I get a lot of emails from students and professional novelists saying "I don't have a lot of disposable income right now, but I love NaNoWriMo and would love to contribute something."
I typically wave these people away. "Just give us your wholehearted participation, your funny posts in the forums, and your first-born child," I say, "and we'll call it even."
After many disappointing years of participants not following through on their child-rendering obligations, however, we've put together the Donating When You're Broke page with some ideas on contributing to NaNoWriMo when the bank balance is looking a little bleak. Fact: If everyone in NaNoLand Goodsearched on our behalf for one day, we'd have enough to buy that emu ranch we've been fantasizing about for years.
Also, I want to take a minute to raise a mug of coffee to Russ for all the late hours he put into rescuing our site from The Slows this week. He had to rewrite a pretty serious chunk of code to get us where we are now, and the stress of it all would have been enough to send most mortals running for the hills.
Russ' birthday is October 1. Which, for the person in charge of re-launching the NaNo site, is about the worst birthday you can have. Thanks, Russ, for giving up your birthday---and the week thereafter---so the NaNo site could fly.
Still waiting for those first-borns,
Chris
