Sept 9/27/17 NANOWRIMO

MEMBERS PRESENT: Gail Baugniet, Laurie Hanan, Katharine M. Nohr, Vicki White, Rosemary Thompson, Kent Reinker, Lizbeth Hartz, Kamana Mathur and Scott Kikkawa 6 p.m. – Meeting started.

NaNoWriMo GUEST SPEAKER: - Rosemary Thomas.

• NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.

• Write first novel draft in month of November.

• It’s about 50,000 words. About 1,666 words per day.

• Website is NaNoWriMo.org.

• Start/research/take notes/outline in October. Cannot write your novel until November.

• Complete profile on the website; announce your novel for NaNoWriMo; and write synopsis; select your region, which will be USA Hawaii O‘ahu. Tell us about yourself; you talk about what you’ve done in the past. Then get inspired.

Starting November 1 – begin your novel. By November 20, start post your novel.

By the end of the month, if you have 50,000 words or more – you win!

Laurie Hanan said she tried. She wrote 3,000 words in the month of November, and she felt like a total failure. It did end up getting published, which took a total of 2 years.

Gail Baugniet speaks. I started in 2012-2016. Published the 2012 and 1014 books. Leaving three to finish editing. Right now working on the 2015 manuscript. Enter your word totals on website, adding each days total to last total. It becomes a competition with different groups. The word count totals compared against others becomes an incentive. Each year it gets a little easier. To make the NaNoWriMo events fun, there would be such things as “Word Wars.” Your first draft is a story you tell yourself. Editing comes later. That’s the key to NaNoWriMo. It’s not necessary to enter your novel on website until later on in the month. Visit website for e-mails, incentives or you talk to other people. Update word count daily on top of the screen: Total Word Count. You win NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words of your novel between November 1 and November 30. There’s no limit on how many people can win! Just be sure that you’ve defined a novel on our site, and that you validate your novel’s word count at the end of the month. If you are worried someone might steal your story, put every “a” to a “z.”

Then no one’s going to touch it! Your prize is completing the 50,000 words. However, there are prizes. They list them at the end of different things where they tell you about your benefits when you win. There is a local place you can go if you like to type amongst other people. There is a local liaison for O‘ahu. Mary S., Municipal Liaison for O‘ahu’s NaNoWriMo, said they have write-ins around the town a couple of times each week. It depends who is willing to host them. Any participant is welcome to host a write-in. At an event, between 4-25 people would show up at the location. Last year, there were 215 people who participated on O‘ahu.

Katharine M. Nohr speaks - I’ll probably be writing diaries during NaNoWriMo month. The series of diaries I write….I have a contract on it, and I have to write 60,000 words. I also have to write Jerry Hirano’s journal, and I just wrote one entry. I submitted it to editor, and he told me that I had to re-write the first entry. It has to be 50,000 words for a whole book. So, I think it’s a really good one to do during NaNoWriMo. I’m really exited about it because it’ll just have me power through.

Scott Kikkawa - I have two manuscripts with Bamboo Ridge Press. My manuscript is mystery, but it’s here in Honolulu in 1953. My protagonist is a 442nd veteran, who is a HPD homicide detective. It involves the fall out of the sugar strikes of 1949. My manuscripts for Kona Winds and Red Dirt are noir mysteries in the hard-boiled tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

Kamana Mathur – Lawyer I moved here about a year and half ago. I’ve written some short stories and poems. I have a chapter in a book about myself, and featuring women entrepreneurs.

AGENDA ITEMS:

1) MAKIKI LIBRARY- (Gail Baugniet announcement) The library is having a fundraiser to support the library because they are totally independent. It’ll be at least a year before the state takes over. They have an angel donor who is going to match dollar for dollar up to $15,000. So give & double your gift.

2) SISTERS IN CRIME WEBSITE - To update website -please visit and submit info. The event and meeting schedule is posted for 2017. So, we can see what’s being planned and what isn’t being planned. We hope to coordinate with Gail’s blog- new postings hopefully soon.

3) SISTERS IN CRIME NATIONAL EVENT – We have a table at the Mayors Art & Craft show on Nov. 18 from 9am – 1pm. You must be a senior citizen to participate. They are giving two tables at no charge. We must promote Sisters in Crime and sell books. We still are on the waiting list for the December Blaisdale event. OTHER EVENTS AVAILABLE -

• November 19 is the Temple Emanuel fair. Laurie needs to know if anyone would like to participate. $25 for one table; $45 is for two tables.

• October 17 is the White Elephant Fair. Double booth is $45.

• On Nov 24 and 25 Honolulu Printmakers have a book fair.

4) SISTERS IN CRIME NATIONAL REVIEW MONITOR VOLUNTEERS -

Currently seeking members to be review monitors. Your responsibilities would be to count reviews of mystery books that are written by women and men in designated periodicals and then to submit your counts during the quarterly basis to the Monitoring Project chair. Subscription expenses may be covered by Sisters in Crime. For information, contact Debra Goldstein at monitoring@sistersincrime.org.

5) SISTERS IN CRIME NATIONAL SEEKING EDUCATION VOLUNTEERS – to form the education committee. The committee will work independently in order to execute, plan & oversee projects to benefit members at all levels. Projects include video series, retreats, webinars, classes, tip sheets and podcasts, which can all be presented at local chapters at the conferences or on the website. Proposals that may require funding would be then submitted and voted by the board. For more information, contact Tina Whittle at education@sistersincrime.org.

6) BLACK CAT MAGAZINE - A new publication debuted in September 2017. The magazine is looking for writers for Oct., Nov. and Dec. Stories wanted include contemporary/traditional mysteries, thrillers, suspense, private eye, cozies, edgy and noir-tinged, which all contain a crime of some sort.

7) AMAZON’S PEN CONTEST - Amazon has a writing contest, which is aimed at winning over readers in India. The prize is one million Indian Rupees that’s worth $15,000 USD. Deadline is November 10, 2017. For more information, visit www.amazon.in/b?ie=UTF8&node=13819037031. We heard from one of our guests, that they like love stories, romance and family drama.

8) WRITER’S RETREAT - There’s a Writer’s Retreat in England, which will be held on the grounds of Worton Park, Oxfordshire, England, and its stellar venue, The Farmhouse, on Friday, August 10 through Saturday, August 18, 2018. $1,000 down to register, reservations close on December 31, 2017. The retreat balance is due no later than May 1, 2018. Spend three days traveling to Roman Britain in Bath, the ancient complex of Stonehenge, Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford upon Avon, and modern London.

Guests are advised not to finalize travel arrangements, especially airline travel, until February 1, 2018. If interested and have questions, contact 256-694-6744 or e-mail steve@ardentwriterpress.com. You can also visit: www.writersretreatinengland.com

Mayor’s Fair has a wreath contest. If anyone is interested, let Vicki know by Oct meeting.

Gordon Noice “The Last Laugh is Mine”/ Noice is speaking on Oct. 18.

Guest speakers for Nov meeting: Katharine and Gay went to a conference called Police Academy.

December we hope to join the Hawaii Literary Writiers group for a holiday party. It is usually held at Assaggio in Kahala. Last year they had gift bags and ornaments.

Next meeting is on Wednesday, October 18. / Meeting ended at 7:33 p.m