[official] Welcome to Naperville! And ML posts

Note, every year the forums get cleared out--until that happens there is a lot of old information. I updated the main post to point to our 2011 events, but be careful that unless an event explicitly says it is for 2011, it may be from last year.

We will be posting useful information in here--especially after the pages get cleared out and you can create posts. Just be aware that they will be all wiped out and we can't do anything about it.

Katherine

And so another National Novel Writing Month comes to a close. We had a great Thank-Goodness-It's-Over (TGIO) pot-luck lunch party, courtesy of co-ML Katherine (KatherineWriting) who organized the event and came up with the brilliant and fun ice breaker: speed noveling. Katherine, Dave (TRRDEDEAN) and I (NewMexicoKid) all hope you had a terrific time this year and got something good in return for your many hours of writing (if you're a validated winner, please see http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3912499 for advice about your free CreateSpace book proof).

TAKE OUR SURVEY
Be sure to take our survey to help us improve our planning for next year's NaNoWriMo! See http://naperwrimo.org/survey2010

FINAL STATS FOR OUR REGION

• Number of affiliated people = 1193
• Number of active people = 567 (47%)
• Number of Naperville folks = 747 (62%)
• Number of active Naperville folks = 447 (37%)
• Number of Naperville folks with titles = 299 (40%)
• Number of Naperville folks with posts = 209 (27%)
• Number of Naperville folks with yearswon = 143
• Total affiliated regional wordcount = 15894736
• Total region-homed regional wordcount = 12418664
• Average wordcount (affiliated) = 13323.33
• Average wordcount (Naperville) = 21278.09
• Average wordcount (active) = 28033.04
• Average wordcount (active Naperville) = 35558.69
• Num of those > 50K words (Naperville) = 165
• Num of winners (Naperville) = 159
• Num of donors (Naperville) = 55

Compare those stats with those of our regional scanpost graph:

• Total wordcount: 3580012
• Average wordcount: 51884.23
• Wordcount standard deviation: 2968.57
• % Active (non-zero wordcount): 97.2% (69/71)
• % Winners (wordcount>50k): 74.6% (53/71)
• % Winners of Active (wordcount>50k): 76.8% (53/69)
• % 40k+ (wordcount>40k): 74.6% (53/71)
• % Returning: 56.3% (40/71)
• % Returning Who Won: 43.7% (31/71)
• % Returning Who Won of Active Returners: 77.5% (31/40)
• % of Winners who were Returners: 58.5% (31/53)

Next year, be sure to join the graph! Nearly 75% of those on the graph won vs. 36.9% overall.

PICTURES FROM THE TGIO
Pictures are now available from our TGIO party. We had just under 50 people in attendance and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. See http://naperwrimo.org/wp/2010/12/06/pictures-from-our-tgio/ for links to the photo repository.

Thanks to PersiaRose who generously donated a beautiful little gold and silver plot bunny for our region raffle; and I must say thank you to the region for letting me "win" it! :-)

Heather (AmaranthMuse) won the copy of Infinite Monkeys (our short story anthology) and Kristina (La Peregrina) won the top prize of Book In A Month (I heard afterwards that the two switched prizes). Barry (FinbarrMcG) and Claire (CD0189) each won a cover design for their CreateSpace books from me.

PAYING OUR DEBTS
Yes, we lost by a mere 239 words per wrimo to Canada::Alberta::Calgary in our inter-regional word war, our very first loss in the five years we've been a region. So we had to pay our debt by singing their regional song, Home on the Page (our videos are here: http://naperwrimo.org/calgary2010 ; their song is sung to the tune of Home on the range). Many thanks to Catherine's (Cee-Bee) husband Bart, who accompanied us on guitar (he was very good).

WRITE-INS AT Caribou Coffee
Keep your eye on our events page (http://naperwrimo.org/events will always point to the latest one) for information on events throughout the year, including Heather's Wednesday evening write-ins at Caribou Coffee. Katherine also has some write-ins scheduled there. It's a great way to maintain your writing momentum.

