Dear Novelist,

You did it.

Despite everything else going on in your busy life, you managed to pull off the creative coup of writing a 50,000-word novel in just one month.

When the going got tough, you got typing, and in four weeks, you built vast worlds and set them in motion. You created characters; quirky, interesting, passionate souls with lives and loves and ambitions as great as yours. You stuck it out through the notoriously difficult middle stretch, and pressed onward as 80% of your fellow writers dropped out around you.

And now look at you: A NaNoWriMo winner. And the owner of a brand-new, potential-filled manuscript. It's an amazing accomplishment, and we're proud to have had you writing with us this year.

Before we let you head off to your celebration (or nap, as the case may be), we have some NaNoWriMo Winners' booty to share with you.

The first are a couple of winner's icons, meant to be posted on a website or blog.

Since your heroic deed must be proclaimed far beyond the internet realm, though, we've also created a Winners Certificate for you to print out and hang anywhere novelist groupies tend to gather.

And that's it. On behalf of everyone here at NaNoWriMo headquarters, I offer you my congratulations. We look forward to noveling with you again next November.

Warm regards,

Chris Baty
Director, NaNoWriMo

I turned in my manuscript at 4:15 this afternoon. This was a tough year but, though my final results were below my expectations, I did finish the job and again, as last year, learned a lot of good stuff in the process. Below, you'll find the final section I wrote this afternoon that got me to 50,091 words.

I edited Chris's letter to leave out his plea for a donation. Sorry, Chris, I'm close to running on empty myself so I know how it feels. After waiting a month and a half, I've gotten one unemployment check for $43.00, several score of rejections, and Chris, that just doesn't cut it in today's world. So again, I'm sorry. But for everyone who wants to be a novelist and did not sign up this year, it was your loss but you'll always have another chance next year.

So here is the final snippit for 2006. Hope you are as glad as I am:

After Thelma called the bar asking for help with her current legal problem concerning the attempted robbery of old Mrs. Roaches house, Randy and a couple of other guys in Dinkys walked up and down the street in front of the bar collecting money from those who were unfortunate enough to have been passing by the bar over the weekend and by Monday, the men had more than enough money to bond Thelma out of jail. So Darla converted the loose change into twenty dollar bills, called Scooter, the owner of the bar, and he came by and picked up the money.
By noon, Scooter came back into the bar escorting Thelma, which caused quite an uproar among those who had already gathered for her coming-back-to-Broadway party.
Randy even had enough money left over to go down the street to the bakery and buy a cake for Thelma while Darla dug out some old paper hats and streamers that were left over from the bar's last New Years Eve party.
So that afternoon at Dinkys, the merry band of drinkers had a party in the bar the likes of which Broadway hadn't seen for many years. Word quickly passed up and down the street and by 3:00 that afternoon, everyone who had ever been in Dinkys during the past year was at the party. Everyone, that is, except for one person. Jake.
"Hey, Darla, I don't know how Jake could miss this party."
"Well, don't worry about it, Randy. I'm sure Jake had something better to do."
"But Thelma's his friend. It's not like Jake to turn his back on a friend."
"Maybe Jake did hear about the party, Randy. Did you think about that?"

If anyone has a question, type it in the comment box and I will answer as soon as possible. And a special thanks to those of you who have been following my indulgences.