I am putting out a plea to anyone who would like to have a spotlight or review done by me. PLEASE read the pages “You’d Like a Review Done” or “You’d Like a Promo Spot” before you contact me. For some reason, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for things I don’t read (Horror, heavy thrillers, basically anything with graphic gore) or will not post (book covers that are not PG13). Also, if I’m doing a spotlight for you and you send me your photo – please put your name on the file and not “image###” or other generic file name. I do these things (reviews/spotlights) at no charge to you and it’s a lot of work so following the guidelines makes me more likely to help you out again in the future and keeps me from having to send you a letter telling you why I won’t take on your project. Thank you.

Today’s Writing Tips, Tricks, Thoughts:

Birthdays: Richard Atwater (1892), Vera Brittain (1893), Robert Ruark (1915), William Gaddis (1922), Molly Garrett Bang (1943), Jim Shepard (1956), Paul Rudnick (1957), Sean Chercover (1966), Jenny Lawson (1973)

William Gaddis’ first novel, “The Recognitions” was nearly a thousand pages long and was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 best novels from 1923-2005.

Quotes: “So many of us feel like we’re misfits until we finally find our tribe – the other people who are are strange in the same way – and suddenly everything clicks.” – Jenny Lawson

“As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.” – Paul Rudnick

“There’s no secret formula. The main thing is, you write. Sounds obvious, yet it amazes me how many people say they want to be writers but don’t write. Odd, that. Anyway, you write, and then you write some more. You revise, and then you revise some more. You show your work to others and you learn from their reactions.” – Sean Chercover

Tip: Stop worrying about being a “good” writer and just write. You can come back and edit later.

Jumpstart: You’ve struck up a casual friendship with a coworker. She often comes in bruised and you don’t buy her story about falling. You follow her one evening and find out the bruises aren’t from an abuser as you suspected, but from…