Birthdays: James Branch Cabell (1879), Arnold Toynbee (1889), Erich von Daniken (1935), Mireille Guiliano (1946), Bruce Sterling (1954), Tina Rosenberg (1960), Daniel Clowes (1961), Wells Tower (1973)

Erich von Daniken is best known for “Chariots of the Gods”

Tina Rosenberg won the 1995 Pulitzer for Nonfiction for “The Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts after Communism”

Quote: “With fiction, there’s no reason why everything you write shouldn’t be amazing. Nobody’s stopping you from making up better stuff.” – Wells Tower

Quote: “A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book “means” thereafter, perforce, — both grammatically and actually, — whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.” ― James Branch Cabell

Tip: An opening to your story is not the place to put backstory. This will not pull the reader in. Backstory can come later. Check your opening. Does it start with action that invites the reader in, or backstory?

Jumpstart: Write a love letter. Not just any love letter, but from one person who is caught in a disaster and knows s/he is going to die to their secret love—someone nobody knew about, including the recipient.

Birthdays: Nella Larsen (1891), Marguerite Henry (1902), Samuel Beckett (1906),
Eudora Welty (1909), John Braine (1922), Erik Christian Haugaard (1923), Seamus Heaney (1939), J.M.G. Le Ciezio (1940), Rae Amantrout (1947), Christopher Hitchens (1949), Michel Faber (1960),

Marguerite Henry is most famous for her “Misty of Chincoteague” stories.

Samuel Beckett won the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Eudora Welty won the 1973 Pulitzer for Fiction.

Seamus Heaney won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

J.M.G. Le Ciezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Quote: “I can’t think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people’s understanding of what’s going on in the world.” – Seamus Heaney

Tip: Delete redundant modifiers. Don’t “look up” at the sky. The sky is up. Just look at it. Don’t sit down. Just sit.

Jumpstart: You’ve purchased a painting of an old castle with a figure in the tower window. You’re not sure why you bought the piece—it’s not even very attractive, but something drew you to it. Upon closer inspection…

A Note from Vicky: If you have been promised a review, it is coming. Honest. It just may take a little longer. I have been overwhelmed with requests, with my own writing, and with a project I took on months ago that has taken a lot more time than expected. I promise. I put a lot of effort into my reviews. They are not just “I liked this book” type reviews. Please be patient. Reviews are coming.

Birthday: Hardie Gramatky (1907), Beverly Cleary (1916), Carol Emshwiller (1921), Alan Ayckbourn (1939), Tom Clancy (1947), Scott Turow (1949), Gary Soto (1952), Jon Krakauer (1954), Elliot Ackerman (1980)

Quote: “The truth of the matter is that the people who succeed in the arts most often are the people who get up again after getting knocked down. Persistence is critical.” – Scott Turow

Tip: Like redundancies, may writers pad their work with wordiness. Check out wordy phrases you tend to overuse. Some to look for: for the reason that (because); both of them are (both are); until such time as (until); the true fact is (the fact is)

Jumpstart: Go to the engagement/wedding section of your newspaper and pick out several couples. Write brief character sketches for the people. What are they really like? Why are they together? Mix and match couples and give them different mates. Why those?

Birthdays: Dean Acheson (1893), Glenway Wescott (1901), Leo Rosten (1908), David Westheimer (1911), Peter O’Donnell (1920), Anton LaVey (1930), Mark Strand (1934), Thomas Harris (1940), Dorothy Allison (1949), James Patrick Kelly (1951).

Dean Acheson won the 1970 Pulitzer in History for his memoirs.

Mark Strand was the US Poet Laureate 1990-1991.

David Westheimer’s book “Von Ryan’s Express” was made into a movie of the same name.

Quote: “You must understand that when you are writing a novel you are not making anything up. It’s all there and you just have to find it.” – Thomas Harris

Tip: The beginning sells your book. The ending sells your next book. Check your beginnings and endings. Are they compelling? Do they draw the reader in and finish everything up neatly? Please don’t leave your readers hanging.

