Under Nonfiction:

Crochet for Beginners by Arica Presinal – 5 Sparklers for this How To book

The Essential Diet for Fatty Liver by Andy de Santis – also a 5 Sparkler on this informative book.

Under Mystery:

Hidden Gem: The Secret of St. Augustine by M.S. Spencer – a 4 Sparkler story based on a real treasure hunt.

Ashes of Death by G.L. Didaleusky – 3 Sparklers for this mystery.

Under Romance:

Prophecy by Victoria Smith – 5 Sparklers for this dystopian paranormal romance

It Had to be You by Mike Owens – 4 Sparklers for this paranormal romance.

Enjoy!!

Quote: “The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which.” – J.M. Barrie (born 5/9/1860, known for creating Peter Pan)

Birthdays: Edward Gibbon (1737), J. Meade Falkner (1858), Edmund Wilson (1895), Irene Hunt (1907), Milton Metzer (1915), Mary Q. Steele (1922), Louise Meriwether (1923), Gary Snyder (1930), Thomas Pynchon (1937), Peter Benchley (1940), Pat Barker (1943), Roddy Doyle (1958), Robin Jarvis (1963), Naomi Klein (1970)

Mary Steele received a Newbery Honor for “Journey Outside”

Peter Benchley is best known for his novel “Jaws”

Quote: “If you are a writer, you’re at home, which means you’re out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing.” – Roddy Doyle

Tip: Conflict of some sort gives the best kind of story. Without it, the story is flat. Create conflict, but with a reason. Give your characters goals, then put them at odds with each other.

Jumpstart: You’ve just found out you’re a mutant, as in the X-Men. What is your mutation? Is it obvious or hidden? What can you do?

Birthdays: David Hume (1711), Robert Browning (1812), Rabindranath Tagore (1861), Wladyslaw Reymont (1867), Archibald MacLeish (1892), Gene Wolfe (1931), Nonny Hogrogian (1932), Angela Carter (1940), Peter Carey (1943), Deborah Wiles (1953),

Rabindranath Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Wladyslaw Reymont won the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature for “The Peasants”

Archibald MacLeish was Librarian of Congress and three-time winner of a Pulitzer Prize.

Nonny Hogrogrian was a two-time Caldecott Medal winner.

Quote: “Writers live with doubt and failure. Most days we don’t succeed. Most days we know we have to rewrite, that we haven’t yet arrived. This is not always unpleasant, but it can be.” – Peter Carey

 Tip: Decide what tense you want your story to use and stick with it. Whether you go with first person/present tense (the hardest to do) or third person/past tense (the most common) doesn’t matter. Sticking with it does. Go through your work and make sure you use the same tense throughout.

Jumpstart: You have to describe the taste and uses of a lemon to someone who’s never tasted or used one before. What do you say? Remember, if you turn them off by talking only about how sour it is, they’ll never try lemon meringue pie or a tall glass of fresh lemonade. Think about how to put a positive spin on something negative.

Birthdays: Sigmund Freud (1856), Gaston Leroux (1868), Harry Golden (1902), Harry Martinson (1904), Leo Lionni (1910), Randall Jarrell (1914), Theodore White (1915), Orson Welles (1915), Ted Lewin (1935), Barbara McClintock (1955), Jeffrey Deaver (1950),

Gaston Leroux, a French author, is most well known for his novel “The Phantom of the Opera”

Harry Martinson won the 1974 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Leo Lionni was a four-time Caldecott Award winner.

Randall Jarrell was the US Poet Laureate from 1956-1958.

Ted Lewin won the Caldecott Honor in 1994 for “Peppe the Lamplighter”

Quote: “Outlining is the most efficient way to structure a novel to achieve the greatest emotional impact. The most breathtaking prose and brilliantly drawn characters are wasted if the plot meanders and digresses. Outlining lets you create a framework that compels your audience to keep reading from the first page to the last…Best of all, once the outline is finished, you can write the book very quickly and in any order.” – Jeffrey Deaver

Tip: Don’t forget to get up and move every thirty minutes or so. It refreshes your brain and gets the blood flowing in your body.

Jumpstart: You’re at a large, unfamiliar hotel and get off the elevator on the wrong floor. Just as the doors close behind you, you see something you shouldn’t. What do you see? What happens next?

Birthdays: Thomas Kinsella (1928), Amos Oz (1939), Kim Edwards (1958), Robin Cook (1940), George Will (1941), Don Wood (1945), Graham Swift (1949), David Guterson (1956), Kristin Harmel (1979)

Quote: “Words create conceptions and self-conceptions and ultimately nations. They can start and stop wars. They can wound and heal. Choosing words carefully is a moral responsibility.” – Amos Oz

Tip: Always carry a notebook or have a note app on your phone for those “brilliant idea” moments.

Jumpstart: You’ve been tapped to be the new Grim Reaper. You’re presented with the cape, the scythe, everything. Do you take the job? Why or why not? If you don’t, what happens to you?

Birthdays: Niccolo Machiavelli (1469), Jacob Riis (1849), E.W. Howe (1853), Andy Adams (1859), Dodie Smith (1896), May Sarton (1912), Ben Elton (1959), Reza Aslan (1972)

Dodie Smith is known for your book “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”

Mavis Jukes won the 1985 Newbery Award for “Like Jake and Me”

Quote: “I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring – I wrote my very best poem while sitting on the hen-house.” – Dodie Smith

Tip: Don’t use song lyrics in a story unless you wrote the song. Getting permissions can be difficult and expensive. Not getting permission could end in a lawsuit. Even a few lines can be problematical.

Jumpstart: For just one hour, you have the power of a god. What would you do? Why?

Under “Fiction“

Dangerous Leads by Andrew Rowberry – 4 sparklers for this first person PI story.

Grayson by Tamara White – 3 Sparklers for this contemporary fiction book

Under “LGBTQ+ for Adults:

In the Weeds by Andrew Grey – 5 Sparklers for this contemporary gay romance.

Birthdays: Novalis (1772), Jerome K. Jerome (1859), E.E. Smith (1890), Benjamin Spock (1903), Martha Grimes (1931), Esther Freud (1963),

Dr. Benjamin Spock was best known for his “Baby and Child Care” book

Quote: “You can’t be blocked if you just keep on writing words. Any words. People who get ‘blocked’ make the mistake of thinking they have to write good words.” – Martha Grimes

Tip: Learn to use “track changes” in your processing program. It’s what most editors and publishers rely on when editing your work.

Jumpstart: Look at a scenic picture. What is happening just out of sight? Describe the scene and what is happening in detail.

Birthdays: Joseph Addison (1672), James Ford Rhodes (1848), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881), Elizabeth Marie Pope (1917), Joseph Heller (1923), Bobbie Ann Mason (1940), Karen Thompson Walker (1980)

James Ford Rhodes won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for History for “History of the Civil War, 1861-1865”

Elizabeth Pope received a Newbery Honor for “The Perilous Guard”

Quote: “Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.” – Joseph Addison

Tip: Don’t use fancy fonts, weird characters, or unusual symbols in your manuscript unless absolutely necessary. Jumpstart: You’re at a conference and sit at a table with seven strangers whom you hit it off with, although the talk seems a bit odd to you at times. You shrug it off as you are having the best time you’ve had yet. Then you realize you’re at the wrong banquet. What do you