Pep Talk Archive

In 2007 and 2008, some of the most beloved authors around packed their insights, encouragement, and experience into pep talks for you. We've compiled these into an ultra-inspiring archive of pep for your reading pleasure. We hope they help get you to 50,000 words, and beyond!

Piers Anthony

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Piers Anthony, the New York Times bestselling author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, has published over 100 books. He is perhaps best-known for his long-running Xanth series. Among his many great achievements, Anthony has published a book for every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover.

Kelley Armstrong

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Kelley Armstrong is married with three kids and lives in rural Ontario, Canada. After graduating with a degree in psychology, she went on to study computer programming. Currently, Kelley is a full-time writer and parent. She is the author of the popular Bitten series, and the in-progress Darkest Powers. Kelley has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2005 and organizes an online group of readers to join her each year!

Julianna Baggott

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Julianna Baggott is the author of four novels, including Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions, co-authored with Steve Almond, and three books of poems, most recently, Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women's Voices and Compulsions of Silk Worms and Bees: Poems. She also writes novels for younger readers, including The Anybodies trilogy The Anybodies Trilogy (The Anybodies, The Nobodies, and The Somebodies) and The Slippery Map. She teaches at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program, is married and has four young kids. For more info on her, visit juliannabaggott.com. (photo credit: David G.W. Scott)

Chris Baty

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A resident of Oakland, California, Chris has been heading up NaNoWriMo since founding the escapade in 1999. With his startlingly mediocre prose style and complete inability to write credible dialogue, Chris has set a reassuringly low bar for budding novelists everywhere. Chris is an anthropologist by training and a freelance writer by trade; his work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Believer, and Lonely Planet guidebooks. When not bossing strangers around, Chris spends debilitating amounts of time in coffee shops. His mercilessly pants-kicking book, No Plot? No Problem!, is available at your favorite bookstore.

Gayle Brandeis

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Gayle Brandeis' community activism shines through in her fiction; her novel The Book of Dead Birds won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change. The Writer Magazine honored Gayle with the “Writer Who Makes a Difference” Award in 2004. She lives in Riverside, California where she was designated Communications Goddess of the international women’s peace organization, CODEPINK. Gayle wrote the rough draft of her most recent novel, Self Storage, during NaNoWriMo!

Meg Cabot

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This bestselling author has written nearly fifty books for adults and teens. Her books have sold fifteen million copies worldwide. The Princess Diaries series is being published in 38 countries, and has been made into two major motion pictures. Meg's recent projects, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls and Airhead, hit bookstores in the spring of 2008.

Janet Fitch

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This author of White Oleander
and Paint It Black
is a Los Angeles native, born to a family of avid readers. Despite her literary home life, Fitch initially pursued a degree in history as an undergraduate student at Reed College. It was during her time at Keele University in England that Fitch realized her desire to write fiction. In addition to noveling, Ms. Fitch teaches at the University of Southern California in the Masters of Professional Writing program.

Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman is the author of the New York Times bestselling children's book Coraline and of the picture books The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, illustrated by Dave McKean. He wrote the script for the film MirrorMask and is also the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning novels and short stories for adults, as well as the Sandman series of graphic novels. Two of his most recent novels include InterWorld and the acclaimed Anansi Boys. Among his many awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States. For more info on him, visit neilgaiman.com. (photo credit: Sigrid Estrada)

Sue Grafton

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New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Like Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Robert Parker, and John D. MacDonald—the best of her breed—Sue Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling talents. Books in her alphabet series, begun in 1982, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. The series begins with A is for Alibi, and its two most recent additions are S is for Silence and T is for Trespass. Sue divides her time between Montecito, California and Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. For more info on her, visit suegrafton.com.