Want some other options in what to do after NaNo? Check out Katherine's post: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3904491

CHECK OUT OUR CAFEPRESS STORE
We have some fun designs there, including the black t-shirts ("Caution: Novelist at work!") you may have seen Katherine, Barry and me wearing at our events. See http://naperwrimo.org/shop.php

STAYING IN TOUCH
We won't be sending out many regional e-mails in the off season. If you want to stay in touch, consider joining the Journey (our year-round writing group; see http://journey.naperwrimo.org and NaNoMail me (NewMexicoKid) if you're interested in joining). Alternately, subscribe to our blog. The posts are infrequent, but they will occur throughout the year. See http://naperwrimo.org/wp/ (about half way down the left hand side navigation menu)

Heather (AmaranthMuse) has said she will create an entry on our wiki (http://naperwrimo.org/wiki) with instructions on how to make PDF files (as is needed for the CreateSpace offer). She or I will create a naperwrimo.org blog post once that is completed; another good reason to subscribe.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank my great co-MLs Katherine (KatherineWriting) and Dave (TRRDEDEAN) for all their hard work and inspiration. I'd also like to thank Barry (FinbarrMcG) for his great and funny inter-regional word war challenge. The three who gave October prep sessions deserve recognition and praise: Joe (Corrupted Flame), Crystal (DreamHigher2010), and Katherine (KatherineWriting). Thanks to Sara (Xaanterra) for all the hard work she put into our region's book drive. Thanks to Mike (horatio) for staying on as Editor for the Journey Anthologies. And thanks to Heather (AmaranthMuse) for all her region cheerleading and organizational work for the Wednesday evening write-ins.

Thanks to all of you for being the greatest NaNoWriMo region--I don't know how it is we get so lucky every year, but we truly have a great region because of all of you wonderful writers. Special thanks to Catherine (Cee-Bee) and her husband Bart for helping out at the TGIO sing-a-long; and kudos to Catherine for her great inter-regional word war poem.

ONE LAST MENTION ...
None of this would be possible without the non-profit Office of Letters and Light that sponsors National Novel Writing Month, pays for the servers and the staff who run their office, organize the forums and maintain their server code. Please do consider contributing to the OLL.

Thanks; and Happy Holidays!
--Tim

First, important/urgent information
I see that the following NaperWriMos have more than 50,000 words but none of them have validated:
* A.T. Russell
* Larry72367
* Sherry.11
* 1043649
* Mandy Noble
* DemonicAddiction

If you want to qualify for the CreateSpace book, you must NaNoMail your request for validation ASAP to Dragonchilde or cybele! See http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3912202

TGIO
I hope all of you, whether you made it to 50K or not, will consider coming out to the Thank-Goodness-It's-Over (TGIO) pot-luck lunch party this Saturday (11:45 AM-3 PM) in the Lunch Room in the lower level of the Naperville Municipal Center (one block south of the Nichols Library in downtown Naperville). Since you're bringing a dish or supplies, you can park in the underground parking (the Lunch Room is immediately to your right as you enter).

Please do RSVP: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3889420

Also, it's optional, but consider bringing a stuffed animal and a one-page excerpt from your novel (usually 20-25 copies is plenty). Friends and family are welcome (but do note that on your RSVP so we can be prepared). Sara (xaanterra) will be there, so consider bringing books to donate to the Great NaNoWriMo Book Drive.

As you know, Calgary defeated our region in the inter-regional word war; congratulations to them and also to all of us. We'll be singing their song at the TGIO... and also our own.

After NaNo
Take a look at Katherine's great post on things to do after NaNo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3904491

This includes our year-round writing group, the Journey: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3724484

We'll be re-running our Finding Your Writer's Voice workshop January 22nd in the afternoon. Watch the forum for the post to sign-up or join the Journey so you can keep informed about this and other events throughout the year.

Congratulations!
Katherine (KatherineWriting), Dave (TRRDEDEAN) and I (your volunteer MLs) would like to offer our congratulations to all of you who wrote more than 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo this November. Special congratulations to shadowsowner888 with the region-topping 352052 wordcount; and to KatherineWriting with the region-scanpost-graph-topping wordcount of 161514 (see http://graphing.teiru.net/2010/list2.cgi?name=naperwrimo_scanpost). Congratulations also to the top ten on the region-scanpost-graph: KatherineWriting, Larkk, J.A.Kosse, pmbuttler, TRRDEDEAN, AmaranthMuse, Roger Lubeck, ThePiratess, xxthefanxx, and bookgrrl.

