Regional E-Mails
This page contains copies of all the regional e-mails that we send out. You can check them here if you accidentally deleted them, or if you just chose to not receive them. They are NEWEST first, oldest at the bottom of the page.
Dec. 2, 2008
Well guys,
November is over, taking NaNo WriMo with it. But that doesn’t mean we’re done yet. We still have our TGIO Party.
The particulars:
WHO: Anyone in the Gainesville region who attempted NaNo WriMo this year. Got 100,000 words? Cool –come celebrate. Got 123 words? Awesome – you attempted something many wouldn’t dare – come celebrate. Never yet been to a NaNo WriMo event? Come celebrate – meet some of the other local participants from this year.
WHEN: Friday, Dec. 5th 7:00 pm – Later
WHERE: Christy’s House: 5228 NW 23rd Place in Gainesville
My house is at the end of the cul-de-sac, and plenty of parking (my neighbors across the way are selling their house, so it is empty) e-mail me at gainesville.nano@gmail.com if you need directions
WHAT: Potluck – bring a dish to share. Anything. Really. And yes, pizza is okay. Alison and I will provide sodas, tea, water, lemonade, dishes, cups, etc, etc.
Bring your experiences of November to share. We will go through the suggestions jars, and commiserate over our month.
And this is the last e-mail from me until October of next year. Feel free to check out the forum, and keep using the chat room as you’d like (Cheri said she’s leaving it up and running). If you are part of a writing group or club, or are looking for a local one, I’m starting a thread in the forum.
Great job everyone – I’ve had a lot of fun this month, and a lot of it has to do with meeting many of you, and providing what encouragement I could. I look forward to seeing you next year.
-Christy
Co-ML of Gainesville, FL
Nov. 24, 2008
Howdy All,
Welcome to the last week of NaNo WriMo. It has been, and continues to be a long, fun trip. Perhaps a few potholes (or are those plot-holes?) along the way, but I for one am enjoying myself, and I hope you are too.
I wanted to send out a reminder about the final two write-ins we have, and inform ya’ll about the TGIO party.
PRE-THANKSGIVING WRITE-IN
Tuesday, Nov. 25th from 6 pm-9pm at Books,Inc. We have the art gallery/ loft area reserved. If you are bringing a laptop, they do have wifi, and some plugs, but anyone who could bring a power-strip would greatly add to the number of computers that could be plugged in.
Books Inc is located at 505 NW 13 St., Gainesville, FL 32601 — On the corner of NW 13st street and NW 5th Ave.
FINAL PUSH WRITE-IN
Last day of the month and in a panic? Coasting towards the 50,000 word mark? Already earned your green bar, but still trying to finish your story? Join us for all or part of this final write-in.
3pm – 10 pm in Library West, Info Commons (on the 3rd floor) Library West is located on campus, north of the Plaza of Americas, on University Ave.
PEORIA ONLINE:
For those of you seeking some final word wars with our sister region; Peoria has an “online only” write in from 10am – 10 pm their time (so that’s 11 am – 11 pm our time) on Friday, Nov. 28. You can find them in the chat room from the gainesvillenano.wordpress.com page.
Also, they have a write-in Saturday, Nov. 29th, 10am-2pm their time (so 11am – 3pm our time) and may welcome challengers then.
TGIO PARTY
Due to the feedback I’ve received, this year we will be having a potluck dinner for our TGIO party. This will held on Friday Dec. 5th, starting at 7 pm at my house. Alison and I will provide sodas, tea, lemonade, plates, cups, silverware, etc. We will talk through the highlights and low points of the month, and more. Bring your novel if you wish, or come to vent about your characters.
Please bring a dish (and yes it can be simply pizza), and be prepared to explain how your contribution relates to your novel. Or November in general. Or whatever. From “My characters ate this every day” to “I didn’t eat this once in November, and I thought I’d bring it so I could finally savor the flavor.”
I’ll send out an e-mail a few days before with my address, and don’t be shy about attending – even if this is your first event, and no matter how you finish the month, you are a brave soul who has signed up for something that would send most people running, and we want to celebrate!
