South Central Iowa? I-35

Hi,
I'm in Centerville, I'd hoped to drop into your bookstore over the summer but gas costs were so outrageous I never made it. Haven't worked up to bicycyling that far.
Marya (RutaBaker)

Nice to hear from you again this year.

I'm trying to recruit some more participants from around here. I wrote something for the local paper that's supposed to be in this weeks issue. I'll see what happens with that.

Happy Noveling!

Don't mean to throw cold water on your plans, but I've been writing NaNo articles for the local paper each October and so far as I can tell, I'm the only NaNo around here. My former editor at the paper always claimed to have several novels ferreted away in the back of his closet and couldn't (or wouldn't) understand why those couldn't be submitted to NaNo.
Hope you have better luck with your article.

I'm from the Ottumwa area, so we're close! Looking forward to giving it a go this year. :)

Welcome, melcia.

Not exactly neighbors, but close enough that I feel a little less isolated.

Thanks for connecting.

Wish you well this year!

Oskaloosa here! This is my first NaNoWriMo, and I'm excited, but pretty apprehensive, still!

Welcome katylinvw.
This is my fourth go at NaNo. I'm sure you'll be fine and have a lot of fun. My first NaNo I used my real name which made me more nervous than if I'd used a nickname. But you've already nailed that one down.

thanks ruta! i am getting really excited! i've been doing a lot of thinking and rough outlining so i at least have a destination when i start writing on the 1st :)

Way to go, katylinvw.

Hope to see you at the finish line.

Nice to know that southern rural iowa is making a showing.

Happy Noveling!

Keep a smile, Lamoni! I'm in Wisconsin now, but was born in Beaconsfield! I was back in the area Labor Day weekend and went to your wonderful reenactment days. For such a small town it was a wonderful event. Just think, we might have rubbed elbows!
I'll be keeping an eye on your progress (well, as much as I can... working full time eats up a lot of my day and I'll be nose to my writing otherwise! ) and wishing you great success.

Cheers from a displaced Iowan! Terrie

Terrie2

Nice to hear from you.

Nice to know you enjoyed the reenactment days. If you had come into my bookstore we would have met. I didn't get to too many events this year, though I had been to one of the Battle Reenactments.

Nice to hear from someone who had been in the area.

Hope you enjoy Wisconsin.

If you ever make it back to Lamoni, stop in the bookstore and let me know you're a Nanoer.

Happy noveling!

See you at the finish line!

You may be the closest one to me. I am over on Highway 2, six miles north of Promise City if you take the paved road running out of the east end of town heading north.

Oh, just saw the Centerville entry. That's only 25 miles away.

blondbomb

You're still kind of close to me. I'm the only one in my area that I know of right now. I know of someone in town who is thinking of joining, but that won't be until after the elections, if then.

At least it was nice to hear from someone in this neck of the woods.

Happy noveling!

Speaking of the election, hope everyone has voted early so as not to take time from NaNo. Just kidding, I've signed up to be a poll worker so won't be adding any words to my total on the 4th.

I'm coming into Centerville today and will be at the library on my laptop writing for a while (until my battery goes bad, basically, unless they have plug-ins available. Are you available? (They open at 12, I believe...)

Wish I'd thought of it sooner...

Oops, I only saw your notice at just after 2:30 so you've probably gone. I haven't been frequenting the library much since I started trading books online plus I get lots of review copies from publishers, but I doubt the library has come so far as to have plug-ins. Sorry to have missed you.

I'm still here, AND on the internet, which my Mac had no trouble accessing. :-)

Hey, Ruta, and others - I'm not exactly Southern central Iowa, in fact this summer put me even farther north that I've been for the past couple Nanos, but it is great to see someone on this side of the state is out there, writing, too. Never mind the fact that I'm supposed to be doing that right now.. I needed a break.
I heard about Nano several years back, I've managed to pull off at least 50k words each year, but with varying degrees of success in actually writing something worth salvaging. One year I even make over 100k words... but I think this year, like most of the others, will be a battle. I can't say I have published anything in the local newspaper about Nano, odd, considering I've worked for that newspaper every year I've done Nano.. maybe this year.
Good luck all, I'll be keeping an eye on everyone's word counts (I like competition, if I see I'm WAY behind, I tend to get a second wind, and I'm off again!)

Wow, great word total, Blondie! You're half-way there. Sounds like you got on great at the Drake Library.

Must admit I've never been big on writing in public spaces, well, except by hand, and then only letters whilst travelling. There are so many distractions in public spaces, plus I'm loath to lug my lap top around. I used to haul my small wordprocessor with me when I worked in a gallery with slow traffic, but, even then, the few patrons were always asking what I was writing and breaking my train of thought. How do the rest of you feel about writing in public?

Will any of you be posting a sample of your novels?

I haven't done that in previous years but thought I might this year.

Talk about WIND! I convinced myself that I was missing all the fun by not driving up to Des Moines (160 mile round trip) for a write-in. I had to go to Centerville, knew if for DAYS, but did not think to try to make a connection with Ruta until within hours of departure...

So, I hit the library, hook up the lap top, get on the internet and, not knowing anything about Ruta, make a near fatal mistake. I hear a voice say, "I'm Rice Crispy," to a library worker I like. I can't hear her answer, but the mystery voice is coming in loud and clear. "Just add milk, and I go snap, crackle, and pop." They have been advancing through the stacks, drawing nigh to my table. LW's soft voice is audible now. "That's a good one."

Around the corner I face pops a "character". One look, and you are ready to laugh, react, interact, etc. I say, "I don't even need the milk to snap and crack." Oops! I've picked up the "character". Who turns out 1) not to have even heard on NAN0, much less be Ruta; 2) has written two manuscripts, (but not fiction), some short stories, poems...

A very WINDY three hours later, I check out three books and come home... total words written, 0. (Yes, I know... nothing new today...)

Write-in's are GREAT ideas. I could get several hundreds, even thousands of words out of that one conversation and the reactions of the other patrons... It makes me laugh, and when I told two of my friends and my mom about it today (ear glued to telephone Saturday is practiced at my house) everyone enjoyed the report.

I was "horsing around", true, but can't see any way to work any part of it into my Nano novel.

So, here's yet another distraction that doesn't contribute a whit to my word count, but hopefully leaves you laughing and in a good frame of mind to soldier on.

Where's Mary (ML in Des Moines) with her timer when you need her???

I did post one this year. I have been entered every year since 2002, but THINK I only posted once before. Lots of the time I just didn't have a piece that was short enough and still something that would make sense. This year's work is more episodic, and I read it to a friend who made the terrible mistake of SHOWING INTEREST. She laughed and said it was good. (She's a "tough audience" -- a non-reader of fiction... But, she IS a friend, so maybe the laugh is sort of like, "Well, gee, guys, MY MOTHER LAUGHED..." )

I do have a link to my web page with writing, and that links in turn to my live journal, which has whole (generally unedited) book pieces organized as a chapter a day. Raggedy production. End of chapter= ran out of steam...

My ONE attempt at writing in public, Thurs. at the library, came down to this... Turned ON the computer, talked and laughed for three hours, checked out three books, showed three web sites of interest to the on duty librarian (GO NANO; readers.com [SEE library]; and freerice.com super vocabulary building game that donates rice to needy people for right answers... )

Personal library time word count: 0

On livejournal.com, I've, posted unedited partial novels under summercircles and travelsfar, (Book One of a tetrology), despinadesert (book three) with a chapter under each day of the month. (Easy to reorder the chapters -- just change the date...) At 50,000 words, book two is a very rough and incomplete fragment. The early parts of book one are edited.