Everyone of the below who validated will be eligible for the free CreateSpace book proof: see http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3912499 for details

The full list of Naperville-homed winners: shadowsowner888, KatherineWriting, Larkk, J.A. Kosse, pmbutler, TRRDEDEAN, AmaranthMuse, jjdavis, TriciaG, A.T. Russell, pesky-psion, Roger Lubeck, ThePiratess, xxthefanxx, SoylentPinkesque, bookgrrl, NewMexicoKid, mongrelvw, CD0189, Larry72367, Scathefire, Ajey, Cee-Bee, Gabrielle, Grene Rhino, tyler.spears, DivineLight, Viridiansoul, Westerlywick, Britin, ACFalk, Spitzbub, bam2c6, EmperorSeth, gracefulsunshine, medium, sweetnightingale, WhimsicalSnowflake, silence.speaks, pfbishop7, Raskolnikov93, cassidyone, Sherry.11, FinbarrMcG, Silrini, Knyghtraven, writeprice, arstachowicz, games2141, betharooni, sfischer, TipTappity, new_bassist_author, undreamedshorelines, tireddadx3, Gothessa, Sheeva, whome38, Last_Victorian, sheleishum, Taillefer, fancieshmancie, Anrea, TenPointsToRavendor, TeenWriter, kat16, La Peregrina, ctnigg, tregina12000, tomster, Christopher Rostan, ajkimbers, DJRM, Juliette06, Bayfield, john_csy, rebel_cheese, stephsco, Whitey, RobinM, Uberbeastman, Deathbypenz, Cherrietgee, bricha31, KayTi, Bricklayer, PersiaRose, air007, horatio, J.Ryan, BetsyD, LeaSorelle, Dancersoyeah, mrnorton, Chip_the_Red, FireflyFi, nowhereliz, InMediasRes, AnarchySparky, RealRazumihin, Utopiaswriter, little_shakespeare, debraun, schribeman, rubyliveshere, R_C_LandPsMommy05, 1043649, Joe Blevins, ptn8, ziplizard, katebakes, christina_roberts, TracyAtTheDao, clearly_insane_87, Rachel_Anne, Weaoth, KimOEsq, Erehwon, Jayme Rani, arkhaminmate7, Kimmmmmmay, kamenrider0923, yayame, pflip42, liveluvlaugh07, karenrwan, MelShakespeare, Sigird, audcat, elbakerone, make_over_girl, Bag, CowFreak5, eyewrite, jesswiz, barkle, MoonshinesGuide, Gromit, ladyrock87, kates010, mellystone, adavaughan, MDourado, CameronDaye, catatone1, upsidedownsarah, BethMac, novena, JenetteFish, jules11, sam_can_do_it, eener, wordrebel, Talent2max, himmelsgrau, samcadams, keygirl, Order_Of_32, Mandy Noble, AlliK4t, FragrantGazebo, Jennifer_Ryukage, and DemonicAddiction.

Our region statistics
* Number of affiliated people = 1190
* Number of active people = 564 (47%)
* Number of Naperville folks = 745 (62%)
* Number of active Naperville folks = 445 (37%)
* Number of Naperville folks with titles = 297 (39%)
* Number of Naperville folks with posts = 206 (27%)
* Number of Naperville folks with yearswon = 143
* Total affiliated regional wordcount = 15720033
* Total region-homed regional wordcount = 12294026
* Average wordcount (affiliated) = 13210.11
* Average wordcount (Naperville) = 21100.72
* Average wordcount (active) = 27872.40
* Average wordcount (active Naperville) = 35325.92
* Num of those > 50K words (Naperville) = 163
* Num of winners (Naperville) = 157 (35%)
* Num of donors (Naperville) = 55

Our region-scanpost graph statistics
* Total wordcount: 3580012
* Average wordcount: 51884.23
* Wordcount standard deviation: 2968.57
* % Active (non-zero wordcount): 97.2% (69/71) - (compared with 36.1% internationally)
* % Winners (wordcount>50k): 74.6% (53/71) (it pays to join the region graph!)
* % Winners of Active (wordcount>50k): 76.8% (53/69) (compared with 30.38% internationally)
* % 40k+ (wordcount>40k): 74.6% (53/71)
* % Returning: 56.3% (40/71)
* % Returning Who Won: 43.7% (31/71)
* % Returning Who Won of Active Returners: 77.5% (31/40)
* % of Winners who were Returners: 58.5% (31/53)

Thank you!
A big thank you to my wonderful co-MLs Katherine and Dave. Thanks as well to Sara Bolds (xaanterra) who ran our book drive; Barry (FinbarrMcG), who delivered a very nice inter-word-war challenge to Calgary; Joe (Corrupted Flame), Crystal (Dreamhigher2010), and Katherine (KatherineWriting) for their terrific October prep sessions; Lisa West and Becky Hollis from the Naperville Public Library and Angie Baugher from the Aurora Public Library for all their help and support; to Jenette (JenetteFish) for her nice story in the Naperville Sun); Heather (AmaranthMuse) for organizing some of the Caribou Coffee write-ins; and to Steve (cooldoctor1) and Tom (tomster) for organizing the Schaumburg Library write-ins.