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, and happy writing.
-Christy
co-ML, Gainesville FL
Nov. 17, 2008
Hi Gainesville Wrimos!
We are now officially past the mid-point of the month, and for many of us our novels are kicking and screaming as we drag them closer towards the 50k finish line. In addition to the pep talks that headquarters has been sending out, we have a big pep-boost planned for our Nov. 19th write-in.
We will be at the Library West, Info Commons (on the 3rd floor) from 5pm – 10 pm. Not only will we have a comfy space with plenty of outlets, computers available for use, and wireless internet, we will also have coffee and snacks provided by Starbucks, as well as the stuff to make hot tea or cocoa, and word wars with prizes.
In addition, we have authors, both local and distant, who are joining us to provide more pep and inspiration:
6:30pm – Short talk by local mystery writer, Marjorie “M.D.” Abrams
7:30 – 8:00pm – Live Chat with urban fantasy writer, Illona Andrews
8:30pm – Short talk by local legal fiction writer, Pierce Kelley
9:00 – 9:30pm – live chat with sci-fi author, Ann Aguirre
The live chat with distant authors will take place at HERE. The chat will be displayed on the large screen TV in the room, as well as be available for participants to join on their own computers, so the participation in this is truly optional.
In order to make sure we have enough seats set up, and enough outlets, we’re trying to get a rough idea of how many people will be there. Please RSVP at the forumsor via e-mail to me. You need only RSVP once.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS
Bowling – Nov. 23
We will be at Alley Katz bowling starting at 1pm. When we have enough people for a lane, we’ll get one.
Pre-Thanksgiving Write-In – Nov. 25
Books, Inc from 6-9 pm in the Art Gallery and loft.
Final Push Write-In – Nov. 30
Library West Info Commons from 3 – 10 pm
TGIO Potluck – Date TBD
We’ll have the potluck at my house, and are taking votes for the date (Monday Dec. 1, or Friday Dec. 5) Everyone is invited to attend, whatever your final word count, just be prepared to tell us how what you are bringing relates to your NaNo WriMo experience (eg. – my characters ate this in chapter 5; or I didn’t get to eat this during November since I was writing; etc, etc).
Don’t forget to check the regional forum for updates about events, directions, and more.
-Christy
Co-ML, Gainesville, FL
Nov. 10, 2008
Update for the regional events for the next two weeks. Hang in there, everyone!
VETERAN’S DAY WRITE IN
Tomorrow’s Veteran’s Day marathon of a write-in (11am-5pm) will be in the conference room on the second floor of Williamson Hall on the UF campus. To get to Williamson Hall you must first find a parking spot. Luckily the University is closed so we can park almost anywhere!
Williamson Hall is located on Stadium Road between the College of Journalism (Weimer Hall) and The Hub. There is a small parking lot next to it, as well as one across the street from it, but your best bet would be parking at the Reitz or at the O’Dome and walking up.
From the Reitz, you’ll walk north (towards Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) across the quad. Journalism will be directly a head of you with Williamson Hall diagonally to your right.
From the O’ Connell Center, you’ll walk south (towards the back side of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) on Gayle Lemerand Dr. to Stadium Road and hang a left. Williamson Hall will be on the right side of the road just past Journalism.
Once you are inside Williamson Hall, just follow the signs. ^_^
ICE CREAM SOCIAL AND FUNDRAISER
Don’t forget our fundraiser for the Office of Letters and Light coming on Wed. Nov. 12, at Sweet Dreams Ice Cream (3437 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601 – Behind Grandy’s – Plaza on corner of University Ave. and SW 34th street). The Fundraiser takes place from 5:30 – 9pm- ish (or 10 pm when they close). Our Ice Cream Social takes place during 7:00-8:30 pm, but please encourage anyone who would be willing to help support great writing challenges like NaNo WriMo, Young Authors Program and Script Frenzy to stop by that evening after 5:30 and buy a NaNo WriMo cup. They’ll get any two scoops of ice cream, and a topping for $4.24 (that is $3.99 plus tax), and 20% of the proceeds will be donated, as well as anything placed in the tip jar during our fund-raiser.
