Birthdays: Max Ehrmann (1872), TS Eliot (1888), Minette Walters (1949), Jane Smiley (1949), Will Self (1961), Mark Haddon (1962), Bernice McFadden (1965),

Bernice McFadden was the winner of the 2017 American Book Award and the 1917 NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work for “The Book of Harlan”

Jane Smiley won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “A Thousand Acres”

Quote: “In 1922 everything changed again. The Eskimo pie was invented; James Joyce’s Ulysses was printed in Paris; snow fell on Mauna Loa, Hawaii; Babe Ruth signed a three-year contract with the New York Yankees; Eugene O’Neill was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Frederick Douglass’s home was dedicated as a national shrine; former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Johnson invented the wrench…” ― Bernice L. McFadden, Glorious

“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.” ― Jane Smiley

“At the beginning of my writing process I feel like I have people coming to visit. Like one or two people. When I am really engrossed in the writing my house is full… All I’m doing is recording what I hear. As I get close to the end my house starts to empty out. It feels melancholy and lonely without the characters’ voices.” – Bernice McFadden

Tip: Remember that setting can reveal character. There’s a big difference between someone living in squalid conditions and a posh high rise. The setting helps define the character. Especially if there is a disconnect—someone raised in luxury now living on the streets or someone living in a mansion who grew up in squalid conditions will have very different opinions than someone who’s been there all their lives.

Jumpstart: You’re listening to the local news while cooking dinner. A news flash comes up about a dangerous criminal who’s wanted by the police…and it’s your name and picture they’re flashing. What do you do?