For the tenth year of NaNoWriMo, some of the most beloved authors around have packed their perspectives, encouragement, and experience into pep talks for you. We'll be emailing two of them out per week in November. We hope their words provide the spark you need to get to 50,000 words and beyond!
Piers Anthony, the New York Times bestselling author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, has published over 100 books. He is perhaps best-known for his long-running Xanth series. Among his many great achievements, Anthony has published a book for every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonologyto Zombie Lover. He is releasing two new books, Air Apparent and Two to the Fifth, this fall.
Kelley Armstrong is married with three kids and lives in rural Ontario, Canada. After graduating with a degree in psychology, she went on to study computer programming. Currently, Kelley is a full-time writer and parent. She is the author of the popular Darkest Powers trilogy. The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1) was released in July 2008. Kelley has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2005 and organizes an online group of readers to join her each year!
Read Chris' pep talks
A resident of Oakland, California, Chris has been heading up NaNoWriMo since founding the escapade in 1999. With his startlingly mediocre prose style and complete inability to write credible dialogue, Chris has set a reassuringly low bar for budding novelists everywhere. Chris is an anthropologist by training and a freelance writer by trade; his work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Believer, and Lonely Planet guidebooks. When not bossing strangers around, Chris spends debilitating amounts of time in coffee shops. His mercilessly pants-kicking book, No Plot? No Problem!, is available at your favorite bookstore.
Read Gayle's pep talk
Gayle Brandeis' community activism shines through in her fiction; her novel The Book of Dead Birds won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change. The Writer Magazine honored Gayle with the “Writer Who Makes a Difference” Award in 2004. She lives in Riverside, California where she was designated Communications Goddess of the international women’s peace organization, CODEPINK. Gayle wrote the rough draft of her most recent novel, Self Storage, during NaNoWriMo!
Read Meg's pep talk
This bestselling author has written nearly fifty books for adults and teens. Her books have sold fifteen million copies worldwide. The Princess Diaries series is being published in 38 countries, and has been made into two major motion pictures. Meg's recent projects, Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls and Airhead, hit bookstores in the spring of this year. Her current project, Abandon, is a modern retelling of the myth of Persephone, and will debut in the summer of 2009.
Read Janet's pep talk
This author of White Oleander and Paint It Black is a Los Angeles native, born to a family of avid readers. Despite her literary home life, Fitch initially pursued a degree in history as an undergraduate student at Reed College. It was during her time at Keele University in England that Fitch realized her desire to write fiction. In addition to noveling, Ms. Fitch teaches at the University of Southern California in the Masters of Professional Writing program.
Brian Jacques is the New York Times bestselling author of the Redwall series, which is comprised of eighteen books and has sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Mr. Jacques created a recording company where he lends his own voice talents to the full-cast productions of his novels. He has an honorary doctorate from the University of Liverpool, and recently received an honorary fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University. Mr. Jacques was born in Liverpool, England, where he continues to live and write today.
Read Katherine's pep talk
Katherine Paterson is the beloved author of Jacob Have I Loved, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Bridge to Terabithia. Her work has merited countless honors, including multiple Newbery Medals and National Book Awards. In 2007, Ms. Paterson served at the Vice- President of the National Children's Book and Literary Alliance. She remains on the Board of Directors, promoting literacy, educational activism, and passion for reading.
Read Philip's pep talk
Philip Pullman is the award-winning author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, which has been honored with the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award (for The Amber Spyglass ). In 2002, he received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature. The first book in the trilogy, Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the US) was recently adapted into a major motion picture. In June of this year, Mr. Pullman became a Fellow at Oxford Brookes University supporting the MA in Creative Writing. He is currently working on The Book of Dust, a sequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Read Jonathan's pep talk
Jonathan Stroud has been a fantasy fanatic since childhood. In his words, "[stories of magical adventure] provided a more complete escape." After getting his degree in English Literature at York University, he landed a job as an editor at Walker Books in London. It was there that he penned his first novel, Buried Fire. After becoming a full-time writer in 2001, Stroud went on to write the award-winning fantasy favorites that comprise The Bartimaeus Trilogy. His new novel, Heroes of the Valley, will be released in January of 2009.
Want more? Read the 2007 NaNoWriMo pep talks!