Birthdays: George Dillon (1906), Roland Barthes (1915), Marjorie Shamat (1928), Michael Ende (1929), John McGahern (1934), Janette Turner Hospital (1942), Tracy Kidder (1945), Michael Bishop (1945), Katharine Weber (1955), Neal Shusterman (1962), Naomi Wolf (1962), Damon Galgut (1963), Richelle Mead (1976),

George Dillon won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Marjorie Shamat is best known for her “Nate the Great” series

Michael Ende is best known for his epic fantasy “The Neverending Story”

Tracy Kidder won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for “The Soul of a New Machine”

Quote: “Even the most brilliant natural writer needs to know rules of grammar and punctuation before she breaks them.” – Katharine Weber

Tip: Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it means: crunch, roar, pop, tick-tock. They can make your writing stronger when used correctly.

Jumpstart: I stood and took my place in line, my stomach flipping like crazy. Ahead, they opened the door to the…