And we're out

Well, that's it. All the pens are gone. All 88 of them, and I'm still one short (time to put in an order. Hmmm, what's on MY Christmas list that I can drop in the cart. I mean, you know, to make the shipping worth it...).

Every pen that went out to kids has been greatly appreciated, not only by me, but by the kids themselves. I've even had other students -- and even teachers -- search me out to see if I have any more of those "fancy" pens everyone else got ("I'll buy one..."). It may just be the novelty of the fountain pen, but the kids have had a blast using them in class and showing them off to their friends.

The ink choices have been a little surprising. I have filled most of the pens with blue ink (my personal favorite), but I honestly thought there would have been more greens and reds and the not-so-safe-everyday colors. I bet I'll get more of those once everyone starts to run out of ink (and two already have! That's a lot of writing to do in a week).

December (and the winter break in three days) should bring about more of the stories getting typed and saved to Figment.com. I plan to start posting excerpts from the participants stories when we get back in January. And if I happen to throw in a snippet of my story as well... Hey, why not.

Have a safe and happy holidays, and I hope everyone gets the pen (and ink, and paper) that they asked Santa for.

"Dear Santa,

     I have been a really good guy this year, and for Christmas, I'd like a clip-less TWSBI Micarta with a fine nib, and/or an Edison Collier in Persimmon Swirl with a fine nib..." 

It's time for prizes!

With the weather as it was (and still is) on Friday, we got a late start to school (and I could barely get to work), and had to delay the gifting of prizes until this morning. That being said, here are the winners and their choice pens:

Gia C. gets the Rotring Skynn.

The Retro 51 Ace of Spades went to Conner S., a high schooler

who just finished her fourth year of NaNoWriMo.

Ashly B. chose the Picaso, Santos O. the Hero,
De'Vion W. the Duke, and Chris B. the Jinhao.
*Wyatt R. & AC W. each took home the
Sheaffer Budget pens.

Anthony A. took the Lamy Sarafi after his
first successful NaNoWriMo.

Alyssa G. has already been using the
Franklin-Christoph Piper pen she chose.
*Alex W. & Rebekah D. now have one as well.

Ashton C., Zach H., and Mikayla S. each
have their very own Pelikano. *Jacob K. & Fernanda L.
 grabbed a blue Pelikano.

Bre S., Jessica S., Caleb S., and Sabena S.
(huh...all last names 'S') have a Platinum Preppy.
*And the long list of additional owners: Isaiah Z., Laura L.,
Louis A., David S., Regina B., Jose R., Braedon W.,
Jacob C., Jasmine S., Kim F., Christian M., Caulier A.,
Stephany A., Danny T., John B., Eddie S., Daniel C.,
John M., Izaak S., Adam T., TJ W.,  Cori B., JJ R.,
Cesar S., Zach L., Camryn S., Aeron B.,Paul G.,
Madison M., Rebecca S., Kelli R., & Scarlet M.

TWSBI's go to Sarah R., Sierra W., Avery E., Riley L.,
Brittany G., Ariana A.,Carmen F., Maci C., Maya J., and
Cadi B. (there were a lot of TWSBI's, and still a few left).
*Now include Pernisha V., Cooper S., Atanacio R., Matt P., Rafael R., Dustin K., Phaedra G., Aryn B., Liam C., & Abbigail L. as proud owners

Casey S. is the proud owner of a Kaweco Sport (which
is currently the pen inked up and in my pocket). *Nayeli C.,
Marco N., Trace L., Ally W. & Antonio R. also have Kawecos.

Two of the Sheaffers (the 100 & 300) went to
Scott B., and Sarah S. *Grace W. walked
away with the calligraphy set.

This one hurt the most to give away, but this student most definitely
deserved it. Ashley H. not only finished her word count, but wrote
over 60,000 words in the month of November.

Inks of choice so far:

• J. Herbin Rose Cyclamen -- TWSBI 540
• Pelikan Brilliant Green -- Jinhao Coleto
• Noodler's Libery Elisium -- Sheaffer Prelude 300
• Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue -- TWSBI 540
• Private Reserve Sherwood Green -- (my own) Kaweco Sport Ice
• Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki -- (my own) TWSBI mini 1.1mm stub
• Noodler's Shah's Rose
• Pelikan Turquoise -- Picaso 
• Diamine Red Dragon -- TWSBI 540
• Noodler's Ellis Island -- TWSBI mini
• Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku -- TWSBI 540
• Noodler's Blue -- TWSBI 540
• Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses -- TWSBI 540
• Rohrer & Klingner Blu Mare -- TWSBI 540
• Private Reserve Electric DC Blue -- TWSBI 540
• J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage
• Noodler's Black
• Diamine Ancient Copper
• Waterman Inspired Blue -- TWSBI 540

Only three winners left to pick prizes, then everyone else that participated gets got their chance. Each one of the winners is also receiving a journal provided by Franklin-Christoph. Thanks again for encouraging these young writers, and spread the word.

And the winners are...