For the social, bring your muse, bring your word count, bring yourself – we want to hear how it’s going, what are the highlights and low points of your writing experience and where you need help. Let other wrimos inspire and cajole, or draw ideas from the ever present Jar.
CROSS REGIONAL WORD WARS
Have you attended a write in and enjoyed the word wars with Peoria? Want to take up the challenge on your own? Peoria has two write-ins this week that don’t overlap with ours. If you feel you’d like to challenge them, why not visit the Chat, here.
You are welcome to the chat room at anytime to try to find challengers, but Peoria has write-ins on Thurs. Nov. 13th at 7:30 our time (6:30 pm theirs); and again on Saturday Nov. 15th at 11 am our time (10 am theirs).
MOVIE DAY – Stranger than Fiction
Take a break on writing (or bring your laptop with you, in case you get inspired) and watch a movie with other writers about a writer. We will be watching Stranger than Fiction on Sunday Nov. 16; 2:00 pm – 5:00pm at the Meeting Room at the Tower Road Branch of the Alachua county Library. We have the room from 1:30, and the movie will start at 2:00 sharp.
This is a great event to car-pool to 
DIRECTIONS: 3020 S.W. 75th Street, Gainesville Fl – This is on Tower Road, closer to Archer than to University – if you choose to go up SW 20th to get to Tower Road, take a left on Tower (75th St).
WRITE IN NOV 19: THE BIG EVENT
Hit the middle-of-the month slump? Come to the middle-of-the-month Write-In. Commiserate with others, get your write on. We have local author M.D. Abrams coming to speak words of inspiration at 6:30 pm, as well as an exclusive podcast interview from urban fantasy writer Jeanine Frost which will be played that evening. Coffee and snacks will be provided by Gator Dining Starbucks.
The write-in takes place from 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm in the Info Commons area on the 3rd floor of Library West. Guest computer access will be available for writers without their own laptops.
We also hope to have an awesome slide show running in the background of the event, to inspire our writers, and to draw interest of passers-by. To those ends, if you have any information you’d like to include in the slide-show, (or any powerpoint slides you care to make yourself), please e-mail me (Christy). Any online writing resources you find handy, let me know, and I’ll add the URLs in the slideshow, as well.
I also want to put up screen captures of local writer’s NaNo WriMo Author or Novel pages. If you are willing to let me use your NaNo WriMo pages in the slide show, please let me know. I’ll be posting a call in the forums, as well. Give me your nano wrimo user name, and which screen you’d prefer I use (if you have a preference, otherwise I will choose). I will get the screen captures on Wed, Nov. 18th, starting at 6 pm, so update your word count before then
FORUMS
Be sure to keep up with the forums – there you can find calls for other write-ins, information on events, introductions to new participants, and calls from me about things like the TGIO party – do we want do a potluck or go to a restaurant this year?
That’s it for my update here, I am sending warm and fuzzy writing vibes to help everyone in the region make it through the slump of week two.
-Christy
co-ML of Gainesville, FL
Nov. 5, 2008
Hi everybody,
I wanted to send out a brief reminder about the events upcoming this week. There is a write-in tonight, Nov. 5th, from 5:30-8:30 pm at the Alachua County Library downtown headquarters, Meeting Room A (on the 4th floor).
Write-in on Saturday, Nov. 8th from 10 am – 2 pm, in Library West room 429, where we will once again challenge Peoria to a word war, and we are determined to win this time
Veteran’s Day write in on Nov. 11th will be in the Geology Department Conference room, located on the 2nd floor of Williamson Hall from 11 am – 5 pm.
