Birthdays: Shelby Foote (1916), Auberon Waugh (1939), Marina Carr (1964), Rebecca Walker (1969), Christopher Paolini (1983)

Christopher Paolini is best known for his “Eragon” series.

Quote: “The real torture with Eragon came in the editing. I discovered that editing is really another word for someone ruthlessly tearing apart your work with a big smile, all the while telling you that it will make the book so much better. And it did, though it felt like splinters of hot bamboo being driven into my tender eyeballs.” – Christopher Paolini

Tip: You’ve just gotten your first edits back from your first editor…and it looks like she marked up everything! Take a deep breath. Look at them, and go through them one at a time. I’ll bet you find most of them are simply grammar things like missing commas, wrong words, etc. You can do this.

Jumpstart: He burst into the room… (finish using: wing tips, disguise, crash)