Sara Gruen

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Sara Gruen's first novel, Riding Lessons, was published in 2004. She is an animal lover who lives with her husband, three children, five cats, two goats, a dog, and a horse in an environmental community north of Chicago. Many of the characters and incidents in the novel are based on real people and true stories gleaned from her extensive research into the world of traveling circuses of the 1930s. She has also published two other novels, both of which began their lives as NaNoWriMo manuscripts: Flying Changes and the bestseller Water for Elephants. For more info on her, visit saragruen.com. (photo credit: Terence W. Bailey)

Brian Jacques

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Brian Jacques is the New York Times bestselling author of theRedwall series, which is comprised of eighteen books and has sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Mr. Jacques created a recording company where he lends his own voice talents to the full-cast productions of his novels. He has an honorary doctorate from the University of Liverpool, and recently received an honorary fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University. Mr. Jacques was born in Liverpool, England, where he continues to live and write today.

Garth Nix

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Garth Nix grew up in Canberra, Australia. Besides being a full-time writer, he has worked as a sales rep, publicist, editor, marketing communications consultant, literary agent, and part-time soldier. He is the author of Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen, the books in the internationally bestselling Abhorsen Trilogy, as well as Shade's Children and The Ragwitch. He now lives in Sydney, a five-minute walk from Coogee Beach, with his wife, Anna, his sons, Thomas and Edward, and lots of books. For more info on him, visit garthnix.co.uk. (photo credit: Robert McFarlane)

Naomi Novik

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An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrentide. She soon realized she preferred writing to programming and decided to try her hand at novels and began the Temeraire series (His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, and Empire of Ivory). Novik lives in New York City with her husband and six computers. For more info on her, visit temeraire.org. (photo credit: Beth Guinn)

Katherine Paterson

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Katherine Paterson is the beloved author of Jacob Have I Loved, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Bridge to Terabithia. Her work has merited countless honors, including multiple Newbery Medals and National Book Awards. In 2007, Ms. Paterson served at the Vice- President of the National Children's Book and Literary Alliance. She remains on the Board of Directors, promoting literacy, educational activism, and passion for reading.

Philip Pullman

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Philip Pullman is the award-winning author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, which has been honored with the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award (for The Amber Spyglass ). In 2002, he received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature. The first book in the trilogy, Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the US) was recently adapted into a major motion picture. In June of this year, Mr. Pullman became a Fellow at Oxford Brookes University supporting the MA in Creative Writing. He is currently working on The Book of Dust, a sequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Jonathan Stroud

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Jonathan Stroud has been a fantasy fanatic since childhood. In his words, "[stories of magical adventure] provided a more complete escape." After getting his degree in English Literature at York University, he landed a job as an editor at Walker Books in London. It was there that he penned his first novel, Buried Fire. After becoming a full-time writer in 2001, Stroud went on to write the award-winning fantasy favorites that comprise the Bartimaeus Trilogy. His latest novel, Heroes of the Valley, was be released in January of 2009.

Deanna Raybourn

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A sixth-generation native Texan, Deanna Raybourn grew up in San Antonio, where she met her college sweetheart. She married him on her graduation day, and went on to teach high school English and history. After three years as a teacher, Deanna left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time. Fourteen years and many, many rejections after her first novel, she signed a three-book deal with the MIRA line. "Sex, lies and awesome clothing descriptions" is how one reader has described Deanna's debut novel, Silent in the Grave. Deanna is currently hard at work on the sequel, Silent in the Sanctuary, (January 2008) from her current home in Virginia. You can visit her blog here.

Tom Robbins

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In 1954, Robbins attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia to study journalism, but left due to discipline problems. He then moved to New York to become a poet. Later, under the threat of the Army draft, he enlisted in the Air Force. After serving for three years in Korea, he left the Air Force, and returned to civilian life in Richmond, Virginia in 1960 where he studied art. He later moved to LaConner, Washington in 1970, and has lived there ever since. His novels include Wild Ducks Flying Backward, Villa Incognito, and Jitterbug Perfume. He won the Golden Umbrella award at the Bumbershoot Seattle arts festival in 1997.