Donations to the Office of Letters and Light
Putting on NaNoWriMo takes a lot of money. Servers, tech support, staff. Please consider donating to the OLL: http://store.lettersandlight.org/

Cafepress Store
Our local region has a cafepress store with some nifty t-shirts, magnets and other goodies: proceeds from the cafepress store help us offset our local expenses: http://naperwrimo.org/shop.php

From our blog:

This Sunday (November 28th) is the final write-in of this 2010 NaNoWriMo. It will be in the Children's Department (lower level) of the Nichols Library in downtown Naperville from 1-4:30 pm (Sunday). Come out and write a bunch! As a special treat, I've made some really good plot bunnies to give out as word war prizes:

I'm thinking that based on the attendance last week (14), everyone at this write-in might walk away with a plot bunny--post-Thanksgiving write-in attendance is usually low. And these are definitely the best plot bunnies I've made (see the pirate one?).

Word War With Calgary
Unfortunately, we find ourselves over 800 words per wrimo behind Calgary with only four days and change to go. Do not give up. We can still make a come-from-behind victory happen, but it will take all of us. All of us. Everyone who currently has a non-zero wordcount (those are all who are counted) needs to write. If you have 4000 words now, boost that to 10,000. If you have 23,000, at least bring it to 25,000 (or, better yet, 30,000). Doing that will help our average wordcount rise, which is how this contest is judged. I will put some skin of my own in this request. If we defeat Calgary, I will add to the TGIO raffle a cover design for your CreateSpace bookproof for a total of two cover designs to be raffled.

Validating your win
To win at NaNoWriMo this season and become eligible for the completely free (including shipping) CreateSpace book proof, you must validate. Validation is simple, but do not wait for the last minute to validate. If your wordcount is equal to or greater than 50,000 words, go to the word count validator (under My NaNoWriMo) to copy and paste your entire novel into the text box and submit. See this NaNoWriMo article for more information. Also be sure to make sure your timezone settings are correct or else you will not be able to access the validator at the end. You know you have won when your word count progress bar in your profile turns from green to purple.

TGIO Party
Don't forget to RSVP for the rockin' Thank Goodness It's Over (TGIO) Party, a pot-luck lunch affair at the Naperville Municipal Center from 11:45 AM-3 PM on Saturday, December 4th. Only those who RSVP will receive the special awards certificates. Note that you do not need to have completed your NaNo novel to attend. Bring your friends and family to celebrate the end of NaNoWriMo for this year.

From our blog:

Today is the 19th; the day after tomorrow is the start of the final third of National Novel Writing Month--the final ten days. How is your novel going? Have you made it over the hump? I sit somewhere above 30k words and have yet to hit act II... Worse, new responsibilities at work have left me with no time to write the past two days; but vacation time is kicking in next week and I hope you will see my word count grow hugely over that time span.

Write-ins: The Sunday write-in this weekend (11/21) will be at the 95th Street Library; I have a fresh batch of plot bunnies available and will be giving out eight on Sunday to word war winners.

Wish I could go to the Illinois All State write-in Saturday--those events are always a lot of fun (we hosted the first one in Warrenville a couple years back).

Donations: I encourage all of you to consider donating to the Office of Letters and Light that sponsors National Novel Writing Month. Running NaNoWriMo for hundreds of thousands of writers world wide takes quite a bit of money each year. So far, fewer than 5% of Naperville participants have made donations; can we get that up to 10%?

Word War: I see we've made a little headway against Calgary in our inter-region word war. Let's make up the 235 word gap and win this thing so they can learn the fun of singing our regional song.

--Tim

See this post in our blog.

