September 23, 2002

Hey everyone!

NaNoWriMo.org site-building is continuing apace. I've been dividing our soon-to-be-launched, ultra-sleek and mighty message board into cool little lounges and discussion areas. It's just like being an architect, but without all those cumbersome accreditation issues.

Hopefully some of you have been planning kick-off parties for your town for October. The Bay Area's NaNoWriMo kick-off party and fundraiser will take place October 26, from 8 pm to 2 am, at the 21 Grand Gallery in downtown Oakland. Expect music and mingling and, once we become sufficiently inebriated, wild dance moves from some of your favorite NaNoWriMo staff. Even if you are shy, and don't know anyone else, you should plan on attending. For real. The dance moves will be that good.

If you do already have an event planned for your city and would like to get the word out, wait until October 1 and post it on your town's subsection of the delightful new message board.

Thanks to those who have donated so far! You guys rock! And you over there! Be like your good-hearted friends! We're asking all participants for a suggested donation of $10 to go towards expenses this year (and, if we have money left over, towards some post-November events and a site facelift in 2003). Avoid the long lines at the donation box in October by donating now! Our (vastly under market rate yet still sizable) programming bills are coming due, and we could really use the help.

And finally: We are looking for one to two motivated people in every city to serve as NaNoWriMo Municipal Liasons. These would be people who have done NaNoWriMo in the past who are interested in organizing NaNo writing and social events in their town. You would also handle press requests for local interviews, putting journalists in touch with participants in your area.

The position would be unpaid, unless you count bringing joy into the hearts of millions as a salary. In which case you will be the richest person in the whole wide world. Seriously.

We already have Municipal Liasons for Oakland/Berkeley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Christchurch, New Zealand. The rest of the world, however, is open. Drop a line to chris@nanoNOSPAMwrimo.org (take out that NOSPAM part before sending it, and note the stylin' new .org suffix) with the name of your town and "Municipal Liason " in the subject line, and a brief summation of your previous NaNo experience. We'll be in touch.

That's about it for now. Registration begins on October 1. Writing starts November 1. Hope you all are well and have begun the stockpiling of treats and caffeine.

Warm wishes for a chilly autumn,

Chris
Director
National Novel Writing Month

August 25, 2002

Hiya! We've picked a day for NaNoWriMo 2002 sign-ups to begin: Tuesday, October 1. Tuesday has long been a favorite with in-the-know sailors and discerning optometrists. We like Tuesday, and we salute the day's noble heritage in choosing to relaunch the site within its temporal embrace.

Tuesday, ahoy!

And another thing! On October 1, we'll be moving! The site's new main address will be NaNoWriMo.org. It's just a few door's down from where we live now, but the new address reflects our touchy-feely sensibilities a little bit better than the cold, hard .com.

In the meantime, Dan the Technical Man and I will be working our butts off to get things ready for you. I'm completely freaked out (in a good way), by the possibility of having the kind of site where you actually get to do (rather than read) things. I speak for all two other members of the NaNoWriMo staff when I say that, come October 1, we plan on helping you realize your full procrastinating potential in a myriad of time-wasting ways.

Also, the new site design will make meeting up with your local Wrimos much, much easier. Which, in turn, makes good on our mission statement of mitigating the pain of novel-writing by introducing a whole new set of social distractions into your life.

Ok, I've gone on long enough. In closing: Rocktober, baby!

And, in the other closing: If you haven't already, please donate. We owe money to many good people, and I keep forgetting that I can't just pay for all of it out of my pocket. This year, we're hoping all novelists will kick in $10 towards the cost of the event. You could wait until November to give, or you could be an angel and help out now. (It's the angels that will keep Citibank from coming and getting me in the middle of the night.)

October, here we come!

Chris
Director and Administrative Assistant
NaNoWriMo

August 16, 2002

(Sung to the tune of "Moving Right Along" from the Muppet Movie)

Hey! It's my birthday. Yep. Today, I am officially 29. So far, I have received 29 magnets and a nice sandwich. It's shaping up to be a good year.

NaNoWriMo is also coming along swell. Dan Sanderson, the blessed technical mastermind behind the invisible changes afoot here at NaNoWriMo headquarters, has been hard at work building new features into the site.

New stuff will include pages for personal profiles, novel-in-progress excerpts, and an on-site message board so powerful that you need only to squint at it for your thoughts to appear on the screen. Good job, Dan.

Our 2002 illustrator, Claire Robertson has also come through in a big way. The 2002 t-shirt designs are finished! We'll have two from her this year, and they are fantastic. Claire has also finished the official NaNoWriMo "Participant" digital plaques, which will be available for download and general web posting once sign-ups begin. (Her "Winner" plaque, by the way, is also breathtaking. It will appear as soon as we have our first certified finisher.)

Speaking of sign-ups! The big question now is whether we open the doors on September 1 or October 1. We're shooting for September, so authors will have more time to get to know one another and begin the carousing and trash-talking that is such an important part of Great Art.

NaNo staff, though, are all burdened with full-time jobs which unfairly cut into our productivity. So who knows. We'll do our best and keep you posted.

More soon,

Chris
Director and Administrative Assistant
NaNoWriMo

July 3, 2002

This month, Dan Sanderson and Claire Robertson have both joined the NaNoWriMo family of dramatically underpaid staff members!

Dan will be helping out with getting the sign-up process automated, and will be using his boundless technical acumen and personal charm to erect a message board on the site. He will also be carving out thousands of little personalizable cubbyholes for each 2002 writer. These Sandersonized e-nooks will be a place to put some biographical information about yourself, a photo, excerpts from your novel-in-progress, links, and whatever snacks your mom packed for you that day.

Dan will also be helping out with the question-answering in November. Which is good. Because I have a lot of questions.

As for Claire---many of you know her illustration work already. She runs the infinitely charming site, loobylu.com, and is one of the most talented artists of her generation. Claire will be designing a few things for us, including 2002's official "participant" and "winner" icons, and the official 2002 T-shirt.

Claire and Dan both rock big time. Please hug both of them next time you see them.

Ok.

So far I think there are about 3000 names on the currently inert NaNoWriMo update list. I will begin sending out periodic heads-ups in the near future (I know, I know...but I mean it this time). I'm waiting until we're all set up at Dreamhost so I can use whatever fancy mailing lists they offer.

Any to anyone who has sent a personal message my way through the NaNoWriMo site, or would like to send one in the future, please put some flag phrase in the email address so I'll be sure to read it. I'm getting such an incredible amount of spam, that I don't open the account very often, and I know that some important mail has gotten lost in the relentless streams of junk.

Chris

Ps: Has anyone else read the Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature? I nearly lost my spleen laughing at some of those essays. Yikes.

Pps: Have you heard the Hank Dogs new record Half Smile? Very beautiful folk music from London with two lady singers. Also, the Ugly Casanova record is kind of amazing and mesmerizing in this very nervous-making way. I wasn't the biggest fan of Modest Mouse, but the Ugly Casanova lyrics are just phenomenal. Check this out:

smoke was pulled like ribbons
from the windows of the car.
I followed the flash of silver
from your teeth. above the tarmac
the lights were icy green
buried in patterns in your chest,
a quiet shimmering;
little dipper, tiara-shine, songbird shivery

Songbird shivery! Who writes like that? Very nice, I say.