National Novel Writing Month doesn’t just take place on your computer; it is happening all across the world.  In my case that area of the world is the St. Louis metro. Today we held our first official write-in.

Hosted by the ML, Municipal Liaison, the official write-ins act as way to get a bunch of local are writers in the same place at the same time.  The idea isn’t to hold a big party, though you could have one.  Supporting each other is the goal.

Leading into my first write-in we held a little pre-party.  Folks showed up with food and beverages, and laptops.  Of course, they all showed up ready to get writing. In our case we mostly stayed away from the alcohol, but there was plenty of caffeine.

Music played a big part of our evening. The host provided some selections but a couple of the attendees brought their own as well. Quite a variety of tastes but a lot of fun.  Another cool party was a bit of Firefly flashback.

On the Halloween episode of Castle, the character, played by Nathan Fillion, is getting decked out in costume. The surprise? He’s getting decked out as a space cowboy, ala his character Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly.  It’s a hoot because not only does he recreate that look perfectly, he gives us a bit of the old swagger.  Producers managed to squeeze in a bit of the old Firefly music riffs as well. Needless to say in a room of fans it was riotous and required several rewinds and replays.

Midnight was brought in with another flashback, this time to Thunderbirds.  It was the countdown from the beginning of the episodes.  Again the group went wild with laughter. Talk about a great way to kick off the writing.

Writing commenced.  There were Macs, Dells, HPs.  Laptops and netbooks were involved. Music and chit-chat provided a continuous background for the writing. There was even a bit of a music battle going back and forth at one point.

In the middle of the 2 hours of writing, we had a word war. A word war is where two or more groups compete to have the highest word average for a given period of time.  We set the timer and went to town. Talk about a keying frenzy!!

This encouraging group lead me to about 1500 words in two hours. That’s with talking, laughing, and goofing around.  At the end of two hours, most of us packed up and headed out but this one event will stick with me the whole month.

Planning on making more of these this month.  If you’ve not been to one yet, I recommend you find one in your area and get involved.  Give one a try at least. You might find the writing much easier.

Do you have a NaNoWriMo experience to share?

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Zombie avatar created at PopCap Games Halloween site.

National Novel Writing Month is upon us.  As in years before, thousands of would-be authors will sit at their keyboards and attempt to bang out 50,000 words or more. Yours truly will be attempting it as well.

This will be my third attempt. In years past, though I’ve had writing buddies on the nanowrimo site, I’ve not attended in live events, nor had in person writing buddies.  St. Louis though has a large community of nanowrimo authors so I decided to get some face time this year; the hope being that I’ll be more encouraged, inspired and challenged to complete fifty thousand words.

Saturday we had a kick-off party hosted by etoiline. She brought some goodies, captured our names, and set us to mingling.  This Saturday is the Halloween pre-party in St. Louis.  Party will lead into a November 1st writing kick-off.  Hopefully there’ll be room for me in there somewhere. Writing should go till about 2 AM.

Writing will be helped along throughout the month by write-ins all over the St. Louis metro area.  Planning is in the works for write-ins out St. Charles and St. Peters way.

Beyond the face time though, I’d still love to have some extra buddies along for the ride.  You’ll find me on the nanowrimo site as tojosan. Go. Click. Buddy.

What’s your novel?

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Mafia Wars: Halloween Loot Event! Starting Friday at midnight (PT), all jobs and fights have a chance to give you special Halloween-themed items. Act fast because the event ends Monday, November 2 at midnight (PT). Sneak a peek into a few of the items!

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It’s that time again, time for Halloween.  This year I’d like to do something new; I’d like to send out Halloween greeting cards.

Pictured above, spookily so I hope, is what one type of card looks like. I’ve got about 16 on hand and would love to send all of them out before next week.

What can you do to help? Just contact me via email, Twitter DM, a phone call, or even smoke signs if you know them.  Just leave me an address, name, and mention Halloween.

Don’t think of the 16 as a limit but more of a first come first serve window.  I promise to buy more if I get addresses for the first batch by the weekend.  The latest I’d like to send them out is with Monday’s mail.

Also, don’t be a stranger.  Never chatted with me before but still would like a card? Drop me a line and get a personalized greeting from me, Todd/Tojosan/Tojo.

As an added challenge for myself, I won’t be tweeting this in public. Just here on the blog and telling a few select folks directly.  Take it as a sign if you find this post that you should ask for a card.

If you don’t celebrate Halloween in anyway but would like me to drop you a note, I’ll send you out a St. Louis postcard instead.  Just mention postcard when you contact me.

Good night and may this Fall be full of festival and cheer.