Dave posted this Monday, 11/8:

Hi everyone,

“Uh oh, I’ve fallen behind in my word count!” Maybe you can sympathize with my predicament, because you too face the same situation. I had taken time off work to jump start my Nano month only to have life throw me a curve ball and an out of state trip for a family funeral. When I got back from Florida I sat at my computer relieved I finally had internet access and wondered what I was going to do to catch up.

Here’s the strategy that worked for me:

First, write something every day. I took an adapter on the trip and even when riding in the minivan set up my computer. I only got five or six hundred words done but the act of typing reminded me what Nano is about. Even on Saturday the 6th I was so tired I could only write 300 words I did because I knew that was 300 less I would need to write!

Second, attend a write-in. Sunday the 7th I attended the Naperville write in. Although over a thousand words down from where the Nano graph said I should be I knew I needed to be with other Nano’ites. In the room the Nano “bug” bit me and I recouped the word count and more!

Third, I took the opportunity to reply to the Naperville Forum thread for the word count graph. I find the list and the graph motivating to help me push on and write. My hope is to move up in the listing and to see my marker move away from he pack!

These suggestions aren’t the only strategies, but hopefully they may help you to find your own motivations you happen to find yourself behind in the word count.

Hang in there, plug away, hit the keys and happy noveling!

Dave, Naperville co-ML
AKA TRRDEDEAN

From our naperwrimo.org blog:
I've been seeing a few posts and nanomails from folks who find themselves slowing down or blocked from proceeding further with their novels. I think that some of this may be due to inexperience with the novel form. It is not uncommon for people who have written short stories to run into this phenomenon even if they have read widely. For example, Orson Scott Card himself hit this problem with his first novel; and he was an award-winning short story writer at the time.

Here is an online article that does a fair job of contrasting the two story forms. Kristi Patrice Carter writes (in that article): Remember that the novel affords you plenty of room to work with. Slow down and take the time to really work with and fill that space. The short story writer in you might balk at the idea of "wasting" so many words, but ignore her. This is the time to allow your inner writer free rein, some time to play. Also see this article she wrote with tips on novel writing.

Another good online reference for novelists is this collection of writing articles on writing.com with content based on books by Dwight Swain. Swain, the author of Techniques of the Selling Writer, breaks novel writing down into a very workable model of scene and sequel that are comprised of motivation reaction units. With these building blocks and the bigger picture framework, you can write an engaging novel.

Fine, you say, but the first week in November is drawing to a close and my novel is in trouble! Well, what may help you is a good dose of Plot Doctoring (this link is to the NaNoWriMo forum of the same name). In essence, Plot Doctoring is about other people listening to you talk/write about your novel and your perceived problems with it and offering their thoughts on how to fix it. You can also receive this help in our jabber chatroom (NaNoMail NewMexicoKid if you want a jabber account).

I strongly believe that there are no problems that are insurmountable; all it takes are the right resources, a bit of time to reset/reflect and maybe some helpful advice.

--Tim (NMK)

Today is day four. If you're going by the 1667 words per day method, ideally you should be at 6668 by the end of the day. Of course, the weekend is approaching, so if you are under this total, there is still plenty of time to make it up, especially if you go to one or more of the write-ins (ah, the miracle of word wars!).

Welcome to the region! I am Tim (aka NewMexicoKid); along with Katherine (KatherineWriting) and Dave (TRRDEDEAN), I am one of the volunteer co-Municipal Liaisons who are here to answer your questions and help you achieve success in your goal to write your novel this year. Feel free to send Katherine or me nanomail or just reply to this e-mail.

SAD NEWS
Our deep condolences go out to Dave (TRRDEDEAN); his mother passed away earlier this week. Understandably, Dave's attentions are elsewere right now, so please direct your questions to Katherine and me. See http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3840476

WEEKEND WRITE-INS
As shown on our google calendar and on our events page (http://naperwrimo.org/events), we have four write-ins coming up this weekend: three on Saturday and one on Sunday (Sunday is at the 95th Street Library, 1-4 pm). Congratulations to Crystal, Amy and Paula for winning three of the precious plot bunnies in word wars at Monday's Eola Road branch library write-in. There will be more plot bunnies given away to word war winners Sunday at the 95th Street Library.

Monday will see two write-ins: one 9-11:30 am at Caribou Coffee hosted by Katherine; and a virtual one in our jabber chatroom 7:45 pm-9 pm that I will host.

