Introductions

Hello, I go by Filly just about everywhere, even in real life to friends that know me best. I've attempted NaNo once, just off a bad writer's block, and didn't get very far, but this year I'm more confident, and hearing the voices I want to write quite clearly. I've got a crazy schedule, so most of my cheering on will be virtual, not RL.

Hi, my name is Lemma (or Liz, in real life), and I really hate writing introductions.

I have been participating in NaNo since 2004, but only actually won that year and 2008. In 2008, I even finished the story, not just the word count. Of course, the 2008 NaNo was so bad that no amount of marinating on my hard drive will make it fit to see the light of day, but that's not important.

When I'm not writing (which has been most of the time, since last November), I am shifting between seasonal jobs. I hope to put a stop to that soon, but we'll see. Most recently, I have been employed as a leasing agent for an apartment community, but that job is ending next Friday. Also, I knit and sew, both modern clothing and mostly-historic costumes, with the occasional fantasy bit thrown in. Last summer's job gave me carpal tunnel syndrome, though, so I have not been doing much knitting or sewing lately.

Um... I guess that's it. Oh, and! I'm Noah's wife. That's kind of relevant, I guess.

I'm Bridget, a St. Louis native who now lives in mid-Missouri. I work seasonal jobs: part-time for Superior Garden Center and full-time temp for Google. If you see me mapping, give a wave.

I also lead creative writing workshops. I've published one novel -- Minus One: A Twelve Step Journey (Haworth Press/Alice Street Editions) and sundry short stories, essays and poems. Last year was my first Nano, and I only got about 30K.

This is the year!

Author, Minus One: A Twelve-Step Journey
www.bridgetbufford.com

Hey, I'm Christian. I can't quite remember how many/which years I've done NaNo, though I think I've been on/off again since about 2001. I've won twice. I can even see one of my binders with a manuscript in it. So! Proof.

I'm a freelance writer with a slowly expanding list of published short stories, poetry, and essays. My aim with NaNo this year is to tackle a piece that breaks down into either a pair or trio of novellas. I have nefarious purposes -- I have markets in mind for some of it -- and NaNo seemed like a great way to work on the overall project.

Anyway, hello!

C.A. Young
http://www.dimlightarchive.com

Hey, I'm Kim. Last year was my first year attempting NaNoWriMo and I lost steam about a week in and ended up with some abysmal word count. Hopefully this year will be a little bit better.

When I'm not trying to write novels in a month, I work at a donut shop, for now. I also work a lot at Mustard Seed Fair Trade downtown, but since that's volunteer work, something has to pay the bills. I've also started doing some freelance graphic design. All these things, unfortunately, tend to take a chunk out of potential writing time. However, my writing has picked up a little recently so I'm feeling optimistic about this one...

Hello, I'm Teresa and I'm brand new to this site and to this attempt at writing. I have been a journalist for many years, although now I usually volunteer my talents in that area. I do have another job that pays the bills so it is simply a matter of tackling a fiction novel that scares me spitless. Give me a nonfiction story and a deadline and I'm on it. But fiction? I read it all the time and I want badly to write. So I figured this endeavor might trigger my deadline orientation and force me. But it sort of like bungie jumping to me and I am supremely scared of heights. But here I go. HEEELLLLPPPP! Oh, by the way, I plan on writing a Christian novel so I'll need lots of help from on high as well.

Hello! Hello! Depending on how you meet me I go by either Lilah or Crystal, though the real name seems to be winning out more and more these days. I've been doing NaNo since '05 and last year was the only year I hit the 50k, and much like Lemma, I don't think there's any amount of editing and rewriting that will make that pile of manure any better.

By day I work at MBS in the warehouse, by night I'm a lazy little so-and-so who loves her rpgs and books. In fact I'm already plotting my tabletop hiatus to make room for literary abandon come Nov. 1. I say this even now when there are 3 old school World of Darkness books beckoning me from the living room, that were acquired at Archon.

