Birthdays: John Cowper Powys (1872), Walter Lord (1917), Frank Herbert (1920), Faith Ringgold (1930), Michael Korda (1933), William Corlett (1938), Harvey Pekar (1939), R.L. Stine (1943), Benjamin Cheever (1948), Steve Coll (1958), Bret Lott (1958), Claire Messud (1966), Jaclyn Moriarty (1968), Lincoln Michel (1982),

Walter Lord is best known for his account of the Titanic’s sinking “A Night to Remember”

Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series is a science fiction classic

R.L. Stine is an author of children’s horror stories like “Goosebumps”

Steven Coll won two Pulitzer Prizes. One of them for the 2004 book “Ghost Wars”

Quote: “Many adults feel that every children’s book has to teach them something…. My theory is a children’s book… can be just for fun.” ― R.L. Stine

 “Everything I write is different, so I can’t really generalise about where I begin. But character is very important to me – it’s why I write, I think; that and language. And if you really know a character, then you figure out how they would behave in a given situation. And the plot comes out of that, really.” – Claire Messud

Tip: There are lots of reasons to quit writing. Come up with reasons to keep going.

Jumpstart: Finish this: The day I disappeared… (using: cemetery, weed, greenhouse)