Our fundraiser for the Office of Letters and Light will happen on Wed. Nov. 12, at Sweet Dreams Ice Cream (3437 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601 – Behind Grandy’s – Plaza on corner of University Ave. and SW 34th street). The Fundraiser takes place from 5:30 – 9pm- ish (or 10 pm when they close). Our Ice Cream Social takes place during 7:00-8:30 pm, but please encourage your personal cheering squad, or anyone who would be willing to help support great writing challenges like NaNo WriMo, Young Authors Program and Script Frenzy to stop by that evening after 5:30 and buy a NaNo WriMo cup. They’ll get any two scoops of ice cream, and a topping for $4.24 (that is $3.99 plus tax), and 20% of the proceeds will be donated, as well as anything placed in the tip jar during our fund-raiser.
Finally, I wanted to include a link to the chat room where you can go at any time and see if any fellow Ganiesville WriMos, or those from our sister region Peoria are online, and challenge them to a word war or sprint, or just go and chat about your novel. Chat Room Here
Happy writing Gainesville, and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events or on the forums.
-Christy
Co-ML
Gainesville, FL
Oct. 29, 2008
Howdy everyone!
I wanted to send out this e-mail with some pre-November updates, and reminders for the region. Sorry for the length, I just wanted to make sure everyone was set for Nov. 1st.
WEBSITE
First, I wanted to remind you of the regional website we have created. http://gainesvillenano.wordpress.com – this site has a list of all our upcoming events, as well as links to the online jar (more on that in a minute), copies of these e-mails, and more.
From experience, I can tell you that the NaNo WriMo site tends to be very busy the first few days of November, and you may find yourself frustrated in getting to our regional forum, or navigating through the site as thousands of people try the same. Part of the reason for our wordpress site is to be able to keep you up to date even when the site is sluggish, or, all-things-good forbid, down.
CONTACT US
If you need to reach us during this time, and nano mail just isn’t working for you, you can also contact us at gainesville.nano (at) gmail.com
ONLINE JAR
Now, on to the more fun stuff. Some of you know the Jar, some of you love the Jar – the font of suggestions and plot bunnies that travels around with us to all our face-to-face events. But what if you can’t make an event? Well now we have available an online version of the jar – where you can place your suggestions to help others (it can be as simple as a word (e.g. ravens) to as complex as you want it to be.) The idea is that it is somewhere you can turn if you are simply stuck for an idea. So drop on by, drop a few ideas in the virtual jar, and when Nov. rolls around, check out the “draw a card” feature which randomly selects from those entered. Or check out the jar of nanos past (under “Category”), where we are inputting all the suggestions collected from the physical jar over the years.
The jar can be found directly at: www.crushedmuffin.com/NanoJar2; or also linked from the wordpress page. Depending on your browser, you may need to use the sideways scroll at the bottom of the page once you draw your first idea.
SISTER REGION
As you may recall, we have taken on Peoria, IL as a sister/rival region this year. If you’d like a buddy/enemy from Peoria, check out the thread on their regional lounge: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3010784 (I’m also posting this link to our regional lounge thread, so never fear). Introduce yourself, and say what you are looking for in a buddy/enemy from Peoria. Or scan to see if someone from Peoria looks like a promising match.
This Saturday Nov 1 we will be having a regional word war against Peoria, so keep your eyes open for the chat room (once again, updates to forum and the wordpress page, with a link), and we’ll try to beat their word count at our 10 am-2 pm write in.
NOV. 1 WRITE-INS
That brings me to Saturday’s Events. There is a write-in from 10 am – 2 pm at room 429 at Library West. The library is wireless, so feel free to bring your laptops. Parking is best looked for either in the Criser lot, or the Chemistry building lot. We will be word-warring with Peoria starting at 11:30 am, so come prepared to kick some Illinois word-count butt.
Also, due to the daylight savings switch, we gain an extra hour on in the wee hours of Nov. 2. If you want to take advantage of writing that hour twice, I am hosting a 9:00 pm – 2:30 am write-in at my house. My addy is *DELETED AFTER THE EVENT* – end of the cul-de-sac, and plenty of parking (my neighbors across the way are selling their house, so it is empty) e-mail me at gainesville.nano@gmail.com if you need directions.
