Less than 24 hours to go...

and over 92 middle and high school students (mostly middle) are signed up to write!

I hope CreateSpace can keep up with all the novel requests...

Wow! Just wow!

Less than one week to go, and I've already run out of NaNoWriMo buttons and posters! Since starting this group, I've never had that problem (and it's a nice problem...). A month ago, I really thought that I'd have a drawer full of pens left over for next year. I have 84 pens...there are 85 signed up, and more coming in every day.

This is a good problem.

One week to go!

It's almost that time! NaNoWriMo is only one short week away, and the list of middle school writers is up to 58 as of this morning. That's the same number of students that I had last year in middle school and high school combined.

The Beginner Prize Packs have been flying out of my office, and the kids are excited to start receiving goodies. I've also set up an Instagram account for the kids to show off their writing as they go. You can follow it at FPARMY. To post to the account, either tag the picture @fparmy, or #hmsnano in the comments.

Wish us luck! This competition is going to rock this year.

Stretch Goals

There's a "stretch goal" for everything these days, so why not a writing club? Here at HMS we have started using incentives called "Spirit Sticks". There are a number of different kinds, for all kinds of groups. And I've got one for NaNoWriMo.

I've tried to think of an interesting way to earn these. Students already get the official NaNo button, just for taking on the writing challenge, so I wanted to make this prize something they had to work for. And I finally figured out the challenge.

Phobias. Yup, your character (protagonist, antagonist, or secondary) has to have a phobia, and it has to actually play a part in the story. It doesn't have to be a major part, but it shouldn't just be mentioned, either. And to make things more challenging, let's say it needs to be somewhat obscure, and it cannot be duplicated within the group.

Check out The Phobia List for a rather exhaustive listing of phobias. My secondary character, Jason Knight, has "daemonophobia", the fear of demons. And seeing as how my novel is a Supernatural Thriller, with demons, things could get interesting...

The new NaNoWriMo buttons are awesome!

The people at the Office of Light and Letters (those behind NaNoWriMo), have updated their posters and buttons this year. And having grown up in the '80s, I love them. 8-bit pixels for the win!

Edison Beaumont from Brian Gray & Edison Pens

This one... hmmm... this one.

I've wanted an Edison pen for almost three years now. They are gorgeous, and write wonderfully, and everyone that has talked about their own Edison pens have done nothing but rave about them. Honestly, I never thought in my wildest dreams that when I emailed Brian Gray over at Edison pens about donating to our group, that I would receive an email back the very next day saying "Sure!"

Now I'm jealous...

I don't even know who the pen is going to yet (or even just what criteria the students have to meet to be eligible for it), but I'm jealous of them none-the-less. One of my students will have an Edison pen before me. There's got to be a way...

"Dear Santa,"

Zebra Zmulsion pens from Shu & JetPens

JetPens.com is one of my most favorite places to visit and shop. They have some of the most unique writing supplies available, and there is something there for everyone. And imagine my surprise when I contacted JetPens, and got a reply from the CEO and co-founder of JetPens! And it got even better when a package of 70 Zmulsion pens showed up on my doorstep.

If you ever want to kill some time looking at pens and writing supplies, head over to JetPens or Goulet Pens. You'll be lost for hours.