November 3

New York

So I got to New York ... but just barely. The signs on 95 north assured me that I should take 195 in order to get back onto 95.

All was well for a time. Until I found myself in the middle of nowhere with no signs and no stores and no people. Except for one guy outside working on his truck. He and his sister, who was very focused on cleaning plaque from her teeth, were nice enough to give me directions. I jotted them down, jumped in my car, and drove away quickly. Looking at the map while safely in New York, I still have no idea where I was.

By the time I got to the Lotus Club I was kind of tired and kind of cranky and was wandering around the Lower East Side thinking "The New Yorkers aren't going to come. They have other things to do on a Saturday and all this beautiful weather will make them forget about Nanowrimo."

I walked around, hands jammed into my pockets, feeling sorry for myself and a little bit lonely. But the New Yorkers proved me to be very, very wrong. They showed up in droves. We filled the whole Stanton street side of the club. There must have been 20 or more, and we must have been there for three hours or more.

And the New Yorkers did another thing ... they laughed at me when I asked where their laptops were. "Write?! I'm here to drink!" So we drank and talked about our novels and how each person discovered nano. My favorite comment of the night was from Sarah Gray who said, "I have no plot and no character, but I have 3600 words."