Pep Talks

For the ninth-annual NaNoWriMo, we secured some help with the email pep talks that went out to our participants in November. The wonderful novelists below all stepped up to the plate, and sent a little love and/or advice our way during the Great Challenge.

Julianna Baggott

Read Julianna's NaNoWriMo pep talk

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)

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)

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)

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.