Birthdays: Ann Radcliffe (1764), Matthew Lewis (1775), Samuel Morison (1887), Barbara Cartland (1901), Arthur Walworth (1903), Mervyn Peake (1911), Oliver Sacks (1933), June Jordan (1936), Nancy Farmer (1941), Glen Cook (1944), Dean Koontz (1945), Thomas Ligotti (1953), Jamie Ford (1968),

Ann Radcliffe was considered the pioneer of the Gothic novel.

Samuel Morison (a Navy Rear Admiral) won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones.

Barbara Cartland held the 1977 Guinness Book record for the most novels written in a year (23). Overall, she had published 723 novels.

Arthur Walworth won a Pulitzer Prize in Biography for “Woodrow Wilson” in 1959.

Quote: “The main advice I’ve given every beginning writer I’ve ever talked to is, ‘Do it’. You’ve got to stop talking about it and sit down and do it. Put your ass in front of a computer and do it.” – Glen Cook

Tip: Set up a system to track submissions, deadlines, marketing events, and more. Make the system easy enough to use but detailed enough so you know what’s happening when.

Jumpstart: Finish this: And so, I trudged off to work, my stomach roiling from…