To all my American friends, have a happy Thanksgiving.

Birthdays: Laurence Sterne (1713), Carlo Collodi (1826), Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849), Dale Carnegie (1888), William F. Buckley Jr. (1925), Mordicai Gerstein (1935), Spider Robinson (1948), Ruth Sanderson (1951), Arundhati Roy (1961), Marlon James (1970), Thomas Kohnstamm (1975)

Frances H. Burnett is best known for her story “The Secret Garden”

Mordecai Gerstein won the 2004 Caldecott Medal for “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers”

Arundhati Roy is best known for her 1997 book “The God of Small Things”

Spider Robinson has won the Hugo and Nebula awards for his science fiction novels.

Quote: “Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don’t ever piss one off.” – Spider Robinson

“I think, for me, there’s The Book I Should Write and The Book I Wanted to Write – and they weren’t the same book. The Book I Should Write should be realistic, since I studied English Lit. It should be cultural. It should reflect where I am today. The Book I Wanted to Write would probably include flying women, magic, and all of that.” – Marlon James

Tip: A good novel has to have conflict, but there are many types of conflict. Some are: betrayal, obsession, envy, revenge, guilt, loss, greed, duty, disgrace, cowardice, hatred. Can you come up with more? Use conflict as a way to motivate your characters. It gives them goals and reasons for what they do.

Jumpstart: We sat down at the empty table, our stomachs grumbling…