SEEKING HELP
Finally, we have two events coming up in November where we would like your help. The first is our ice cream fundraiser – we will be raising money for the Office of Letters and Light with the help of Sweet Dreams Ice Cream. All evening on Nov. 12, (from 5:30 – 10) they will be selling a “NaNo WriMo” cup, and a percentage of the money from this cup, and any money donated to the tip-jar will be passed on to the Office of Letters and Light (the non-profit org that makes NaNo WriMo; Young Writers Program and Script Frenzy work).
Our ice cream social runs from 7:00 – 8:30 pm, but we need representatives there from the group the whole of the fundraiser. Alison and I plan to be there the entire time, and are looking for one or two others who would like to help (perhaps allowing us a break to go get dinner, etc). You can feel free to bring your notebook or laptop, and just be prepared to recommend our fundraising cup to any customers who come in. We’d love to have someone from 5:30 until the social, and someone else, perhaps, after the social until close. If you’d like to help out, let me or Alison know.
Also, for the big mid-month write-in event on Nov 19th, we’d love to have an awesome slide show to catch the eyes of people wandering by. We’d love to include bios of our writers, or brief snippets of your story, or a synopsis of what you are trying to do. We would also encourage other inspiring slide ideas, and are accepting slide ideas / bios / etc until Nov.8th, or if you can submit a powerpoint slide(s), we can take those until Nov. 12th – after which time we’ll compile the show.
That wraps up my long laundry list of things to be excited about so far. I’m looking forward to an awesome month, and working with such a wonderful group of WriMos as we have this year.
-Christy
co-ML, Gainesville FL
OCT. 21, 2008
Hi everybody,
Welcome to NaNo WriMo 2008, Gainesville style.
For those of you who are new this year, I’d like to introduce myself – I am Christy (NaNo WriMo user weylyn42) – one of your co-Municipal Liaisons for the region. This year I am joined by Alison (NaNo WriMo user bankysgirl), your other regional ML. Together we have planned a lot of exciting events for our region this year to help poke, prod, encourage and cajole you to reaching the 50,000 word goal.
Our kick-off event is this coming Saturday, October 25th, and arrives in the form of a Meet and Greet – a chance for you to meet others in the region who have signed up for the same crazy ride as you, racing through the month of November, and into a novel.
We will be in Meeting Room A of the Alachua County Library Headquarters (address below) from 10 am – 1 pm. You are welcome to come and stay for the duration, or to drop by during at any point to meet your fellow WriMos, discuss strategies for the coming month, share characters or plot ideas you have itching to get out, familiarize yourself with the ever-handy Jar and even lock up your inner critic. And did I mention goodie-bags?
If you aren’t able to attend the meet-up, we do hope to see you on the regional forums. Drop us a line in the introduction thread, or feel free to start your own topic in our Regional Lounge.
Also, this year we have our own website, chock full of information on our events, copies of these e-mails, and updates on our regional rivalry with Peoria, IL. The site can be found here: http://gainesvillenano.wordpress.com/
I look forward to meeting our new folk, and reuniting with those of you who are returning. Can you believe we are less than a fortnight away? Dust off your muse, and clean up your favorite writing spot, November is near!
-Christy
Alachua County Public Library Headquarters:
401 East University Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601
Downtown Gainesville, four blocks east of Main Street – in front of the Post Office.
SEPT. 10, 2008
Howdy!
You are getting this message if you have Gainesville, Fl as an affiliate region for National Novel Writing Month. If you don’t want to receive such e-mails in the future, you can change the settings at www.nanowrimo.org and either remove Gainesville as an affiliate, or change the settings in your profile so you don’t receive correspondence from the NaNo WriMo site (this would affect ALL correspondence from this site, however).
We’re getting up for an exciting month of NaNo WriMo events here in the Gainesville region, I wanted to take the opportunity to give you a sneak peek at what we are planning, and to and to get your input.
WEBSITE AND FACEBOOK
First, they want to direct you to our newly created, region-specific web site: gainesvillenano.wordpress.com
In addition to updating events on the NaNo WriMo regional lounge, this site will be updated with event information. We hope to have an electronic version of “The Jar” on the site. Like the physical jar that travels from event to event, this will be a place to contribute and receive suggestions or inspiration for when you’re stuck.