WHAT IS A WRITE-IN? WHAT ARE PLOT BUNNIES?
Don't know what a write-in is? Wondering whether it might be useful to you? Have you never seen a plot bunny? Check out the answers here on our blog: http://naperwrimo.org/wp/2010/10/24/upcoming-fun-at-the-write-ins/

WHAT IS JABBER? WHAT'S A VIRTUAL WRITE-IN?
Glad you asked! Jabber is a common name for XMPP, the instant messaging protocol that underlies, among other things, google talk and the chat that you can do from your google mail. We have a jabber chatroom that you can use to type messages to each other; it is equipped with a jabber bot that can time your word wars (once you're in the room, type: word_war help). Need an account? Send nanomail to NewMexicoKid and I'll get you set up.

ILLINOIS STATEWIDE WRITE-IN
TimSimms, ML of neighboring Chicago, just announced the November 20 (11 am-2 pm) Statewide Write-in (third annual; we actually hosted the very first of these events) in downtown Chicago. See http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3843710 to RSVP. Last year's event was lots of fun and pretty-well attended.

WAIT! I NEED HELP!
Having just assisted (in a jabber chat) Jennifer_Ryukage (one of our experienced wrimos) with a plot problem, I can gues sthat there are some of you out there who have hit a snag in your noveling. Maybe you're not happy with your chosen plot. Maybe your main character decided to run away. Don't give up! Don't throw away your wordcount! Instead, head over to the Adoption Society forum. You can find plots, characters, titles and other useful story elements to incorporate into your story or even (at this early stage) use to completely replace your own. http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/forum/2542

You are also welcome to stop by the jabber chatroom for more personalized help. And there are other helpful forms on the nanowrimo site (just don't spend all your time there ;-) ).

SET YOUR HOME TO NAPERVILLE
During November, it's fun to compare Illinois::Naperville's progress against all the regions in the world, both in word count and donations. Please show your pride in our region by making sure your successes are included in our regional totals. To do this, you need to affiliate with Naperville AND set Naperville as your Home Region.

It's a relatively painless process:

1. If you’re not affiliated with Naperville: Log in and click My NaNoWriMo, then click My Regions. On the All Regions tab, locate Illinois::Naperville, and click Join. Then click Join again.
2. If you are already affiliated: Do not pass Go. Proceed directly to the Home Region tab. On the Home Region tab, click the circle beside USA::Illinois::Naperville, and click the Set Home Region button near the bottom of the screen.

REGIONAL WORD COUNT GRAPH
Do you like to see how you're doing relative to others in the region? If so, the regional word count graph is for you. Just post your genre, brief synopsis and a snippet of your text in this thread to join in the fun: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3800250

REGIONAL STATS
(from http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/200/info)
* There are 691 Wrimos in this region (active and homed) - 60% are new to NaNoWriMo
* 2.60% of Wrimos in this region have donated 680.00 so far (thank you!)
* Wrimos in this region have written 1,258,590 words (3,933 per Wrimo with wordcount)

BOOK DRIVE
As you know, the Office of Letters and Light is trying to raise funds for NaNoWriMo and the Young Writer's Program through the Great NaNoWriMo Book Drive (see http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3705852). xaanterra (Sara) is our volunteer book-driver-in-chief. Our goal is to get to 3000 books donated for the region.

I'm not sure what our current total is for the book drive; I suspect xaanterra (Sara) hasn't had time to update her count since the haul from the kick-off party (probably too busy working on her novel!). If you have books to donate, watch for instructions from Sara as to which write-ins to bring them to.

DONATIONS TO OLL
NaNoWriMo is a free event; there's no charge to register, no charge to use the forums, no charge to attend our local events. But, just like PBS and NPR, the nonprofit OLL (the sponsoring organization) does have bills. It pays for the servers and software that run the forums, the people who maintain those, the staff who mostly invisibly run the whole organization and manage the volunteer Municipal Liaisons, and the beautiful stickers that each of you can receive by going to an official write-in (one hosted by an ML). Please consider giving back with a donation to the OLL. See https://store.lettersandlight.org/

HEY! I'M STILL READING--IS THERE MORE?
Amazingly, yes! Ahem! You can find a lot of helpful links at http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3700830

Ok. That's it. I'm done. :-)

Thanks for reading down to the end.

Starting today, we'll begin posting in this thread the regional e-mails we MLs send out; there are some folks who arrive to the party late and this can let them catch up. Also, the site has been flaky recently, so some regional e-mails may not have made it out.