Introduce yourself!

I'm Heather, I turn 30 on November 20th and this is my 3rd year participating in NaNo.

I'm a tech support person for a major airline at the company formerly known as EDS. I've been working there for over 2 years.

I've never won a NaNo yet, so this year I'm more focused on completing my personal goals than getting to 50k. If I get to 50k in process, then it's that much better!

I'm Jennifer. I'll be older tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. But my birthday is in July.
This will be the fourth year I've tried Nano, and I'm starting to think that I really just like hanging out with other writerly people. The best year I've had was the second, when I made it to about 20k. I sincerely considered not bothering with it this year.
However, I have someone (who is more than an acquaintance but not quite a full-on friend) that I have introduced to the NaNo concept and he is threatening unspecified horrors if I don't come along. So here I am. Maybe it's what I need, a direct influence, someone who knows who I know and where I live, to keep me interested and involved. He's got a wife and small child and a job and another job. In the face of that I have no excuse. Not that you wanted to know all of that, but there you go.
I live just north of TU, which I consider to be Midtown, but others insist is North. I've lived here all my life and am convinced I'm correct. I work a funny shift, and am not anticipating that I will make it to any write-ins or any meet-ups other than the first, if that. But we'll see. I'm a strange one, mercurial and odd and turning more and more into a weird critter every day.
Oh. Also, not that it is important or that you are interested, I am a Leo and prone to making it All About Me. Apologies in advance.

GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

'06: Mickey and Dinga go to the Moon. Fail.
'07: (Untitled) Fail.
'08: The Room of Water and Rest. Oh my, fail.
'09: G

My name is Rachel, I'm 24 and I'm west of Tulsa.
I'm a housewife & photographer.

This is my 8th year participating, but I have only won the past 3. I had a marginal amount of fun every time I lost, though. I've found that any sort of pre-planning outside of a title is bad for me, and I do my best if I just start typing on November 1st.

Hi, I'm Cathy. I live mid-town Tulsa. Last year was my first time to do Nanowrimo. I write mostly children's stories/articles for magazines. But last year I decided to try my hand at a novel. It was HARD. Especially not stopping to edit! I did finish the word count but I've revised it several times. It's still not ready for publication but I'm working on that.

I hope this year will be easier the second time around. You veterans could let me know (but don't tell me if it's harder! :)) I'm the opposite of Rachel, I do better with an outline first. So I'm trying to get one worked out before November 1st.

Hi, I'm Cathy. I live mid-town Tulsa. Last year was my first time to do Nanowrimo. I write mostly children's stories/articles for magazines. But last year I decided to try my hand at a novel. It was HARD. Especially not stopping to edit! I did finish the word count but I've revised it several times. It's still not ready for publication but I'm working on that.

I hope this year will be easier the second time around. You veterans could let me know (but don't tell me if it's harder! :)) I'm the opposite of Rachel, I do better with an outline first. So I'm trying to get one worked out before November 1st.

This format is ripped off from the "introduce yerself" thread in the 20s forum.

Preferred name/nickname: Michelle

Age: 25

Previous NaNos: 2006 - The Sorcerer's Blade. 2008 - Sorceress Knight. I made it to 50k both times, and both times 50k was not enough to complete the book. SK is languishing in half-finished land (for now), but TSB is currently getting the royal by-God-I'm-going-to-finish-rewriting-you-before-Nov.-1 treatment.

Recommend a book for us:
Science fiction: You have read Foundation by Isaac Asimov, haven't you? Yes? Excellent. No? Go read it. Now. Seriously.
Fantasy: I just finished the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn), so I'm going to have to go with those. Way fun.
Christian historical fiction: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

More about yourself: I have two roommates and a cat. In my non-writing time, I work for a company that does website design and development. I'm currently learning CSS, slowly but surely. (You can use CSS to make a link a button! Do you have any idea how cool that is? Or am I really that big of a nerd?) I've been in Tulsa for 2.5 years now, a transplant from southern Oklahoma, and I love it.

I also play video games (I've beaten three out of the 11 non-MMO Final Fantasy games, leaving me with just eight to go...at least until XIII comes out next year). I used to review movies back in the day, and "The Barenaked Critic" was the name of my column. I also like cooking, more specifically, baking, and by gosh, there are going to be cookies in this house for Halloween!

