Birthdays: Max Beerbohn (1872), Jean Rhys (1890), Malcolm Cowley (1898), Jorge Luis Borges (1899), James Tiptree, Jr. (1915), Howard Zinn (1922), A.S. Byatt (1936), Susan Sheehan (1937), Paulo Coelho (1947), Alexander McCall Smith (1948), Oscar Hijuelos (1951), Orson Scott Card (1951), Stephen Fry (1957), Ali Smith (1962), Yrsa Siguroardottir (1963), John Green (1977),
Susan Sheehan won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for “Is There No Place on Earth for Me?”
James Tiptree, Jr. Is the pen name of science fiction writer Alice Bradley Sheldon – who broke down the barriers of women writing science fiction vs. men.
Oscar Hijuelos was the first Hispanic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 1990 for “The Mambo Kings Play songs of Love.
Quote: “I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you’re trying to be a writer. Because it’s the only apprenticeship we have. It’s the only way of learning how to write a story.” – John Green
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” – Paulo Coelho
Tip: Logical order: unless you’re writing a time travel story or your character is a precog, events should follow a logical order. For instance: “She jumped out of the way, realizing the car was going to hit her.” This isn’t logical. She’s jumping before she’s realizing. It should be: When she realized the car was going to hit her, she jumped out of the way.
Jumpstart: Your obsession with (what) is starting to worry me. Why?
Sparkling Book Reviews 