Lots of writers, not quite as many winners (which is to be expected). There were around 90 students that actively participated in NaNoWriMo this year, and about a third of them met or exceeded their word goal (even my 5 year old daughter met her word goal!). Twenty-nine students put pen-to-paper or fingers-to-keyboards and worked throughout November to finish something that very few people can say they've done -- write the own novel. Here is a list of the winners, plus the number of times they have written:

1. Liam C. (1st year)
2. Nayeli C. (2nd year)
3. Carmen F. (3rd year)
4. Scott B. (1st year)
5. Avery E. (1st year)
6. Anthony A. (1st year)
7. Ashly B. (1st year)
8. Ashley H. (2nd year, and she wrote over 50,000 words!)
9. Casey S. (1st year)
10. Chris B. (1st year)
11. Conner S. (4th year!)
12. Ariana A. (1st year)
13. Sierra W. (1st year)
14. Jessica S. (1st year)
15. Maya J. (3rd year)
16. Maci C. (2nd year)
17. Sabena S. (1st year)
18. Riley L. (1st year)
19. Brittany G. (1st year)
20. Santos O. (2nd year)
21. Caleb S. (1st year)
22. Cadi B. (2nd year)
23. Sarah S. (2nd year)
24. De'vion W. (3rd year)
25. Ashton C. (1st year)
26. Alyssa G. (1st year)
27. Bre S. (1st year)
28. Pernisha V. (2nd year)
29. Sarah R. (3rd year)

Congratulations to all of the winners, and to everyone that took on the challenge. Tomorrow we start handing out prizes, and I (hopefully) will be able to give a great pen to all of the participants. By the way, students need check out the Inks & Samples page and choose the color of ink they want to fill their new pen with. Thank you to all of the donors, and especially to the Goulets for all the ink (honestly, I think the vast amount of ink choices is what I love about fountain pens the most...).

The end is nigh

Well, it's been a whirlwind November, and I can't believe that the end is already here. Looking at the HMS Young Writers page, kids are finishing up their word counts and hopefully celebrating their success. Unfortunately, my month of NaNoWriMo ends tonight at just 41,767 words out of 50,000. Despite a few 4,000+ days, I just won't be able to make those final 8,000 before midnight.

I'm okay with that. These last few days have been spent with the family celebrating the holidays, and while I could have locked myself in a room and finished, I realized I'd be missing some special things.


I got to go out with my daughter on her first boat ride ever in Port Aransas, TX while we went dolphin watching. She had a great time, and one that I would have missed if I had skipped to write. Am I disappointed not to make it? Sure, but I've helped introduce a whole new group of kids to writing, and that's what's more important.

So despite these things being constant companions throughout the month,








NaNoWriMo will ends without me being a winner once more (but it was fun trying).

And this may be a couple of days late, but I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Please keep coming back to the sight as we start to post winners, start giving away the prizes donated by our sponsors, and share some of their stories written during November. Please take time to visit their sites or drop them an email to let them know just how much you appreciate their support of our kids.

In to the final week

I can't believe that there is only one week left in this flurry of writing (no, seriously. I can't believe it. There's only one week left and I'm behind. Waaaaaay behind...). The kids have been furiously writing away on their novels, and some have even met (and greatly exceeded) their word count goals. We start counting words for real tomorrow, so I'm hoping to see a number of "verified" winners start to pop up on the HMS YoungWriters classroom.

The good news about this week is it's Thanksgiving, and that means that everyone (me included) who is behind on their word counts can (maybe) get caught up. The scary part, is that after Tuesday, I won't see my writers until NaNoWriMo is finished and the word counts finalized. No more encouraging words, writer's block jumpstarts, etc... They'll be completely on their own. And I bet they're going to be amazing.

As for me, after a wonder dinner of Lamb Pot Roast and mashed potatoes cooked up my by wonderful wife (and personal chef) Tammie, I was able to knock out over 5,000 words just today! Unfortunately, I'm still 7,000 words behind...

Ugh

It's been 13 days already?!

Interesting fact: I learned not long ago that the ?! is called an interrobang, and is not a standard punctuation mark.

Really? 13 days? Wow time flies. Kids are writing (and I'm trying to catch up to my own word count) and having a great time. In fact, three of my sixth graders are actually finished with their word count goals! There have been over 59,000 words logged on to the HMS Young Writers page, and not every student writing has had an opportunity to update.

In talking with the kids, there has been a good mix of typing and handwriting (some of the kids are doing both). I hope to have all of them signed up and official before we start verifying word counts. I'd love to see as many purple "Winner!" tags show up by their names. And once we're done with November, it'll be time for a breath, prizes, then back to work on editing.

I just hope I make it too...

Only day two?!

Yep, only the second day, and I've had to work extra just to get back on track (I'm ahead right now. Let's see how long THAT lasts...).

As of last count 96 kids have signed up to write this year, and a few of them are already updating their word counts over at ywp.nanowrimo.org. It amazes me each year that I do this, the number of kids that choose to write. Even more so are some of the kids that join up, kids that I never would have pegged to want to write. What's that saying about a books cover?

Thank you again to everyone that's helped me make this happen. I'll try to get pictures up of the kids' writing process when I get some.