Introductions

HI!
This will be my second NaNO.
I live in Salinas but work in Marina and will try to attend the write-ins again this year.
I am going to try and do two novels this year.
My fantasy The Rise of Emperor Mole
My mystery Speak to the Paw.
I am kinda worried though, since this is the 2008 Monterey forum and I am a whole year early.. :)
When they list the 2007 introduction forum I will post on that too.
Should I mention the Travelling shovel of death? Or will that scare the new people?

Good to see you again Xengab. I hope to see you around at the write-ins again this year.

Hi,
I'm coffeemug. I'm 30 I live in Marina and work in Monterey. This is my first Nanowirmo.

Good to have you on board coffeemug. What are you going to write about?

Welcome coffeemug!
I too am wondering what you wish to write about.. Now is a great time to start planning and doing research.
Marina is a lovely place, I usually end up at the beach or one of the parks for lunch and will be where I can be found writing during NaNO.

I really found the write-ins to be very helpful and fun. Friendly bunch.

Hello!
This will be my third NaNoWriMo participation. I hope to have another rough draft completed to add to my pile of other rough drafts from previous years. All the stories have the same theme, its a series of books about a character of mine named Aignatius. He's a Dragonyte, which is something like a dragon, but is not a *typical* dragon. He has many human attributes. He's also very old, about 1500 plus years, so he's seen a lot of the world. The other characters are based onmembers ofmy family, so I have alot of fun combining everyday life with fantasy.

I just moved from Carmel to Marina about 2 weeks ago. :D

I am From Salinas, but I am currently living in San Francisco (going to school).
I am so disappointed that I won't be home and be able to meet the Monterey crowd. I'll be with you in spirit though and hope to hook up with you maybe next year.

Hey, I'm Migo.
I live in Pacific Grove and I'm gonna try to make the meet-ups this year. I haven't done NaNoWriMo in a couple of years, so I'm really out of practice.

I don't have a title for my novel yet, but I'm going for a crime/pulp drama. Here's hoping that my laptop cord doesn't split apart and almost catch me on fire again like it did during NaNoWriMo in 2004.

Hello! I'm Phil (aka Elakazal). I'm 33 and have recently (er, semi-recently...six months ago) moved to Watsonville.

I've done Nanowrimo a number of years now, and won once and came very close another (40,000+ word novel plus a M.S. thesis all in one month...that should count, shouldn't it?). This will be my first year doing it without trying to be a grad student at the same time, so I'm hoping the fact that I finally have my evenings free most of the time will make it a snap this time around.

I'm honestly not 100% sure what I'll be writing, but I've got some ideas. I travel quite a bit for work, and the last few trips I've entertained myself on the flights by writing just random scenes, to just play with ideas and characters, and a recent trip to Mexico I hit on a character I kind of liked. He's the son of a famous crackpot "maverick archaeologist" (based loosely on David Hatcher Childress (Google him if you don't recognize the name) only a little more over the top). He's tried to become a serious, scholarly archaeologist, but his recently-dead father's reputation, crazy aquaintances, and assorted intrigue keep thrusting him into the unexpected role of action hero archaeologist (a la Indiana Jones). I've been writing in the slightly overdone style of the 1930's pulp archaeologist adventure novels that inspired Indiana Jones, and it's really been a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to exploring the character more. The scenes I've been writing have been set in the future, in the midst of a somewhat vague second adventure, but refer to the events I hope to write for Nano. I think the first story will be set (at least partially) in Mexico, since work seems to frequently take me to middle-of-nowhere Mexico, so it's convenient exotic location to get a feel for and easy to research.

I actually initially introduced myself over in the Santa Cruz forum, since I tend to be in Santa Cruz more than Monterey, but that group seems to be focused on the area from Santa Cruz northward, at least in terms of where they're scheduling events, so really this group works out to be closer. Plus the high concentration of UCSC students seem to be spawning events during the regular workday, which isn't really an option for me. Probably I'll go to events for both groups, if convenient, but I think I'll focus on Monterey...

