The Napa Valley Register reports that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is officially over now and there is a winner: Mark Hiza.
Thirty days and 713,416,694 words later, National Novel Writing Month is officially over.
NaNoWriMo, as it's known, is November's month-long writing marathon during which writers each attempt a 50,000 word novel. The competition that began in the Bay Area in 1999 as a lark between a small group of friends has grown exponentially each year since then. This month, nanowrimo.org reported that 59,000 people around the world participated in the literary journey, with 9,700 reaching the 50,000 word goal and "winning" the contest. Three of those 59,000 scribes are right here in Napa.
Napan Mark Hiza has "won" his second NaNoWriMo, finishing with 50,104 words, and earning an official nanowrimo winner certificate. His novel, "The Long Journey," begins with a blast:
"Another day starts with a salvo of gunshots, a deafening noise so regularly heard that most people in this neighborhood of mixed two-story brownstones use it as an alarm clock." Hiza's novel continues, telling the story of an encounter between a mysterious Italian woman and an inner-city emergency room doctor.
Congratulations to all the writers that completed the challenge!