Tis the season of NaNo, life is good.

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"You will be pleased to find numerous amenities in Hell, including demons available to assist you wtih your evil deeds."
How to Be a Villian, Neil Zawacki

Hey Lilah. Nice to meet you. What all do you play, tabletop-wise? I am trying to figure out how to find time for my ongoing campaign during Nano. And of course whatever I am doing online, or outside of writing/gaming.

My name is Scott, btw.

Hello, I'm Rena. I'm eighteen and a Freshman at Mizzou. This will be my third year doing NaNo, and hopefully my second win. However, this will be my first time balancing 50k with college, so we'll just have to see where that goes.

When I'm not writing, I love listening to music and hanging out with my friends. But really, when am I not writing?

Hey everyone - my name is Scott. I do quite a bit of reading and writing - one of my favorite things to do. I'm also a big fan of music (though not many people seem to share my tastes) and movies. As far as work goes, I'm a Patent, Trademark, and Copyright attorney and a freelance writer.

Welcome, Scott! I'm a paralegal. Glad to see another legal type on board!

stop by for a virtual visit at www.ellerobb.com

Hi I'm Abe. I've done NaNo the past three years and won each time (go me!). Mostly what I write is scifi/fantasyish stuff. Lately, I've been trying to write outside of NaNo time, so I've been working on some short stories. Hopefully I'll get one or two of them polished enough to send out for rejection slips. Besides the writing, I'm a computer programmer in the employ of the Uni.

Elle! We have a mutual friend in RL...and I work across campus from you.

Anyhow, I usually write poetry. However, I have a couple of stories, fragments of stories or just odd inklings in my brain that need to either get written down or be lobotomized.

Writing, at the point, seems far less painful.

Should be....interesting.

Visit Radio Nowhere
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/

Hi, Christian! We met at the library last fall. Good luck with the novellas.

Author, Minus One: A Twelve-Step Journey
www.bridgetbufford.com

Hi, all! I'm Lori (a/k/a Elle). I'm a legal assistant by day, writer by night. Also enjoy scrapbooking and reading. This is my 5th year (I think . . . ), and I've won every year, so I'm really feeling the pressure this year. No excuses! I work for MU, so if anyone else does & would like to lunch and write or talk NaNo, let me know!

stop by for a virtual visit at www.ellerobb.com

I'm Mary and a Freshman over at Stephens. This will be my second year involved in NaNoWriMo, though last year I lost steam and hardly ended up with a page. I'm hoping I'll not lose my muse right away again this year. I'm originally from Vermont and very excited to get more involved in this crowd than I had been back home.

Anywho, let's hope our muse doesn't run off to Mexico where it seems very fond to run off to.....

Follow me--if you care enough. =]

Hi all, I'm DD, also known as Kat.

I've done nano now since '06, and I've yet to actually win. This is fine by me, mostly because its as much fun getting there as anything. I'm not real good at these introduction things, so I'm going to cheat and just point out that I'm merfilly's roommate, and while she may be doing most of her cheering for others online, she's likely to keep me honest by making me try to keep up with her word count at home.

Maybe this year I'll win it.

Nice to see the new faces, and look forward to meeting some of you at Write Ins.

When suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, what happens when science and magic come together?

Yeah! At the workshop! Hi! Also, thanks!

It's funny. I was just talking on Thursday with a mutual friend of ours (Chloie) about writing exercises. I'm told you make people do horrible things to perfectly innocent crayons.

C.A. Young
http://www.dimlightarchive.com

I'm freezing because the living room fan is on, but I'm too lazy to turn it off. Conundrum. Anyway, hello Columbia! :D I'm Sandra and/or Lina. This is not to say I'm a schizophrenic, though. At least, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure someone would have found that out by now if I were. Maybe. Possibly. Or, I could just be an amazingly clever schizophrenic. Or maybe I'm just lying! Who knows.

