I blame MSN Messenger. Well, maybe it was my friend who used the messenger as the conduit for her crazy idea. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly her crazy idea, but she did tell me about it. Millions of people writing fifty-thousand words in thirty days. During the month of November. Yep, November–you know, that month where you’re pretty much going non-stop from dawn until dusk for a whole week doing preparations for Thanksgiving? Yeah. That month.
So, like any rational and intelligent author, I went over to the NaNoWriMo (NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth) website and signed up. That was October 2006. I haven’t missed a year doing NaNoWriMo books since, although last year I didn’t get my words validated in time. Killed my “winning streak” but at least I know I actually DID the work. That counts in my book.
You can see my list of NaNoWriMo book (s) HERE. I won’t rehash them in this post. Needless to say, I began with the book that eventually became Discovering Hope, and this year I’m doing Flipping Hearts.
Later in the podcast, I talked about how every October 31, I spend the day cleaning my house and that night I eat Chinese food, hand out candy to kids, and write my annual parody. Here’s a list of those parodies!
- The Night before Nano (A “T‘was the Night Before Christmas” parody)
- The Raven (as in Poe’s, of course)
- Tease (as in Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees”)
- Till November (A “My Grandfather’s Clock” parody)
- Goin’ on a Book Hunt (Going on a Bear Hunt parody)
- Winking, Blinking, and Nod (ing)(Wynken, Blynken, and Nod)
Without further ado, books that were once NaNoWriMo book (s) you can read TODAY.
Janine Rosche: This Wandering Heart: 2018 Nano and released this year to rave reviews.
I guess you could say I started my nanowrimo book Nov. 1st 2018, got a contract with Berkley in March 2019, and it was published 2020. 2019’s book, is available on preorder—Glory Falls—third in the series— releases in January 2021
Two people scarred by past trauma have a chance to write a new chapter in their lives, overcome loss, and find love in the third entry in the Madison River Romance series.
Carolyn Miller:
My 5th novel Miss Serena’s Secret was a NaNo project, written just after I finished writing Winning Miss Winthrop. I was so inspired I wrote 80k words in 30 days!
Toni Shiloh: The Maple Run series (Buying Love, Enduring Love, Risking Love)
Jennifer Lamont Leo:
My 2016 debut novel, You’re the Cream in My Coffee, began life as a Nano project. And my 2019 Nano project, The Rose Keeper, will release in March 2021.
Regina Walker: We Go On
Writing in NaNo gives me permission to spend a month totally consumed by writing and letting things slide. I get back to “normal” (whatever that is) after the month us up. But my family all knows I’m pretty much in book mode during NaNo and one of the camps.
And I get to write the way I like (which tends toward obsessively). That style doesn’t work 12 months a year with a husband and 7 kids. But for a month I can feed them easy dinners and kind of glide on everything to do this thing I LOVE.
Cathe Swanson: Her only NaNoWriMo book in print is Baggage Claim but she’s got others in the wings she’s editing and such. Seriously, you’ve got to read this book!
Bethany Turner:
Wooing Cadie McCaffrey and Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish were… though I failed horribly at NaNo both times! ????? Starting again today!
Carol Moncado:
This is my 14th year. 9 of those 13 have been published in one form or another. 1-2 more may be completely revamped someday. 2 are unlikely to ever be.
I nano because that’s where I started writing for real and started thinking this was a thing I might be able to do.
My most important NaNo was around 2017 when I skipped two books ahead and wrote the bulk of The Indentured Queen. It has a character named and fashioned after my dying second cousin, and I wanted more than anything to get him a paper copy ASAP. It had gaps in the middle, but most of it was there, and he got to hold a copy six weeks or so before he passed. I know he read some of it but don’t know that he finished.
Joanna Politano:
A Rumored Fortune (my review is here) was a long-ago one that eventually was rewritten. The Love Note was last year’s. Well, 50k of it
Micki Clark: Don’t Ask Me to Leave— a modern Ruth and Boaz Retelling.
GOTTA READ THIS BOOK. SO adorable Made it halfway before I had to stop and the COVER.
Anne Perrault: An Unusual Adventure
I didn’t do much other than sleep and write that month lol.
