NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

We'd like to welcome Nancy Smith, our new Community Liaison. Once again, we had Candace ask our new hire some deep questions.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Idaho and went to college in Seattle. I have a degree in philosophy, so I sit around and think a lot. I lived in South Africa for a while and worked on a literacy program at a nonprofit in Cape Town. I headed back to school where I picked up my Masters in Media Studies in New York and worked with a bunch of magazines as a designer and writer. I really wanted to get my MFA in Creative Writing and write a novel, so I moved to San Francisco where I’m half way through my MFA at USF. I write a lot, do a lot of graphic design, and edit a small art and literary magazine. I really love to bake. I am trying to perfect my favorite cakes and pies, and I make really great peach cobbler. I plan on filling the OLL office with sugary deliciousness on a regular basis!

Have you ever done NaNoWriMo before?

I have not! I feel like I’m an impostor. Every year I’ve thought about it and I haven’t. I have written two really crappy novels, but not in November.

Any ideas for this year’s novel?

I don’t have actual ideas, but I know it’ll be something weird—something whimsical, fantastical, and strange. I don’t want to write some memoir or a realistic story that is vaguely about my own life. I’m thinking I need to create some crazy characters with superpowers.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

I don’t know…there are too many great superpowers to choose from! It would be really cool to stop time for everyone else while you could keep doing stuff. It would be incredibly convenient to put the world on hold, go about your business, and then start it up again.

What are you most looking forward to doing here at the Office of Letters and Light?

Everything! I feel like this is such a dream job in its entirety that I’m really excited to be a part of this organization. I can jump in and help out with so many things. Of course I’m excited about managing the MLs, but I’m also really excited about improving our blog and other communication opportunities. Finally, I’m looking forward to just seeing NaNoWriMo go through its process this November, to work with people and watch these novels get born. I love that we’re all about inspiration and being creative for the sake of being creative, and I’m excited to inspire people to write!

Hello Wrimos,

In order to avoid electrical fires and spontaneous electrocutions at NaNoWriMo’s Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon, we need some advice from an electrician! We would like to provide power to 200 laptops, two projectors, and a small sound system for six hours.

Hi there,

I wanted to let you know that there is a brave man by the name of Mark Putnam who is currently writing a semi-collaborative 100,000-word novel based on a plot/character poll he posted up on his blog. Because it was difficult for him---as it is for many of us--to decide what his novel was going to be about, he asked other people to decide for him. Two-hundred and six people completed this poll in April, and he is already 25% finished with his novel.

It’s Tavia. If you were lucky/unlucky enough (that’s for you to decide, and for me to never find out) to listen to my first attempt at WrimoRadio, you might remember my Big Fun Scary Adventure to submit work to 20 magazines and contests by the end of 2007. Well, I am a bit behind, but I am ready to start submitting. My plan is to wallpaper my entire bathroom with rejection letters by the end of the year, so I figure I better start sending my work out pronto.

Hello Writers!

Wouldn't it be cool if a Wrimo won this contest:

http://firstchapters.gather.com/

You can win 5000 big ones and a book contract. You already have the book written, so all you have to do is send it on in!

Attention Bay Area NaNoWriMo participants!

We need two more cosmically awesome people to come in and help us pack next Wednesday evening (October 4) from 6-9! The site launches in less than three days and that means an avalanche of orders and work. We need help shipping ML packages, Young Writers Program gifts, merchandise orders, and donor goodies.

Greetings from our new and glorious office! My name is Tavia Stewart and I am the luckiest person alive in that I get to introduce myself to you as the first full-time employee at the Office of Letters and Light. This first week as Managing Editor has been the best first week at an office job ever! I mean it. I hate to even call it an office job, so from now on I will call it a creative-think-tank-of-wonder job.