I had a great deal of fun with the Gainesville, Florida group where I was before (I also did Nano in Arkansas, but never joined the group), and the Nano group there evolved into a year-round fiction writers group, which turned out to be pretty cool (although it didn't coincide with a very productive period in my writing...I still got to hang out with a group of like-minded people and read a lot of interesting writing.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting people!

Hi,
I'm Decal Deb, this is my first Nano, and I live in Pacific Grove.... I just signed up. I've never writen anything before, I just started a writing class with Laura Davis in Santa Cruz about two months ago.

I plan on writing a futuristic story about life in the Monterey Bay region after the impact of fossil fuel decline and global climate change hit. The characters will be my own friends and family.

I'd love to meet some folks and write together.... I think it'll really help having a support group.

Look forward to meeting you,
dd

Hello Deb (and everyone else who has signed up the past couple days),

It's great to have you here. We just got done with the first meet up about five minutes ago. Our next meet up will be the kick off on November first. After that, we'll hold "official" write-ins every Wednesday evening at 8pm (location to be determined), and a final one on Friday the 30th. More info to come as we get a meeting place nailed down.

Al

Hi. This will be my first NaNoWriMo. I'm 36 and live in Prunedale (no jokes, please.) I don't know if I'll be participating in any group meetings or write-ins, but I'm determined to write a novel this November.

My novel will fall into the thriller/mystery/horror categories. Not much gore, but definitely some supernatural elements. Not-so-prodigal son returns to creepy little town to settle the affairs of a estranged parent and is forced to face the past in order to deal with the even nastier events of the present. Spooky woods, a missing child, and a whole community who doesn't want outsiders to know exactly what's going on here (nor do they want to face it themselves.) It will be set in the area, though I'll be making up the town where most of the story takes place. Kind of a combination between Bradley and Big Sur, if that makes any sense.

Okay, maybe not too original, but one of the more complete ideas I've had lately. A lot of it has come together in my mind over the past week - a lot of the characters, the general story arc, and a half dozen or more scenes. I even have a working title. I've done some writing before, even published a couple of stories in small press mags as a teenager/young adult. But my interior critic has become so strong in recent years that it usually manages to keep my away from the keyboard altogether. Joining an online writer's group hasn't helped much. I've written critiques but haven't managed to submit any of my own work. No, it's worse than that. I haven't managed to produce any of my own fiction, period. I'm hoping this experience will enable me to exile that interior critic long enough to just write something other than a letter, email, or critique.

I'm quite excited about this. I really think that, by the end of November, I'll have a rough draft of what could be a pretty good novel. But even if it sucks big time, I'll still be happy to write 50,000 words that add up to a complete story, whatever may be missing from it.

Hello Cmoser, good to have you aboard for Nano. No worries about making it to write-ins, but we'd be glad to have you if you can make it.

Hi! This is my first NaNoWriMo. I heard about it years ago actually but I've just built up the courage to attempt it. I live in Salinas.

My story doesn't have a title yet but generally, it is a urban fantasy/detective mystery in which the main character, a cop, winds up discovering the existence of vampires and has to hunt down the one who is murdering people while trying to keep from getting killed by some other vampires.

I've been writing as a hobby for a couple of years but this is the first time I'm attepting something huge like this. I'm not sure if I can make the write-ins but I'm really excited about this. Good luck to you all!

Welcome Scorpio,

Congrats on having the courage to sign up. Trust me, this will be a great experience for you. Don't be intimidated by the goal, this is something you can do. A month from now, you'll be the proud author of a near-completed novel.

No problems if you cannot make the write-ins. They are a great way to get some moral support, but are far from being a mandatory thing. A number of our writers often get together at other times during the month to write together as well, so maybe you can hook up with somone then. If not, you always have us here on teh forums to lend support.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Hi, I'm gargoyle. This is my first Nanowrimo (and coincidentally, my last year in Monterey County!). I'm a student at CSUMB, and I've taken a few writing classes before, and have a folder on my hard drive filled with short stories I wrote in high school, but this is my first attempt at an actual novel. I made the decision to sign up this year two nights ago, and finally made the leap about 2 hours ago.

