Hey!
It's back up!
Apparently Mr. Jacques is writing one of the pep talks! (So are Meg Cabot, Katherine Paterson and Phillip Pullman, but I won't hold that against NaNo, they're good writers in technique, even if you couldn't get me to touch another one of their books with a ten-foot-pole.) I find it telling that the only one I recognize of the list who writes for adults reqularly is the SciFi writer, and I've never read any of his work.
Anyways.
Mr. Jacques, Lloyd Alexander, J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are the authors I remember reading and liking the most when I was thirteen-fourteen-fifteen. I, like a large part of my friend's list, created my own Redwall characters, though (thank goodness) I didn't hit the internet proper (as a contributor, that is) until...oh...fall of 2003 seems right, so none of my atrocious writing showed up to embarrass me five years later. Redwall seems to be a book series that appeals to a wide range of young readers, even though part of me will sadly admit that the books haven't been the same (or, well, they've been too much the same) since Triss. (some will argue earlier, but post-Triss is where I went "...ok, sir, please, I love you but find a different plot point once in a while, please? Pretty please?")
...what this all boils down to is that I have the urge to create a new Redwall fan character and possibly write about her for NaNo. We'll have to see where this goes, as I feel as if I'm slowly going mad again.
Why?
Because the character who popped into my head is a capybara named Camila.
ALRIGHT THEN, imagination! You carry on making my life more interesting in strange and unusual ways!