Anyway, I've been participating with NaNo in one form or another since 2008. In all that time I have always participated with the Isle of Skye in Scotland, which added a few more small groups there and became a more conglomerated and infamous Scotland Elsewhere. And you are thinking - isn't Detroit, Michigan a bit far away from Isle of Skye, Scotland? Why yes it is! (If you don't believe me you can Google it.) The Detroit SE group is thousands of people, all over, and there are good people and MLs here - I just never really felt deeply a part of it (more so over the last year when some of the group formed a FaceBook page). I hope NaNo will consider breaking it into smaller chunks soon.
The Isle of Skye was small when I started there - it was a friendly, homey place, due in huge part to the ML - MarieRex, or Anastasia. She seemed a bit older than the average NaNo-er but never felt ancient. She was extremely hands on, and full in with NaNo. She never seemed to want to publish a book, she just seemed to enjoy the annual challenge and being able to help others along the way. She would sometimes mention knitting and a shelf full of NaNo hard work. My feelings and enjoyment of NaNo have been shaped greatly by Anastasia. We lost her last year, just before NaNo and apparently us fine, lost, bunch of lambs had no leader this year, so everyone just pitched in, in remembrance of our beloved MarieRex. So, here is my pitch-in, the Week 3 Pep Talk. If you are NaNo-ing this year, feel free to chip in. If you are looking for a Week 3 Pep Talk - Scotland Elsewhere has you covered.
Welcome to week three of NaNoWriMo.