Preferred genres to read/write: Fantasy and sci-fi will always be my first loves, but I also enjoy reading mysteries and romances.

Your brilliant idea for this year: A young mechanic/pilot on a mining ship and her android best friend befriend an alien who crash-lands into the mining ship. The alien is on the run from another group because she alone knows the location of an extremely powerful object, one that many races throughout the galaxy would love to get their hands on. (I have spent way too much time watching Star Trek this year.)

NaNo 2006 - The Sorcerer's Blade (win)
NaNo 2008 - Sorceress Knight (win)
NaNo 2009 - Secrets of the Black Moon (working title)

I'm Jean, 36 (more like 12 mentally sometimes), married with no kids, three cats and a cat-like dog. I live in East Tulsa, where all the best ethnic food lives, and do freelance web design and virtual assistant work (yes, Barenaked, CSS is awesome).

When I'm not working or writing, I usually have my feet propped with a glass of wine nearby and a knitting project in hand and my laptop tuned into Hulu. I sometimes make pretense at being a Crafter, but really it's limited to knitting, because I don't have time for anything else these days, and I can do that while I catch up on TV. I'm a TV junkie, and mostly watch sff and reality shows, although I think my new favorite show this year is Glee... which I suppose falls into the "f" spectrum of "sff".

Sff is also mainly what I read (although this year my husband managed to get me hooked on Tess Gerritsen's medical thrillers), as well as what I primarily write. This is my fourth straight year for NaNo. The only time I "won" was in 2007, but last year I invoked the Z clause to work on finishing the WIP I'd started as my 2006 NaNo project, and it turned out to only need about 30,000 more words. I'm currently in the middle of editing that one via Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision Method, which I highly recommend. I'm posting my sole winner, a paranormal romantic horror comedy entitled This Old Haunt, as a serialized blog novella, since I couldn't find a way to stretch it out from novella to full-on novel without adding a lot of filler.

This year I'm tackling the Vampires vs. Zombies epic that I originally wanted to write last year. I think it will be better off for the year-long delay, because what started out as an idea for a satirical horror comedy has since developed into something dark and serious and potentially awesome, at least in my mind. I can't wait to get started on it.

PS - Feel free to add me as your writing buddy.

2007 Winner - This Old Haunt

2009 - Dominion of the Damned

Howdy! I'm Tim, and this will be my 7th year with NaNoWriMo. I was even the local Liasion a couple of years ago. The good news is that I just retired, so I'll have plenty of time to write in November. The bad news is, I don't really have a definite plan for what to write. I've got some ideas for a story, but that's about it. Hopefully, I'll get it all worked out by November 1st.

Hi, everybody!

I'm Emily, from Collinsville. I'll be eighteen on the 25th of this month, and I'm homeschooled. I love Jesus, my family, and apple cider.

This is my fourth year with NaNoWriMo, and this year I plan on trying a new genre. (Realistic fiction, as opposed to my usual choice of fantasy.) I'm super excited about this one. It follows the inhabitants of a small town through the average and not-so-average happenings of a year.

I don't intend to do too much planning this time around. Last year I went all the way with the planning, with character bios and character arc charts and scene-by-scene summaries, and the novel became a bit of a trainwreck. It was dreadful. I got my 50k, of course, but it was 50k of utter twaddle. In the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson, "Ambitious but rubbish." This time I'll leave things a bit more flexible. Should be fun.

I hope to spend lots of time in Starbucks with the laptop this November. I love going to public places to write.

Well, happy writing, everybody! Good luck!

Em

Hi everyone;

I'm Candace. I work at the Walmart on Admiral and Memorial as a cashier. I've done NaNoWriMo for five or six years now. I've forgotten how I've done thanks to a semi-bad memory. ;) I've met several at last year's kick off party, but was unable to attend any write-ins due to work schedule.

As for this year, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do a full 50K, but I'll be striving to do as much as I possibly can. I've other projects that are demanding my attention this year, but I'm not going to give up on my favorite yearly challenge.

