NaNoWriMo Book Launch @ Mendocino Hotel

Thursday, May 17, 2018, 6-7 pm

Open to the public

For the fifth year in a row, Fort Bragg Library and the Friends of the Fort Bragg Library have teamed up to sponsor NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and this year, out of 57 participants, we are pleased to present 45 newly published authors, all under the age of 18!

Although some of the youth authors joined NaNoWriMo as independents, most are students attending Three Rivers Charter School. For the past 5 years, the school’s 5th through 8th graders, beginning in September, have novel writing built into their curriculum. As soon as school starts in the fall, the students begin planning their themes, characters, word count goals and outlines for their novels in preparation for writing in November.  Once November arrives, students write each day in the process of achieving their novel’s word count goals. When the month is over, the students spend the following month working on editing and refining their stories. Once editing is complete, all of the stories are forwarded to Amie McGee at Fort Bragg Library who does the final editing and formatting of the novels and helps the kids select their cover art. Then, with financial backing from Friends of the Fort Bragg Library, the novels are sent off to the printers returning a few weeks later as full fledged books, ISBNs and all.

To celebrate these remarkable student authors and all their hard work, we have planned a NaNoWriMo Book Launch Party, May 17, 2018, from 6-7 pm at Mendocino Hotel in Mendocino. Hosted by Writers of the Mendocino Coast and Fort Bragg Library, the Launch Party festivities will include some of the students reading excerpts from their novels, author signings, photo ops and cake (what’s a party without cake?). We’d love to have you join us to revel in their incredible achievements  After all, how many other small communities the size of Fort Bragg has this many published authors under the age of 18?

For more information, you can contact the library at Fort Bragg Library, 964-2020.

Scenes from the 2017 Launch Party