Birthdays: Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884), Federico García Lorca (1898), Richard Scarry (1919), Cornelius Ryan (1920), Christy Brown (1932), Bill Moyers (1934), Allan Ahlberg (1938), Margaret Drabble (1939), L. R. Wright (1939), Orlando Patterson (1940), David Hare (1947), Ken Follett (1949), Suze Orman (1951), Evan Marshall (1956), Rick Riordan (1964), Gayle Forman (1970), Chuck Klosterman (1972),

Christy Brown was an Irish writer and painter whose cerebral palsy left him able to write only with his left foot.

Quote: “What politicians want and what creative writers want will always be profoundly different, because I’m afraid all politicians, of whatever hue, want propaganda, and writers want the truth, and they’re not compatible.” – David Hare

Tip: A novel is made of scenes and sequels. Scenes are where something happens; sequels are bridges where things may slow down a little. You should have a mixture of both.

Jumpstart: Finish this scene: I crept down the stairs, not expecting… (use: tree, panda, coral, clock)