Normally, I write fantasy and fiction. While it wills till be fiction, this years won't be quite as fantastical. It'll be a history of a world which is being rebuilt for gaming. That's as far as I know right now.

Hope to meet one or two of you this year as well.

I'm Chelsea, 20, living in an apartment in Muskogee with my best friend. I have a cat I adore beyond words who lives at my parents' house, since pets aren't allowed here. I want to be an audiobook narrator so I can spend my life doing the one thing I really love. I love British television (Skins and The Mighty Boosh being my favorites), Indie/folk music (The Decemberists, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, just to name a few), and Stephen King and Francesca Lia Block are my two favorite things to read. Winter is my favorite season, math was my worst subject in school, I hate shopping unless it's for books, and I am horribly lazy and unmotivated about life in general and my writing in particular. I've recently been reading The Time Traveler's Wife, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Neverending Story, The Magicians, and several young adult novels, and The Dharma Bums is next up.

I started to do NaNo last year, but around about the 14th of the month my main computer broke down and had to be taken to a shop, and since I'm very disorganized and hadn't even considered it, nothing was backed up. I'm not very good at free-writing without stopping to reread and edit, so I got very frustrated and discouraged last year, but I'm hoping to get more into it this year. I never plan things, outlines are the beign of my existence but I'm going to attempt a bit of planning this year, so I can at least feel like I've got some sort of direction. It's a little late in the game I know, but I can't decide what to write. I've considered doing fanfic, because it's easy and there's already a sort of base to work from, but I'm very attached to the characters in my original story. The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what I want them to do or where I want them to go, I have the characters but no plot. I'm also hoping to actually connect with people who are participating this year, because last year I pretty much did it on my own and I think it adds excitement and motivation when there are others sharing the insanity. I would love to attend some of the meet-ups that take place, but I don't know if it will happen since transportation is an issue.

Anyway, now that I've rambled on way too much, I'll shut up. Happy NaNo-ing and good luck to everyone! :)

Hi Chelsea. I know I already mentioned Holly Lisle once, but I just discovered her a few months ago and I'm really impressed with her methods. I'm going to try her Plotting Under Pressure note card method to plan my novel this year, and it sounds like you might find it useful as well.

Also, somebody here last year pointed us all to Write or Die, and I found it so immensely helpful at meeting my word goals that I thought I'd post it again for the newbies this year.

Good luck and happy writing!

Jean

2007 Winner - This Old Haunt

2009 - Dominion of the Damned

My name is David, and this will be my 3rd Nano. In 2006 I wrote The Summoning Fire. In 2007 I wrote the first 1/3-ish of Running Waters. I won both Nanos, but I've never gone back to finish the 2nd novel (it was only intended as a quickie, then ballooned alarmingly).

I live in south Tulsa. I'm 40, married, 2 kids (16 and 8). I'm a software developer who works from home, an amateur photographer, and an on-again-off-again writer (with 2 nonfiction books published and a growing collection of unpublished novels).

My plan for Nano 2009 is ... no plan. I'm thinking I'll create a character and a setting, and see if I can write a series of related stories expanding the character and the setting into something resembling a novel. All very experimental. :-)

-David

David Michael
Writing Blog: Guns & Magic
Developer of The Journal - Nano Discount Available

I'm Stephen. This will be my "third time is a charm" effort at completing 50K words. First two efforts weren't so charming.

I'm Dmitry. I'm 19 and will be 20 in March. I am a freshmen at TU. This is my first year doing NaNo. I'm excited. I want to see if I can win the fight to get this done AND simultaneously focus on my studies with no distractions. I have written before and I won second place for a poem I submitted to TCC's "Outside The Lines" contest last year. I still think I should have gotten first though .I ended up losing that spot to a poem about a CIRCLE. But that was poetry and I still secondguess my ability to write those well, so I'm taking a crack at the world of fiction for once. My genre is Mystery & Suspense, however I never could see myself writing stories of that genre. I started planning my NaNo a few months ahead. I have all the pieces except one fatal one figured out.

I don't think I can get past the 50k mark though....at least, not without some motivation, sprints, and certain "daily writing goals".