Naomi Musch:
These three of mine (are NaNoWriMo book (s): The Deepest Sigh, The Love Coward, A Tender Siege (part of The Highlanders collection). Two others currently out of print that I hope to bring back.
Logan Judy:
Two of mine, actually. One, An Exalted Depravity (published in 2016, but was my 2014 project), and second, A Prison in the Sky, which is releasing here in about a week (was my 2015 project).
I…take a long time to edit
Kari Trumbo: Kari, being the prolific gal she is, shared her NaNoWriMo project page with us!
Sondra Kraak: One Plus One Equals Trouble
My debut One Plus One Equals Trouble was a NaNo baby in 2015 and several others in the series since. I’m sad not to be doing it this year but I’m taking a few months off writing to take care of all the projects that built up in my list. I’m feeling sentimental about all these other writers participating! There will be another November…
Joanne Markey: Dreaming of More
Joanne is an Aussie transplant to the Midwest. She’s a homeschooling mom of a passel (seven or eight) children and writes delightful romance. Dreaming of More is her NaNoWriMo book. A fun tip about Joanne: her husband isn’t just the illustrator of HER novels, he’s the primary illustrator of my Marriages of Conviction series AND of the upcoming Ever After Mysteries!
Amanda Cox: The Edge of Belonging
This is one of those books that I keep seeing EVERYWHERE. I mean, you can’t blink without someone saying, “Read this book!”
So, I read the preview on Amazon. Bought the book. I’m dying to know what happens next.
Piper Dow: Shades of Deception
Fun fact, her daughter is on the cover of her book and another daughter will be on the cover of an upcoming one!
M.A.Malcolm: His Last Hope
My debut novel “His Last Hope” (M. A. Malcolm). I started it in 2009 and then scrapped it and started from scratch for my first NaNoWriMo in 2013. It was a NaNoWinner. I then added another 39,000 words and published it in 2015.
List of others written during NaNoWriMo:
Ruth Buchanan: Collapsible and Flexible were both Nano babies! (These sound HILARIOUS!)
Judy Ducharme: Blood Moon Redemption
Shawna Robison Young: The Unsuspecting Heather Meyers
Tari Faris: You Belong with Me was her first NaNo project back In 2011. It’s on my shelf to read. SQUEE!
Alyssa Tillet: Waves of Change
Jane Lebak: Shattered Walls, With Two Eyes into Gehenna, Forever and for Keeps, and Relic of His Heart were all Nano projects to start with. Oh, and Sacred Cups, too.
Julie Arduini: Entrusted
Robin Patchen: Finding Amanda (Read the synopsis. AAAK! MUST READ)
Valerie Comer: Sprouts of Love (2016) and Raindrops on Radishes (2018).
Evelyn Grace: Seascapes (Psst… sounds GOOD)
Annette M. Irby: Her Washington Island Series
Christen Krumm: It Happened at Christmas (a YA twist on While You Were Sleeping!)
Cathryn Brown: Accidentally Matched
Jessica White: Song in the Dark
(Have to share the synopsis. It sounds so good!)
On the other side of darkness lies freedom …
Hades/Persephone Inspired Romantic Suspense
After graduating from Juilliard, harpist Jenna Fields returns home to Albany to escape her manipulative ex. But coming home means dealing with her mother who has orchestrated every detail of Jenna’s life. Waiting for a job offer that will allow her to escape New York and build a life of her own, Jenna volunteers to raise money for a local charity.
Homicide detective Dean Blackburn spends his days seeking justice for the dead. But death taints everything including him. When his three Dobermans lead him to Jenna, he tries to resist the little siren. She not only starts a fire in his heart but brings light and joy to his lonely world.
When her world crumbles beneath her feet and her dark secret revealed, Dean helps Jenna see that the key to escaping her mother’s gilded cage is already in her hands.
Julie Carobini: Mocha Sunrise
But, there’s one more way to look at this. Not all authors are keen on the idea of NaNoWriMo.
Jaycee Weaver: Whatever Happens Next. She says she writes slower for NaNo—likely all the pressure that doesn’t suit her recovering perfectionist tendencies. She’s not trying it again, but I may be able to talk her into Camp Nano–less stress, more flexibility!
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