My novel was first based off of 3 original characters my friend and I created in high school for a fanfiction we were writing. I've always wanted to expand on the original characters more, and having come up with a plot for them, they no longer resemble their original creations. My novel is set after a futuristic, unnamed country's revolution, following 3, maybe 4 main characters.

Hi Gargoyle,

Glad to have you hopping on this adventure with us, even if it is at the last minute. It sounds lik eyou already ahve a lot of prep work done on your novel. I'm sure you'll have no problem tackling this challenge if you stick to it through the month. Hopefully we'll see you at some write-ins.

hello everyone,

My name is Claudia and I live in Salinas/Prunedale area and this will be the 2nd time I've participated in Nano. The first time I participated was in Orlando Florida ages ago. I loved it and have wanted to join ever since so here I am. I'm also a full time student (taking classes at Hartnell and Chapman in Monterey) so besides the 1st meeting and the last I'll be MIA on Wednesdays since I have a class that night. But I'll be there in spirit, i'll even grab a coffee on the way to class in solidarity. lol Heck, I'll probably end up doing some writing while in class (it's math class, ugh), have to get my writing anyway I can with my busy schedule.

As to what I'll be working on... it's a what if idea... with vampires... and London as the backdrop. :) Of course by the time tomorrow comes around I might change my mind... I'm just going to let my imagination take over and see where my characters take me... I have enough to stress and make myself crazy with.

Anyway, I can't wait for tomorrow!

See you all there.

Welcome to the insanity Diagirl. See you tomorrow night!

Hi All,

My name is Belinda. I live in Big Sur on the mountain top overlooking Pfeiffer Beach. This is my first time to do this. I completed an MFA in creative writing in June. I'm excited to be doing this. i'm going to attempt a novel about the nature of motherhood. After a 12 year freeze during which my main character and her mother didn't talk to each other, my main character, during a visit from her mother tries to make make sense of what makes a good mother. Who knows what she will discover. I want to explore the themems of love - conditional and unconditional, Anger, compassion, the ability to forgive or not, appreciation for nature, our presumptions about knowing our family members, truly getting to know someone, how what we believe personally affects relationships. That's all i know so far. It's daunting. I'm going to kick the critic off my shoulder now, pretend my stomach isn't sick, and write.

Good luck to us all.

Belinda

Welcome to Nano. Sounds like an interesting concept for the novel. Good luck beating your inner editor back.

Hi! I'm Detectivegirl7(a.k.a Brighid Nicholls), and this is my first NaNoWriMo. I'm originally from San Francisco, but I currently attend CSUMB, so I'm living on campus in Seaside. The story I'm currently working on is a drystery(a combination of a drama/mystery) about three girl detectives in high school, and it's called "Get a Clue, Already!". One of the detectives is pretty much me, and the other two are based on two of my best friends/cousins; the people at school and the other characters are all based on people I know. I'm still trying to figure out the plot, but I've got the first couple of chapters so far, so that's a start. One interesting thing about myself is that I act in plays; I also have videos up on Youtube as well...

See ya around NaNo!

TTYL,
DG

Hello DG,

Glad you could join us for this event. Sounds like you have a fun story in the works.

Al

Thanks! I'm definitely happy to be here...hopefully I'll manage to get this thing done. :)

TTYL,
DG

Hiya folks, I'm Catamount/Abby and this is my fourth year doing NaNo. I tend to forget that there is an entire forum community to help out during November which is why my introduction is a little late!

I'm a recent graduate of CSUMB, just graduated last May, and I work for the Watershed Institute there so sometimes I'm on campus. I'm hoping to make some of the write-ins this year, even though it is a bit of a drive from Soledad to Seaside! Perhaps tomorrow's! I'll need to make sure my laptop is fully charged.

This year I'm attempting a sci-fi cop novel based off of characters that have been floating on the edge of an RP a few of my friends and I have been playing. It's interesting playing in a universe one of my friends created, rather than one of my own or something published. It's prompted some fun brainstorming discussions about plasma weapons and hover cars at least.

Don't worry too much about the laptop being charged... there's electricity, and I always bring a power strip so everyone can plug in. We'll save a plug for you. :)