Birthdays: Alice Rice (1870), Aldo Leopold (1887), Bernard DeVoto (1897), Alan Paton (1903), Manfred Lee (1905), Helen Howe (1905), Robert O’Brien (1918), Mary Rodgers (1931), Jill Churchill (1943), Diana Gabaldon (1952), Jasper Fforde (1961), Alethea Kontis (1976)
Alan Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist who was famous for his first novel “Cry, the Beloved Country”.
Bernard DeVoto won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for History for “Across the Wide Missouri”
Manfred Lee wrote under the name “Ellery Queen” and was famous for his mysteries.
Robert O’Brien won the 1972 Newbery Medal for “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH”
Mary Rodgers, writer of books like “Freaky Friday” is the daughter of Richard Rodgers and she started out writing musicals.
Quote: “If you’re going to have more than one person read your book, they’re going to have totally different opinions and responses. No person – no two people – read the same book.” – Diana Gabaldon
“ Getting a book published is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do and getting a picture book published is darned near impossible. Have a thick skin, and prepare yourself for truckloads of rejection and humiliation. But if you’re just masochistic and hard-headed enough to never give up, you’ll make it happen. (Just like anything else in this world.) I wish you the best of luck!”- Alethea Kontis, writer of YA books, picture books.
I love Diana Galbadon’s series, though I haven’t read them all. But I do like the way she writes.
And Ellery Queen has always been a favorite as well!
Sparkling Book Reviews 