Jumpstart: Finish the following: There was a sense of anticipation (use: massage, tree, sand, clock)

Birthdays: William Hazlitt (1778), Joseph Pulitzer (1847), Mary Buff (1880), Clare Tulay Newberry (1903), Margaret Clapp (1910), David Halberstam (1934), Richard Peck (1934), Claudio Magris (1939), Penny Vincenzi (1939), Paul Theroux (1941), Martin Waddell (1941), David Adler (1947), Anne Lamott (1954), John M. Ford (1957),

Mary Buff (and her husband Conrad) was a four-time runner-up for Caldecott or Newbery medals

Clare Newberry had four Caldecott Honor books

Margaret Clapp won the 1948 Pulitzer for Biography for “Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow”

David Halberstam was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist

Ricard Peck won the 2001 Newbery Medal for “A Year Down Under”

Quote: “The more you write, the more you’re capable of writing.” – Paul Theroux

Jumpstart: Go to a yard sale or secondhand shop and pick out one item of interest. Write a scene about it. What is its history? What happened that it is now for sale?

Tip: Think about your book. What will your ideal cover art look like? Find pictures of your characters and background and add them to your file for future reference.

Birthdays: Charles Baudelaire (1821), Jacques Futrelle (1875), Joseph Krumgold (1908), Lev Kopelev (1912), Leonard Levy (1923), Paule Marshall (1929), Fern Michaels (1933), Robert Clark (1952), Ken Kalfus (1954), Kate Heyhoe (1955), Margaret Peterson Haddix (1964), Sam Harris (1967)

Jacques Futrelle was an American journalist and Titanic victim.

Joseph Krumgold was the first person to win two Newbery Medals.

Leonard Levy won the 1969 Pulitzer in History for “Origins of the Fifth Amendment”

Robert Clark won the Edgar Award for his 1999 novel “Mr. White’s Confession”

Quote: “Inspiration comes of working every day.” – Charles Baudelaire

Tip: Tell your reader how a character feels, and you’ve given your readers a fact. Show how s/he feels and you’ve given them an emotion. Of the two, emotions are much better than fact. Go through your story and find where you’ve given facts vs. shown us their emotions.

Jumpstart: Your heroine is sitting in a park and a woman in a dark coat dashes by and drops a note in her lap. It says, “meet me here at midnight or he dies.” What does your heroine do? Does she get help? Who will die? Why? Will she show up?

Birthdays: Harvey Cushing (1869), Margaret Ayer Barnes (1886), John Fante (1909), Glendon Swarthout (1918), Seymour Hersh (1937), Trina Schart Hyman (1939), James Herbert (1943), Robert Kiyosaki (1947), Barbara Kingsolver (1955), Nnedi Okorafor (1974), Sara Shepard (1977)

Harvey Cushing won a Pulizer for his biography of Sir William Osler.

Margaret Barnes won the 1931 Pulitzer for her first novel “Years of Grace”

Tina Hyman won the 1985 Caldecott for her work on “Saint George and the Dragon”

“In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees

Quote: “The only way to become a writer is to sit still and write. Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” – Barbara Kingsolver

Tip: All writing counts. If you can’t come up with a story to write, write a grocery list, a letter to your best friend or a relative, a to-do list – anything. Just let the words come. They may lead to something better.

Jumpstart: Pick two characters from a favorite book and describe their courtship but put a twist on it. For instance, make Rhett and Scarlett Yankees. How would their lives be different?

Birthdays: William Wordsworth (1770), Gabriela Mistral (1889), Gerald Brenan (1894), James White (1928), Donald Barthelme (1931), Iris Johansen (1938)

Gabriela Mistral won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Latin American to do so.

Quote: “It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.” – Gerald Brenan

Agents and editors do not like “wimpy housewives” or “Mary Jane” (also called Mary Sue) -a character who is too perfect with no flaws. Unrealistic characters—stereotypes with no thoughts other than what the main character in the story puts into their heads and no backbone until the last chapter. Make sure yours aren’t like this. Give them flaws and a backbone (when needed).