Bruce Willis in The Hostage is taking my attention away from typing this (oh dear, why do I bother watching things that scare me?), but yes. I'm participating in NaNo this year from Rolla, so I may do some write-in hopping. Springfield, Jeff City, and Columbia all look like likely prospects, really. Especially JC, now that there's a friendly B-Dubs. Nom nom, B-Dubs. Plus, it's closer. Always an important sort of thing. We like important things.

OH GOD THIS KID IS GOING TO GET HIMSELF KILLED. I SHOULD STOP WATCHING.

Anyway! In my copious (heh. heh...) amount of spare time, I love to read (imagine that), watch fun TV things, cuddle my kittyboo, nom nom on snacky things, cook, read cookbooks, guzzle sweet tea, play video games, and work on my computer. I also have Hello Kitty band-aids. All of these (except maybe the nom nom snacks and Hello Kitty band-aids) are going to be put on hold for November, though. Woe is I. Woe, woe, woe is I.

I've completely forgotten what the point of this is because OH GOD CHILD, YOU ARE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED. KILLED KILLED KILLED.

Um right. So, hello people, and nice to meet you. I don't know many people in the area (which area? well, all the areas, really. The areas that say "Missouri" after the town name. Yeah, those areas!), so uh. Hopefully I'll get to put names to user accounts one of these days. I like me some write-ins. Not so fond of the gas, but oh, well. Sacrifices must be made! :)

... So not going to read over what I've written. I'll just let myself sound like a rambling idiot. I need to get my hands off the keyboard so I can keep them on my ears and cry like a baby until the movie's over.

Hi, I'm Jim aka InjunJoe. I'm a recent transplant from St Louis and have participated in NaNo 2006, 2007 and 2008. Just moved to Columbia, my wife and I both work at Mizzou as of this week. Looking forward to meeting a whole new wrimo crew. Although two friends and I did crash a Columbia write in last year.

As kids we fried ants with magnifying glasses. Now that we are adults we fry characters in far more interesting ways with plot twists

Irreverence: Ha! I was watching that Hostage movie this weekend, too! I kept yelling at the TV, things like: "Well, who the hell designed this house anyway!" as well as "Don't go hide in there, kid!" and "You forgot the safety! Didn't you ever watch action movies with your parents? ALWAYS use the safety!" My wife asked "what are you watching?" in that tone of voice that instantly imparts shame upon myself and the remote control.

Right, introductions. Forgot that part.

Um hi, I'm Jason, or funngunner, as I'm called in these here parts. The username comes from an ol' mid-'90s football offense, and for some reason I liked the sound of it back in my cynicism's formative years. I'm a graphic designer by trade and a graduate student at MU focusing on 20th century military history.

I've tried Nano two years now, back in 2007 in San Antonio and 2008 here in Columbia. Two attempts, zero wins. Both times life managed to outwit me. First time, my nights and weekend job put the smackdown on me, and I spent most my Nano time under those big and bright stars deep in the heart of Texas. Second time, well, classes got in the way. Sometimes a 20-page paper on Naval strategies during World War One can just absolute flounder any writing ambition you might have.

This year things look better, and I'm a glutton for punishment anyway, so buckle up and get the coffeemaker revved up ... it's gonna be a highly-caffinated kind of month.

Well, I must say that despite being a veteran of NaNo, I am quite new to Missouri.

I'm Amanda, by the by. :D

I recently transplanted myself here in Columbia from Tucson, AZ where I was pretty much born and raised. I'm not a desert or 365-days-of-sun kind of girl and I am loving the weather and greenery here, even though most everyone tells me this is a very odd bout of weather trends.

I'm hoping to be attending MU next semester so that I can finish up my BA in Classics, but until then, I am currently working full-time as a keyholder/manager at Lane Bryant. Working retail, especially during November (key holiday sales and prep for December... meaning Christmas!), is something I have done in the past, so I feel relatively confident that I can do it again.

