National Novel Writing Month is a good place to start. For one thing, you'll get lots of support and encouragement, and afterward the whole idea of "writing a book" will seem far less daunting. It's amazing, it's true: you actually can do this. I am not kidding. In addition, you'll discover a community of writers you never knew existed all around you, and you'll find out another thing I was amazed to discover: Writers, as a body, are really amazingly nice people! Most nerds are. (Oh, yah, if you're a nerd, you'll also find, among writers, a much higher percentage of nerds than you'll find anywhere else. What's your nerddom? Doctor Who? Night Vale? Local indy bands nobody else has heard of? Chances are, everyone in your local NaNo group will also have at least one of these interests - and some of them might share all of them with you. It's mind-boggling!) I started Moonlight and Moss as my 2017 NaNo project, though I knew it was going to run well over the requisite 50,000 words required to "Win" NaNoWriMo. This year, I am going to work on a short (well, short for me!) novella revolving around what it must be like to experience the Christmas season in Woodley, USA. I can well imagine that, at Vale House, Santa Claus really does slide down the chimney on Christmas Eve. He probably hangs around eating hors d'oeuvres (I wonder if Katarina will finally make tacos?) and drinking the special Christmas brandy. This won't really be part of the current "trilogy" featuring Cally, Ben, and Emerald, though they will be present for Christmas this year. Maybe someday I'll include a bound copy of the story as bonus content with the boxed set. Best of all, NaNoWriMo is for a good cause, whether your participate as a writer or by
