Birthdays: James Jones (1921), Zig Ziglar (1926), Berlie Doherty (1943), Michael Cunningham (1952), Karin Fossum (1954), Stephen Watson (1954), Catherine Asaro (1955), Maria Shriver (1955), Clare Vanderpool (1965), Colson Whitehead (1969)

James Jones is best known for his first novel, “From Here to Eternity”

Michael Cunningham won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Hours”

Clare Vanderpool on the 2011 Newbery Medal for her book “Moon Over Manifest”

Colson Whitehead won the 2016 National Book Award for “The Underground Railroad”

Quote: “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” ― James R. Sherman, Rejection

“I revise constantly, as I go along and then again after I’ve finished a first draft. Few of my novels contain a single sentence that closely resembles the sentence I first set down. I just find that I have to keep zapping and zapping the English language until it starts to behave in some way that vaguely matches my intentions.” – Michael Cunningham

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. It’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain

Tip: Check out places like “Grammarly” (www.grammarly.com) if you’re not sure about your grammar. Or ProWriter. Or any other grammar program.

Jumpstart: I could hear my heartbeat thundering. I was sure he could hear it too. Unfortunately…