Look Out World, Here it Comes!!!

Hey everybody!  Welcome to my new blog! For those of you who were following my much neglected blog "Antonyms of Reality" my blogging has moved here! I plan on using this as a main center of operations to keep all of you up to date on what is going on in my writing world. To help you out there are some super handy dandy tabs up there! Things are still at the bare bones stage right now, but soon I will have all of those pages full of information for you. I can't wait until this more organized and centralized blog is up and running completely how I want it to. It is exciting!

So, obviously I haven't written in a while, which you should be able to tell if you look at the dates of my previous posts, which I imported from my old blog. I'm turning over a new leaf! Why? First of all because I love writing. Second, because it is nearly November, and for me that means NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who don't know, let me introduce you to the madness! NaNoWriMo was created by Chris Baty and it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days during the month of November! Crazy? Maybe. Fun? YES! The other eleven months of the year I spend wishing that NaNoWriMo were here again, and finally, it is only within hours!

NaNoWriMo changed my entire world and my life. I was first introduced to the program by my long time friend and then roommate Rachael. She brought it to my attention and we did it together in 2009, and ever since I have done it ever year. I was instantly hooked, and I doubt I will ever be able to get out of this one!

NaNoWriMo is one of the programs that is run by the Office of Letters and Light, a non-profit that I will talk about under the "Sites I Follow" tab. I owe much to this organization  and it is one of my dreams to be an intern with them during NaNoWriMo some day. During the months of June and August many people also participate in Camp NaNoWriMo, which is the exact same concept in the summer "smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life." This year I joined in on the fun and participated in August.

Before I was introduced to NaNoWriMo I had started many stories, too many for me to even think back on and remember, but with a clear goal and a definite deadline I finally finished a story. So far I have finished four books and I am a little more than half way finished with my fifth. All of these have been written for NaNoWriMo or had something to do with it, and here I am, about to start my SIXTH novel for yet another Nano!

If you can't tell, I am excited! Why? Because I love writing, and I love NaNoWriMo! I love how it has expanded my world. I love how many friends it has given me, and how many I gain each and every day! I love what Nano has taught me and continues to teach me about myself. This year I will be tackling a story unlike any I have done before. It is going to be a challenge, but it is going to be awesome! I'll tell you all about it in another post, ideally tomorrow!

So, for those of you who have been following, thanks for tagging along, and for those of you who are new, come join the wild ride! I hope you follow my blog and keep up with what I am up to! Soon under the "Contact" tab I will have information including email, twitter, and Facebook ways that you can follow along as well. Here's to a great month ahead!

-Heidi Nicole Bird