For my Wrimos!

Or anyone who thinks they might want to do NaNoWriMo, here's the official (and rather idealized) way your month is going to go:

November 1: Join the round-the-clock writing @NaNoWordSprints. Hit 1,667 words for the first time. Rejoice. Then keep writing.

November 3: Check your on-site NaNoMail for a pep talk. All 2011 pep talks and most HQ announcements will be sent to your NaNoMail this month. (You can also set your notification preferences to receive an email when new NaNoMail is delivered to your inbox.)

November 4: If you're a donor, receive Founder and Executive Director (and marmot-whisperer) Chris Baty's first November Bonus Donor Pep Talk. If you're not a donor, contribute just $10 or more to get weekly November encouragement from Chris. From December 2011-September 2012, you'll also receive monthly revision pep talks from published Wrimos! Donate today!

November 5: Take full advantage of this first weekend. While your novel is young and your senses remain sharp, aim for a couple of 5,000-word days!

November 7: Participate in the first “Back Up Your Novel Day” of the month. Explore NaNoLand further and visit the Young Writers Program website.

November 8: Check out the first week of 30 Covers, 30 Days over on the OLL Blog. 30 designers are creating 30 book covers based on the plot synopses of Wrimos' NaNo-novels!

November 10: Watch Tavia's NaNoVideo Dares and incorporate your favorite one into the next scene of your novel.

November 11: Set a weekend goal to hit 22,000 before you go to bed on Sunday night.

November 12: Drop a bomb on your story. Not necessarily a literal bomb; it could be a plague, a rabid dog with a vendetta, or a miraculous rain shower of sparkly gift-granting silk worms. Mix it up!

November 13: Reward yourself for hitting 22,000 words. You eat novels for breakfast!

November 14: It's “Back Up Your Novel Again Day.” Back up that novel. Again!

November 15: Kick up your heels and do a jig for reaching the mid-point of the month. Check your regional lounge for a local Midway Party in a neighborhood near you.

November 16: It's Donation Day, a public-radio-style fundraiser. If you haven't already, make a small donation to keep our servers running and our free creative writing programs strong for another year.

November 18: Take a mini-break from your novel to celebrate Occult Day. Check your horoscope, make a potion, or even better, have your main character do both. (Also, congratulate yourself for skipping National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day on November 15.)

November 21: You guessed it! “Back Up Your Novel Yet Again Day” is upon us, and you must back up your novel. Yet again.

November 22: To commemorate ML Appreciation Day and recognize the valiant efforts of your Municipal Liaison, send your regional volunteer(s) a NaNoMail message, or post a thanks in your regional forum.

November 24: Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. HQ is closed until Monday, November 28.

November 25: Winning begins on NaNoWriMo.org. Go ahead and claim your Winner's shirt in the store! (With that magical talisman, you're sure to hit 50K by midnight on November 30!)

November 27: You can't believe there are only four days left to finish your novel. Then you remember that you have nothing to worry about! You're all caught up at 46,676 words. (And if you're not, take a break and re-read all of the pep talks from the month. Feeling rejuvenated, word-sprint your way to 45K and grab a big ol' treat for your efforts.)

November 28: Back up your novel even more, because, well, it's “Back Up Your Novel Even More Day”! (Can you tell we really care about backing up your masterpiece?)

November 29: Mark your calendar for your region's TGIO party. The end is near.

November 30: Write, write, write until you hit 50,000. Upload your novel and get whisked to the Winner Goodies page. Print your Winner's Certificate, and do a happy dance.

December 1: Give that hamster a treat. He's been a champ.

Aaaaand here's the slightly more realistic version:



See you guys Monday night!

10/27 Meeting Recap

-Longhorn Halloween is THIS SUNDAY at the Frank Erwin Center from 2-5. If you couldn't make it to the meeting last night and have any costumes or books you want to bring, you can stop by our booth between 1:15-1:45, or post on Facebook and we'll see if someone can meet you today or tomorrow. Also, if you have any HP-themed decorations we could borrow for our booth, bring those too!
-We'll be making a trip to Half Price Books tomorrow to get books for Longhorn Halloween. If you want to come, meet at the Barbara Jordan statue at 12. If you have any books you want to trade in, bring those with you.
-Thanks to everyone who signed up for a Yule Ball ticket! If you paid last night, you are awesome, and we'll have an actual ticket for you soon. If you didn't pay, remember to bring your money next week!
-Film Committee is showing Deathly Hallows Part 2 next Thursday at 8, which means we're switching up next week's meeting a bit. We'll be meeting at 6:30 in BUR 136 for a quick update on what's going on, then we'll head down to South Mall early to get good seats. Bring a blanket and something to eat/share!
-Wrimos! We will be having a midnight kick-off with UT's Frenzied Novelists on Halloween. Meet at the Wendy's in the Union at 11:45. For those more inclined to sleep, they will be having an official kick-off the next day at 7 in PAR 101. Every Tuesday and Thursday after that, anyone who wants to can meet at Bennu Coffee (MLK & Poquito, east of 35) at 7 for a write-in.
-You can still sign up to help at the SEC Harry Potter Fest! See Cheyenne's post here: http://keepaustinwizard.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween.html

Hufflepuff/ Slytherin Tshirt problems

Hello HPAers!

As you all know, the officers listened to you when you said you wanted four separate House tshirts. However, a problem has arisen regarding payment.

If you are in Hufflepuff or Slytherin, and have not paid for your shirt, you are keeping everyone else from getting their shirt. The tshirt cost for these two Houses has risen above $12 because people who said they wanted a shirt have not paid, which means we don't have enough money to order the four different designs.

So, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, if you said you wanted a shirt. get your money in! Otherwise, we will start hounding you individually.

Yule Ball Updates!