Also we’re hoping to contact local authors for region-specific pep talk pod-casts or e-mail interviews, which will be made available throughout the month on the site.
For those of you on Facebook, we also had a newly created Facebook group;
NaNo WriMo: Gainesville, FL
EVENTS
This year, in addition to adding more write-ins, we are also looking at doing some fun events to relieve stress, including a movie night, bowling, and an ice cream social. All events were you will be welcome, of course, to also be writing 
We are still looking into meeting location options for all our write-ins. I have a feeling our group is getting too big to overrun a café, so if you know of any locations that have free or cheap meeting rooms available, send word my way so we can explore our options.
Also, for those of you who have attended events in the past – what did you like? What did you feel we could do better? If you didn’t attend events, what kind of stuff would you like to see at events (write-ins and such) that might tempt you to join us?
FUNDRAISING
We are looking at means of group fundraising this year to raise money to send, as a region, to the NaNo WriMo Office of Letters and Light, to show our regional support for the fine folks who put in so much time and effort into making NaNo WriMo work. So, a gentle reminder to donate this year, or buy a t-shirt (which are now available in the NaNo Wrimo Store
For group fundraising events, we are tossing around the following ideas:
-Ice Cream fundraiser at Sweet Dreams (this would be the same day as our Ice Cream Social event)
-Local T-shirts – If people are interested, we can come up with a local design for Gainesville NaNos – which would be $10, to cover the cost of the shirt, and the extra sent on as a donation
-Write-a-Thon during one of our write-ins we’d set aside 2 hours for a write-a-thon, and seek sponsors to pledge money per word, per page, or per hour
We are also looking for other ideas, so send them our way.
UF STUDENTS
In the past a good number of our members have been UF students, so we are looking into creating a UF club for NaNo WriMo. Becoming a club will allow us to use space on campus, plus it will help draw new people to join NaNo WriMo who might not have heard of it otherwise.
To become an official club, we need 3 registered students – a role that we personally are unfortunately unable to fill ourselves (I am not a student, and Alison is not registered this semester). If you are a registered student at UF, and would be willing to help us establish an official club – please contact me ASAP.
ONE LESS CAR CHALLENGE
If you are a UF student, faculty, staff, or interested community member, you are eligible to participate in the One Less Car challenge – a sustainabilty challenge happening this fall which encourages people to find alternate means of commuting other than single occupancy vehicles. Gainesville/UF NaNo WriMo is one of the teams you can choose to be on for this challenge.
If you sign up by SEPT 16th, and list Gainesville/UF NaNo WriMo as your team, we will get a free t-shirt for you. (You can sign up after Sept 16th, but you won’t get the free shirt.) The Kick off events for this challenge are Oct. 16th and 17th, but the goal is to find alternate means of transportation not only those days, but also throughout the fall semester. We would even challenge our members to carry this over to NaNo WriMo events, and carpool when possible.
For more information on this program, see the website at: http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/onelesscar/
LOCAL AUTHORS
As I mentioned above, we hope to invite local authors to interview, podcast and even come to give encouragement speeches at our big middle-of-the-month write-in. If there is any author you would like us to invite, please let us know.
NEW ML
Bethany, who previously shared duties with me in planning events for the region, moved away, and we are in the process of instating a new CO-ML to the position. Some of you may remember Alison. She and I are working hard to plan events for NaNo and encouraging local schools to participate in the Young Author’s program.
SIGN-UPS
Don’t forget to tell your friends about NaNo. The more the merrier, we always say. Sign-ups for brand new participants have typically started on Oct. 1st in past years, so be sure to keep an eye open for that.
With that I’ll take my leave. For more current updates, don’t forget to check the Gainesville NaNo WriMo website, and feel free to contact me at gainesville.nano (at) gmail.com with any ideas or questions.
See you soon!
-Christy
Co-Municipal Liaison, Gainesville, FL
