Canada :: British Columbia :: Kootenay District

Hidy-Ho Kootenay Nanoites. Nanoers. Nanonanos. ... I digress.

It's the Eve of our November Challenge, We're nervous, excited, full of confidence and wracked with anxiety. Or any mix of the above :)
Our first Nano Pep Talk from a famous Author urges us to enjoy that sensation, that it will soon be gone and we should appreciate it while we have it. Frankly I find it exhilarating and a bit horrifying, but You'll get used to it.

Greetings,
In keeping with our Zombie theme, this November 1st The Dead WILL rise again for another exciting and amazing month of Noveling Insanity.
But first... there's something you should know about NaNoWriMo.
Writing is a disease. Yes, a crazy, communicable, mind-altering, incurable disease that is contracted around the world by people just like yourselves. Make no mistake, you are NOT immune. It is inevitable that eventually you, or someone you love will encounter this dangerous writing disease.
So be careful. If you encounter someone who seems to be affected, please practice safe supportive behaviour and keep a safe distance between this writing zombie and yourself.

After all, all it takes is One Good Bite.

If Infected, or even if you feel you might have been exposed, please shuffle on down October 28th for our "One Good Bite" Kootenay Nano Launch Lunch Potluck at the Castlegar Public Library @ 1PM

So INFO is still coming in on Nano 2011. Congratulations from the bottom ( and top) of my heart to all wrimos who set pen to paper, and a big cheer for anyone who hit a personal goal, personal best, or achieved their purple bar of winning.

Stats I know so far are:

Donation Derby, our region seems to have come in 6th place in our League (4 - The Wolverines) for biggest difference in donation amounts from 2010 to 2011. Congratulations us! Remember, our leagues are based primarily on homed wrimos, so compared to similarly populated regions, 5th is a great accomplishment!

We also beat out Lethbridge (woo!) Moncton, Winsor, Fredericton, Kingston, and Sudbury, not to mention Romania (yeah, the country), Latvia, Hungary, Tel-Aviv, Czech Republic & Slovakia, Estonia, and Taiwan for total Donation amount for 2011 within our League (Go Wolverines!)
The only Canadian City within our League to outdonate us this year was Quebec City. Three cheers for Quebec City!!!

Next year I hope to do more with Donation Derby.

We have 177 affiliated wrimos, and 45 homed wrimos. That means that only 25% of those who feel connected to us are acutally from the Kootenays... and yet, (we are still hearing totals, so this may go up, but...) we are currently sitting at a suggested 15.5% total success rate for 2011! That's about 1 winner for every 6 people in our area this year who had a wordscore. 1 in 6 is EXCELLENT!

Update will follow as son as I have more information.
P.S. The Kootenay Cruise is a go-ahead, but the date has not yet been set.

I've just added a new sticky thread , the Winner's Circle. Pop in and crow about your achievement!

All things being things, I've forgotten I'm double-booked for today! Anyone attending today's Castlegar Library Write-in, I will TRY to pop in at the beginning, but I'm also at the Complex, running the face-painting for the final year of the Children's Festival of Trees. I'm really sorry I can't be there, but I will be checking my nanomail by phone, if you need me.

Constance.

Our Own Gaiachi has set up a Nelson Write-In Tomight! Here's the details!

Nelson Write-in
At Baker Street Grill (Best Western)
Thursday Nov 10, 2011
5:00 pm to whenever
First appy is on me.
Cheers,
Cheryl :)

Sunday Nov. 7th Write-In @ Castlegar Library DOWNSTAIRS. Starts @ 1pm. Bring snacks/bottled drinks, I will provide tea, hot water, and hot chocolate. See you all there!

The Friday Nelson writein is a go. Be at the public library at 4pm we'll stay till 6ish and then go out for dinner. And cake.... :)

Hope to see a few of you there,

Constance. (Is 28 today yay!)

I forgot to add, I'm wondering if we can have a Write-In Friday evening in Nelson? I don't have a location, but I know some people are/were free and I wouldn't mind spending my Birthday supper out writing! Please NanoMail Me if you'd like to come, and as long as there are 3 or more, we'll go ahead with it.

So Day 2 of Nanowrimo, and we have some updates. I've added a Chat Room Thread to go along with our super-cool Chatroom link. Try to pop in anytime between 7 and 9 nightly if you're having trouble writing, or just want to share.
Our Sunday Write-Ins have their Location Confirmed. Check the Calendar below for details, but we have booked the basement small room of the Castlegar Library for every sunday from 1pm-4pm this month. We can bring food for downstairs, and snacks... I'm thinking of getting a plug in kettle and coffee machine set up so we can keep ourselves warm and comfy. Anyone wants to bring something to share with the group, please do, but of course respect, blah blah, we will clean up at the end, etc, so the Library has no reason to complain.
I'm more than happy to add a Nelson or Salmo write-in to the calendar, or both if we can fit them, it just needs to be a time the locals can come, and we need to pick locations that work. Since I'm on-call, but usually reliable, I'm hesitant to decide the time or day myself, on the chance I wouldn't be able to show last minute, so start a thread, speak out, and we'll take the cue from those further away from Castlegar on this one. :)

Not to stress anyone out too much, November is only just begun, but on the topic of our TGIOP (Thank God Its Over Party), Concensus seems to be to continue with the Kootenay Cruise on the Balfour Ferry Tradition. This means carpooling to the Balfour Ferry, walking on with 10 pages or so of your rough novel that you'd like to share, with some food, some non-alcoholic sparkling champagne, and riding the ferry to the East Shore and Back. There is an optional Ainsworth Soak following the Ferry ride. This will happen some time in December, usually within the first 2 weeks so as not to crowd the Holidays.

A Reminder that people who are actively going to write-ins, and participating on the regional and general forums have a higher success rate at NaNoWriMo.

I've created some Shout-Out Threads, so pop in and let everyone know what milestones you've reached.

Ciao,

Constance

Greetings Kootenay Nanowrimos! It is time again for our yearly novel-writing challenge, and that means time again for me to harang and harass people for information regarding our Kick-Off Party!

Please respond in a timely fashion by sending me a NanoMaill with your availability for these 3 events, or by suggesting something I haven't thought of.

1) October 30th (Sunday) Novel Kick-Off Potluck Bash @ 5:30pm
2) November 1st (Tuesday) Afternoon Kick-Off Write-In @ 2pm
3) November 4th (Friday) (my bday!) Kick-Off Bash @ 6:30pm

Remember, Attendance means prizes & awards. Prizes are wacky and awards are boastable!

Constance.