Hey guys! So the Yule Ball is slowly but surely coming together and we've got a couple of big announcements.

1) We will be starting our ticket pre-sale for HPA and Quidditch members this week! Here's how it works: At the meeting on Thursday, we'll be taking down names of everyone who wants a ticket. If you can pay for your ticket right there ($12 each), that's perfect. If you don't have the money with you, we'll hold your ticket for one week. Pay for it at the next meeting and you're good to go. If you don't have the money then, we'll have to take your name off the list. Note: This does NOT mean you can't buy a ticket; it just means we can't hold your spot. Due to limited space in the ballroom, we have to cap the number of tickets, and while I seriously doubt we're going to be selling out any time soon we also don't want to have some tickets on hold indefinitely and turn down people who want to go. For those who can't make the meetings, we'll be selling tickets on West Mall with Quidditch in the afternoons starting next week.

2) To help keep down costs and make this ball even more awesome, we will be having a dessert potluck! The Union catering service unfortunately does not offer any wizard delicacies, so we have to make due on our own. Those who feel so inclined are more than welcome to bring a batch of chocolate wands or peppermint toads (or Muggle treats too!). We'll have a sign up sheet at the meeting where you can put down what you think you'll want to make. Obviously with a month to go you can change your mind, just please let us know! We want to make sure we don't end up with twenty batches of butterbeer cookies. :)

If you have any questions, post in comments or send us an email. See you all on Thursday!

Halloween

Attention witches and wizards!!

So I know Halloween is a wizard's favorite holiday and the lovely Student Event Center is catering to us magical folk by reminding us of our true home; Hogwarts! On October 31st (it's a Monday, so.....) the SAC will be transfiguring into HOGWARTS! We're talking triwizard tournament mazes, butterbeer, wizards roaming the halls, the whole shebang! But these muggles can't handle this by themselves and the Student Event Center could really use our help with everything. It's an all day event, from 10am-7pm, so if you would like to help out whenever you can, please put your name on this cool muggle contraption called a google spreadsheet I just learned how to make. The events happening on Halloween are already all planned out, so depending on when you're free, you will be assigned to a certain job.

Here's the sheet if you would like to sign up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al6sS-_yhLG5dGJEbE93RWJzY05KNEd0Q1QxNlA5Vnc#gid=0

Thanks guys! :)

UPDATE: Here's a list of the events happening on Halloween according to time, so depending on when you sign up, here's an idea of what you will be doing:

11AM - 7PM: Honeydukes Sweet Shop at the SAC Ticket Booth

11AM, 1PM, 3PM, 5:30, 6:30: Harry Potter Trivia in Room 1.118

12:30, 2:15, 6:30PM: Defense against the Dark Arts Class in Room 2.120

1PM, 4PM, 7PM: Horcrux Scavenger Hunt in the SAC Auditorium

4PM-8PM: Photobooth and temporary Dark Mark tattoos in Room 1.106

5PM-7PM: Tri-Wizard Maze in the Black Box Theater (Room 2.304)

6PM-8PM: Potions Class in the Legislative Assembly Room (2.302)

7PM-8PM: Costume contest and Yule Ball in the SAC Ballroom

10/20 Meeting Recap

• Longhorn Halloween is next Sunday, October 30, from 2-5. Currently all our slots for working the booth are filled, but if you're interested let me know and we'll notify you if someone has to drop. That being said, we do need wizardly clothes (robes, scarves, ties, hats, wands, etc.) for the relay race and books (preschool through middle grade) for prizes. If you have anything that would work, let us know. You can bring books and clothes to next week's meeting or to the booth by 1:30 the day of (if you're doing the latter, please let us know ahead of time). I should note that you WILL get the clothes back, we just need to borrow them for a few hours. We're also looking to make a trip to Half Price Books before Longhorn Halloween to get some cheap kids' books. More details to come, but if you want to come along let us know what days work best for you.
• NaNoWriMo is almost upon us! For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is a time for the truly masochistic to face down sleepless nights, failing grades, and imminent doom as we try to crank out a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. If you're doing NaNo this year (or if you want to give it a try), the UT Frenzied Writers group is hosting a plotting party this coming Tuesday from 7-10 in Parlin 101. They'll also be having periodic write-ins throughout the month. If you guys are interested, I'd love to host an HPA write-in as well, so if you feel like downing some butterbeer and trying to get out your daily 1667 words, let me know!
• Two weeks from today (Nov 3), Film Committee is screening Deathly Hallows Part 2 outdoors on the South Mall! We'll be meeting at 6:30 that evening to go over some quick updates, then we'll head down to the South Mall early to get good seats and have a picnic dinner. The movie starts at 8, so if you can't make the picnic you can join us later!
  

Shirt Money

This is the LAST WEEK we will be accepting money for shirts! If you ordered a shirt but haven't paid yet, bring $12 cash to the meeting tomorrow or email me to set up a time with one of the officers!

Quidditch Concessions

Okay, here's the current list of what we'll need for concessions for next week's Quidditch match. This list will probably change as we finalize exactly what we'll be selling, so keep checking. If there are major changes, I'll post an updated version. Please sign up for something! You don't need to be able to come to the Quidditch game to sign up.

Keep Austin Wizard has a new home!

Hey guys! Welcome to Keep Austin Wizard's new site. The format of the Facebook group is just too frustrating to deal with, for you guys and us, so we won't be using it as much anymore. We will be keeping it up for quick announcements or random fun stuff, so feel free to keep posting there, but for major announcements, meetings recaps, event planning and the like, we wanted a site where the posts stay in the same order and when all else fails there's an archive. The Facebook group should update when a new post goes up here, but I'd follow the blog directly just in case (considering the reason we're moving is because Facebook posts tend to get lost). Anywho, if you have any questions let us know!