Hi! I'm Lisa and I'm a junior at TU. This will be my first attempt at Nano and my first real attempt at a novel (yikes!). I'm really excited to get started and hopefully meet some fellow writers.

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination. --John Keats

Hey Lisa! Good to know there's another TU student here on the NaNo forums/partaking in NaNo! We should meet somewhere/somehow if possible and just talk. about anything.lol. I actually did not think I would find another TU student on here.

Hello, I'm Justice and I turned eighteen on May 29th. Nice to meet you.
I live somewhere-close-to-memorial. But more importantly, I can walk to the shiny new library if I decide I don't feel like being lazy.

This technically will be my second nanowrimo year, though I oftentimes try to forget the catastrophe of my not-so-succesful last year. (It was combined with block, laziness, and completely forgetting the site existed.)

I like to dabble in all genres, but I often suffer from generating too many ideas that I'll never work on. Or jump back and forth and not finish any specific one because of this. : D
This might explain why I'm trying to get my outline for this year finished beforehand. After I choose which one I want to write.

c:

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Hi there.
I'm Natalie, and I suck at writing intros.
I'm 33 (almost 34, but I don't really want to talk about it), have a Master's degree in Social Work, but I'm not currently using it. I've been married for almost 12 years, and my husband and I own a recording studio. He's a recording engineer and guitarist, and just all-around fairly awesome guy.
Together we have two kids, Sophie, who is eight, and Felix, who is five. They rule, except when they're driving us insane.

Um.

This is not only the first time that I've participated in NaNoWriMo, but also the first time that I've written fiction of any kind. I really don't know in the hell I'm doing at all. Character development? Plot? Uh, yeah.

I'm stoked to find you guys here, and would love to meet up for a celebratory (or failure) dinner, especially if it involves Mexican food.

The sun struggled up, another beautiful day.
And I felt glad in my own suspicious way.

-- My imaginary boyfriend, Elvis Costello

OK, I introduced myself in the "welcome" thread. I won't repeat it here. This is my first NaNo. I've often said they should let disabled people move to the moon, so we could function more normally without so much gravity. So that's where my story will take place--in a moon colony populated with mostly disabled people escaping earth's gravity. No plot yet.

I'm not going to make much of a plan for my story. I don't know how. But I will make some notes of possible things to include and see how it works out.

I'm really more focused on the word count. Just want to see if I can do it. I've published some short things, but have never written anything of significant length. My longest so far is about thirty double-spaced pages. Not sure how many words that is, but am sure it is nowhere near 50,000.

And not editing as I go will make me crazier than trying to write so many words. Should be very liberating in the end. Maybe my muse will come home. Maybe she'll even help me write my school assignments!

---Nancy

God said, "Choose Life!" Inner Editor replied, "Don't say 'choose.' That's too vague. Why not say ‘engage'?" "Go 'way!" God boomed most emphatically. "Writers engaging life have no time for NaNoNoveling. I love their crap. So leave them alone, too!"

Amanda,

My first job out of high school (so many decades ago) was as a vet assistant. Mostly, I cleaned cages. Rarely helped in surgery. Learned to groom and began my second "career." So we have a bit in common there--if only the odd bite, scratch, or peed-on uniform.

Thanks for taking on the Laison role. As a mid-twenties Vet Tech, you are probably the most qualified. After all, coordinating writers and pulling off write ins will take a lot of energy and must have herding cats and puppies simulateously as a prereq. I wish you success!

Nancy

God said, "Choose Life!" Inner Editor replied, "Don't say 'choose.' That's too vague. Why not say ‘engage'?" "Go 'way!" God boomed most emphatically. "Writers engaging life have no time for NaNoNoveling. I love their crap. So leave them alone, too!"

Oh, Tim, how glad I am to see another retiree!

When I decided to join, I was afraid the forums would be dominated by cave paintings like me. But just the opposite seems to be true. It's full of youth and enthusiasm! So wonderfully envigorating! But younger generations totally miss the cultural references and jokes we grew up with. Nice to have someone around who knew the old language, and who just might--at least once in a while--get one of my jokes.

