“Everything is holding its breath inside me. Everything is waiting to explode like Christmas. I want to be all new and shiny. I want to sit out bad at night, a boy around my neck and the wind under my skirt. Not this way, every evening talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I can’t see.”

Christy approached local mystery author, M.D. Abrams, and asked her if she would come in and speak and offer encouragement to our Nanowrimo Event participants. Marjorie agreed and will be coming out to speak at 6:30pm!

Then I contacted three of my fave authors to see if they would be interested in participating in a live chat with our participants and they were both game!! Jeaniene Frost, paranormal writer and author of the Night Huntress Series will be chatting with us at 5:30pm. Ilona & Gordon Andrews, urban fantasy writers and authors of the Kate Daniels Series (ACE Fantasy) will be chatting with our group around 7:30pm. Then at 9pm, Ann Aguirre, sci-fi writer and author of the Jax series (ACE Sci-Fi) will also pop on and do a Q & A round with our group.

I’m holding 30 minute “word war” contests throughout the evening and giving away “Murder on the Prairie” (signed!), “Halfway to the Grave,” “Magic Bites,” and “Grimspace” to the participants who write the most words during that time. Ann Aguirre contacted me and said that she would even mail a signed copy of “Wanderlust” to one of the winners as well! So, my childrens, prizes galore next Wednesday, prizes galore!!

Anyway, I CANNOT wait! These writers have been SO awesome and VERY giving of their time. Approx. 75-80% of last year’s participants were working on some kind of sci-fi, paranormal, urban fantasy story and the rest were working on novels & mysteries so I think our Nano participants will be ab. thrilled to find out who is on the docket for next Wednesday!

So I got the pleasure of spending an hour and a half totally geeking out over scifi books and shows with Ann, Michelle, and Has. It was great talking with other folks who love those things as much as I do (kinda helps me feel like I’m not totally alone in my nerdiness! haha).

I loved Grimspace so much that I tore through it, finished it the same day and then picked it back up the next morning and read it all over again (gotta love a three day weekend! haha). So it was especially interesting to hear how she envisions her characters (Claudia Black as Jax and David Boreanzas as March) and to hear about the process of fighting to get published- with the bottom line being: Never. Give. Up. :)

I cannot wait until the new projects she’s finished up come through the publisher!! So, C’MON! hurry up Penguin!! stop the torture and publish us some more Aguirre and oh yeah… bring us some chicken wings… extra spice-eh…