart: Your character is playing in Vegas. He has stacks of chips—almost enough to pay off all his debts. Does he quit? Or bet it all on one more roll of the dice? What happens next?