Dear Friends, Family, and Righteous Supporters,

For the last ten years, you've been amazingly supportive of my annual crazy writing endeavor known as National Novel Writing Month. You've lived through the manic periods, the sudden disappearances, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth when my plot failed me.

You are rock stars, and I thank you.

Four years ago, with your support and the pressure of the 30 day deadline, I wrote the beginning of a rough draft. That beginning became HIs Good Opinion, and now, 6000 sales later, I am still amazed by what a little perseverance, a lot of hard work, and tons and tons of encouragement can bring about.

Now, I'm asking for your support in yet another way. On November 18, the Office of Letters and Light will be bringing together the most mighty of endurance novelists for an event that will define our generation forever.

I'm speaking, of course, of National Novel Writing Month's Night of Writing Dangerously. It's a write-a-thon, and it will take place at the beautiful Julia Morgan Ballroom in downtown San Francisco. With your help, I can be sitting in one of these empty seats, writing my heart out and raising money for the Office of Letters and Light, NaNoWriMo's parent nonprofit.

Attendees like me must raise $250 to get in the door, and from there, a rich array of prizes, delicious food, and sumptuous writing time awaits. But this is not about me getting a treat-filled night of literary abandon. This is about children and adults getting the encouragement, structure, and inspiration they need to achieve their creative potential. Proceeds from the event will fund National Novel Writing Month's free creative writing programs in hundreds of schools and communities around the world.

I have a folder filled with stories just like this--stories I wrote and kept because all of you made me believe I could be a writer one day. Well, now I am--and I want to help this amazing organization that helps make other kids believe in themselves as well.

And NaNoWriMo is about more than just believing you can write. Some people get to the end of the month and realize they never want to write another thing, ever. However, the experience of writing a book in a month has taught them that they can do bigger things than they ever thought possible, if they just set their minds to it. Maybe one of those never-again novelists will go on to solve cold fusion and win the Nobel Prize for Physics! Once you teach your brain to think past impossibilities, fantastic things can happen.

The Office of Letters and Light does inspiration like nobody else, and on their behalf, I am asking you to donate.

Also, I will let you touch my raffle prizes if I win some.

Thank you for supporting me in my novel-writing quest, and for helping the Office of Letters and Light create a more engaged and inspiring world.