It is time to buckle down and prep for NaNoWriMo!
(I’ve actually been prepping since this summer when an idea came to me, and I started running to and fro with it.)
This year I am writing the first book in a series of mysteries. I was inspired by the audiobook work on the Viola Roberts Cozy Mysteries Series. This November I will be exploring the community of period re-creation societies and what sorts of things can go wrong putting together a little weekend event.
Maybe that sounds SUPER BORING to you, but I guarantee it isn’t. Organizations like Renaissance Faires, The Jane Austen Society of North America, and the Society for Creative Anachronism began as all-volunteer groups that functioned solely because their members LOVED them. People devoted thousands of hours, the sweat of their brow, maybe a little blood, and for sure bucketloads of tears to keep these organizations running.
I have served on a few different non-profit boards. Some were historical and costume related; some related to things like conservation and animal care. I volunteer for a variety of organizations and I’ve run a lot of events.
During various stints, I have met people passionate enough to participate in non-profit guidance. Most of them are wackos, like me. Participating on a non-profit board attracts certain people with a unique set of KSAs (knowledge, skills, abilities). There is a desire to serve within the non-profit sector that keeps members involved in a unique way…a way that often includes entanglement so deep that a person’s self-concept and self-worth, not to mention social support group, becomes completely enmeshed.
The personalities and politics within communities of people wedded together by a shared geekery fascinate me. What happens when diverse individuals have to work together just because they have one thing in common? And what happens when a truly EVIL person is thrown into the mix of a lot of good hearted, quirky personalities…I can’t wait to start writing and find out! Bwahahahaha!!!!
What do you think?