During the month of November aspiring novelists flock to the literary rompus room known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The jubilant come and the prolific and plucky stay to take on the NaNoWriMo challenge: write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November.

A NaNo veteran with an itch to see my own country, I opted in 2001 to write my novel while driving from Washington DC to San Francisco. Hoping to meet other NaNo writers while on the road, I posted my itinerary on the NaNoWriMo website.

No one foresaw 2001 as being the year NaNoWriMo would erupt, take on a life as independent and wily as kudzu, but indeed... the Internet found us. From 150 participants in 2000, NaNoWriMo sign-ups shot to 5,000 in 2001. And the numbers stopped there only because Chris Baty, the Ring Master of NaNoWriMo, pulled the plug on registrants. In his own words, " When I disabled the sign-up button, it was like raising the drawbridge as the Huns rushed in."

As Chris was deluged with sign-ups, my Inbox brimmed with emails from the world over suggesting that NaNo Across America (as my pilgrimage came to be known) visit their town. Read accounts of my novel writing odyssey.

Philly New York Boston Pennsylvania Ohio Nashville New Orleans Baton Rouge Austin Blanco El Paso Los Angles

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