Nancy

God said, "Choose Life!" Inner Editor replied, "Don't say 'choose.' That's too vague. Why not say ‘engage'?" "Go 'way!" God boomed most emphatically. "Writers engaging life have no time for NaNoNoveling. I love their crap. So leave them alone, too!"

Very cool to see more TU students.

I'm Jack, a first year clinical psychology grad student at TU. This is my third attempt at Nanowrimo. I'm continuing the novel I started last year (resetting my count to 0, of course). I never quite made it to 50,000 words in the past two years, and I expect I won't quite make it this year either (too much school stuff to do), but I'm gonna try as hard as possible!

I hope we'll all get the chance to meet. I love Nanowrimo, not just for the writing experience, but also for the opportunity to meet people with similar interests (read: writers).

I'm looking forward to getting started. Good luck to all of us!

Jack

I'm personally really shocked there are even this many people in Tulsa for NaNo. <333
I totally thought it would be empty; it's pretty exciting really. -twirls-
I guess it's because I haven't lived in tulsa for very long. : D

I've been doing all my planning so I think I'm in the clear this year. (Or at least I hope.)
-is easily amused by people-

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Hello Tulsa. My name is Steven, nickname "HOOK". I am a graphics geek and family man. We moved to S. Tulsa this past August.

I have NaNo'd in Colorado Springs for the last 3 years. I miss my mountains, but I am enjoying Tulsa. Great city.

The last three NaNo's have given me 3 great first drafts. This next year I plan on picking one and taking it to finish. One of my writing buddies just got an incredible book deal (two publisher's had a bidding war for her book!) and it has inspired me to learn how to edit and rewrite my own work. An endeavor I have yet to explore.

This years idea for NaNo has me a bit concerned. A few weeks ago I was unable to sleep and decided to explore an old, recurring, nagging thought that I have had for many, many years. What I discovered was a demon that introduced itself as my new story. The notes I have made are personal, painful and perplexing.

But come November 1, I am prepared to do battle with my demon-muse.

I look forward to meeting other NaNo-writers and am also interested in finding a serious writing group that holds the right chemistry for a new, enthusiastic, shy-at-first, serious writer like myself.

Hi, I'm Roger. I live just north of Owasso with my wife and 3 kids, ages 8, 6, and 4, 2 dogs, 4 cats, and 2 guinea pigs LOL. I'm 46 and this will be my 3rd attempt at NaNo. (assuming I actually make an attempt0 We've got a week long vacation at Disney World, and you can bet I'll have my laptop with me, but I doubt much actual writing will happen for that week. Who knows, maybe being in a different place will help my writing.

I have the same basic story that I had on the 2 previous attempts, but it keeps mutating in my head. Or I might just do something completely different. We'll find out on November 1! ;)

:-) I guess the writing life is happening in Tulsa!

How long have you lived here, and where did you move from? Next April I'll celebrate three years in T-town, having moved up from southern OK in April 2007. I love it here! I came from a very small town, so even after 2.5 years, I'm still getting used to having...oh...five major bookstores within the city limits, in addition to a smattering of smaller used bookstores. And let's not forget the several dozen coffee shops that actually stay open past 7 p.m...

NaNo 2006 - The Sorcerer's Blade (win)
NaNo 2008 - Sorceress Knight (win)
NaNo 2009 - Secrets of the Black Moon (working title)

It'll be my second year in December. : D (Hasn't really met anyone because I'm freakishly shy when I meet new people.) I came from Houston, Texas. Where I lived for about eight years. : D I was born in a small east-texas town. (only about 3000 people in the town.) But since I moved when I was about 11 I got used to it pretty fast. :D

I can only shop at used bookstores. (Thank God For Cheap Things.)
But in my experience libraries work pretty good for me. : D

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Have you been to Gardner's? It's on Mingo just off the BA (between 41st and 31st) and it. Is. AWESOME. I walk out of there with at LEAST three books every time I go. It's one of my favorite places in Tulsa. Plus, it's connected to a coffee shop and a Mexican restaurant, so you could conceivably go there and spend THE ENTIRE FREAKING DAY.

I love it. :-)

NaNo 2006 - The Sorcerer's Blade (win)
NaNo 2008 - Sorceress Knight (win)
NaNo 2009 - Secrets of the Black Moon (working title)