I started NaNo in 2006 and won (exceeded the 50k's worth of words) in '06 and '07. Unfortunately, last year ('08) I was unable to cross the finish line because I was a store manager of a ladies' shoe store at the time and was absolutely wrung out to the point that there was nothing left of me. Working 60+ hours a week on base pay plus commission will do that to a person, I suppose.

But this year, in preparation for unseen obstacles and time leeches, I am doing character sketches (artistically and in written form) so that I can get them even more firmly in my head. In between these interviews my Muse will be conducting with the stars of the show, I will be editing one of my manuscripts so that I can get to a point where I can start submitting it for publication early on in the New Year. :D

Can't wait to meet everyone. This is going to be a fabulous year for NaNo!

Winner 2006 - An Ancient Equivalency
Winner 2007 - On the Sides of Gods
Participant 2008 - The Halls of Worlds

Hey everyone! My name is Keri and I've been doing NaNo since '05, but the only year I won was '06. I'm 21 and this is my fourth year at Mizzou. I'm majoring in Women's and Gender Studies, go me! I work on campus as a res hall desk attendant and also as the OutReach Coordinator for the LGBTQ Resource Center.

In my life outside of writing, I like knitting, hanging out with my friends, spelunking, cooking, my cats, and spending countless hours on Facebook. I'm also Hatsnatcher's roommate.

NaNo 2005: Under the Influence - failed
NaNo 2006: The Color of Insanity - Winner!
NaNo 2007: failed
NaNo 2008: failed

Hey I'm Navar. I'm a newbie this time, never done this before. I live in Columbia Mo. obviously. And I'm a litlle miffed that someone used my name already.

I've never done this, so I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hello to the Columbia board again. I'm Snuzzie and I've been doing NaNo for ...... entirely too long. I believe this will be my 7th year and I've successfully completed the challenge five times before. If I manage to make it through this year, it will be a feat of miracle given how this semester's going, but here's to hoping for a miracle.

I'm currently a Junior at MU and I look forward to seeing what other Mizzou students are participating! Maybe we can have a write-in on campus or something for all of the students to get to know one another or something.

Either way, here's to another year of heavily caffeine-induced insomnia! :>

Snuzzie

//

[2009] Beyond the Veil
[2008] Moonlight Sonata; Winner
[2007] Karakura Underground; Winner
[2006] Crimson Reflection
[2003-2005] Winner

Hi, I'm Andy. (If you can't tell from the user name, I care a lot about anonymity)

I just moved back to Columbia from KC. I'm friends with Noah and Liz, but don't really know anyone else here I think. I'm looking forward to competing again this year.

I fancy myself a decent writer but a better editor. Which is a problem with Nano. I also tend to be highly distractable from anything I do, which is another problem. I won once upon a time, but haven't met with success since.

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, and I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the pre-nano get together this past weekend. Something came up and I spent the time elsewhere.

Procrastination is like masturbation. It all seems well and good, but in the end you realize you're just screwing yourself.

Hey all, I'm Catie. Due to extenuating circumstances I am currently writing from Appleton, Wisconsin. My home base is back in Missouri, but I have been temporarily stolen for nine weeks by college. Here's to a good thirty days and hopes that Phoenix does not die out this time around. Note to self: Phoenix occasionally needs sleep just like you. Stupid laptop.

Anyway, it's great to see a few people that I know on the forums. I hope to catch up with you all at the tail end of Nano this year!

"The only lesson in life worth learning: in case of zombies, RUN."

Appleton? I moved here 25 years ago from Green Bay...beautiful country up there....

Visit Radio Nowhere
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/

Oh really? Nifty! Sometime I hope to get out of this bubble of a campus and explore. I really would like to see a bit more of Wisconsin than just my campus grounds. I really do like it here, though. The leaves are so vibrant and pretty right now.

"The only lesson in life worth learning: in case of zombies, RUN."

Are you at Lawrence University up there? I had a friend who did his undergrad there. It was a fun school and little town. I always enjoyed it there. If you need a coffee shop to hang out at check out Brewed Awakenings.