Jumpstart: You’ve been given a key that opens one of three chests. Inside one chest is a million dollars, tax free. A second one holds a powerful poison that will kill you instantly. The third is empty. How do you choose which one to open? What happens?

Tagline: How do you escape death when you are lost in space and a killer is aboard your ship?

Blurb/Synopsis: Amanda Ki’s humanitarian trip to Xy-Three is fraught with assassins and saboteurs who are popping up faster than she can deal with them. Caught up in a web of intrigue, kidnapping, and terror, Mandy joins forces with the captain of the Phoenix, Declan Chalmers. Declan is tall, dark, handsome, and probably the most arrogant, dictatorial man she has ever met. He’s also one of the few people she can trust. Declan doesn’t know what to expect from the VIP who heads up a million-dollar enterprise, when she boards his ship. The tiny, exotic, and packed full of grit woman is not only drop dead gorgeous and smart, she’s also deadly when it comes to martial arts. A skill he wants on his side when the space craft is sabotaged. Thrown together, the two form a tight bond, but if they aren’t careful, they could end up dead.

Book Links

The Wild Rose Press: https://www.thewildrosepress.com/bookauthor/vicky-burkholder

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Among-Stars-Galactic-Danger-ebook/dp/B09QJJL8ZH

Barnes & Noble: Lost Among the Stars by Vicky Burkholder | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/

Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Vicky_Burkholder

Author Information

As her alter-ego, Vicky has multiple homes all over the universe. She looks human – for the most part – but when she starts writing about characters being able to move things or flicking fire from their fingertips, or changing the course of rivers, people tend to get a little freaked out. She found the one guy out there in the universe who loves her for who she is and they’ve been together forever and raised four wonderful (now) adults. Her career includes work as a technical writer/editor, a stringer for the local newspaper, and an editor and copy editor for various publishers. At various times in her life, she has been a teacher, a secretary, a short-order cook, a computer specialist, a DJ, and a librarian. When not editing or writing, she can be found in the kitchen creating gluten free goodies for her family.

Author Links

Website:  http://www.vicky-burkholder.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Burkholder

Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1264928.Vicky_Burkholder

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vicky-Burkholder-535739543163598/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickyburkholder

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/vicky-burkholder

Blurb: A FATAL OVERTURE (3/29/22)finds trouser diva Ella Shane facing her biggest challenges yet: murder, marriage – and her potential mother-in-law. The mother and aunts of her swain, Gilbert Saint Aubyn, Duke of Leith, show up at her townhouse demanding to know when she plans to marry him…only to find a body in their hotel bathtub. As Ella and Gil try to work out their marriage contract, Ella’s newspaper reporter friend Hetty gets mixed up in the murder…and an old friend of Ella’s informs her that someone is trying to take out a contract on Gil. They may be able to work out a happy ending – but it won’t be safe, or easy!

BUY:

Kensington: A Fatal Overture (kensingtonbooks.com)

Amazon:A Fatal Overture (An Ella Shane Mystery): Marple Kalb, Kathleen: 9781496727251: Amazon.com: Books

B&N: A Fatal Overture by Kathleen Marple Kalb, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

BIO: Kathleen Marple Kalb likes to describe herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. She’s the author of the Ella Shane historical mystery series for Kensington Books, including A FATAL OVERTURE, and A FATAL FIRST NIGHT, named to Aunt Agatha’s Best Of: History Mystery 2021 list. She grew up in front of a microphone and a keyboard, working as an overnight DJ as a teenager in her hometown of Brookville, Pennsylvania…and writing her first (thankfully unpublished) historical novel at sixteen. After a news career with stops in Pittsburgh, Vermont and Connecticut, she’s now a weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS Radio in New York City. As Nikki Knight, she’s also the author of the contemporary Vermont Radio Mystery, LIVE, LOCAL AND DEAD, out now from Crooked Lane. Her short stories appear in several anthologies, and her story “Bad Apples” was an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Black Orchid Novella Contest. She, her husband, and son live in Connecticut, in a house owned by their cat.

Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleen-Marple-Kalb-1082949845220373/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KalbMarple

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenmarplekalb/