Just Beggin' for It

[#1]

I'm one of the authors of Romance Unleashed the group that started Unleash Your Story. I'd just like to thank Michelle for her involvement and for setting a great pace for us.

My personal goal fo the event is 15,000 words written and $500 raised.

I'm sure I'll be giving up cooking dinner. Fortunately, my husband is a great cook. And one month of take-out won't kill us, right?

[#2]

And I'm another of the authors in Romance Unleashed saying hi to Michelle and thank you for letting readers know about the fundraiser. It really is a lot of fun. When the idea first came up, I thought it was kind of ....goofy.

Turns out it's fabulous and it WORKS. I finished writing a novel last year and raised about $500 for CFF.

Since the subject of Who Does What has been brought up, UYS is almost completely Teresa Bodwell's project. She does almost all the work on it from the website to keeping track of our numbers and I'd like to say thank her for coming up with the idea and pushing to make it happen. I feel privileged to call her friend.

[#3]

Kate, I'm glad you mentioned Teresa in this mix, cause I can shoot her an email any time day/night, and I rec've one back immediately. It's as if she lives/breathes this event most of the year. 

It's amazing that you finished a novel during this last year -- and managed to raise so much in donations!  I wonder how many other success stories happened during UYS 08 -- and how many more will happen this year.

[#4]

Teresa, it's really my pleasure, though I'm still pretty sure you could have come up with someone more charming and talented for the Pacesetter position.  Maybe everyone else was on vacation when you were doing the asking.  Although, you never mentioned whether there's an official UYS tiara that comes with the honorary title...

Maybe we could come up w/a special category for spouses and partners of participants. They could raise funds based on number of thinkgs not done by UYS participants: i.e. # of meals not cooked, loads of laundry not washed, numbers of showers not taken (that's my category, but maybe other folks actually bathe even though they work from home)...

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Message Edited by Michelle_Buonfiglio on 08-24-2009 03:27 PM

[#5]

Michelle--If we make our $23,000 goal, I will see to it that you get a tiara!

This event is definitely a team effort. Our motto is a lot of people each doing a little bit will help us reach our goal. All of the Romance Unleashed authors participate in the event, digging up prizes, helping spread the word and some even lead their own teams. I may be the loudest voice or the biggest nag.

There may be a long list of household chores that doesn't get done. But one cool thing that does happen is books get written. Our Pacesetter author, Lori Wilde expects to finish a draft of her second Avon book during the month.  As far as I'm concerned getting a few more books for us to read is way more important than laundry and dishes being washed.

[#6]

Okay, so I'm on the team, Michelle (boy howdy, am I stupid about filling out internet forms). Let's go raise us some money.

I remember as a kid CF being a "death by age 16" diagnosis. Things are certainly different now. Research--good old, basic, thorough scientific research led by America's indepent educational programs and made possible by gifts large and small--has made the difference.

Sure, I'm married to one of those scientific researchers (Dr. Stevens's lab is working on epilepsy and autism) but has nothing to do with my opinions on these matters.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

[#7]

I was on Tessa Dare's team last year -- at least, she was the one who emailed me with updates -- but I'll sign on for your team this year, Michelle.

I'm not sure how to keep track of the word counts for my comment posts, so I'll go with a combined word count for my non-fiction articles, my blogs (I write a couple of them) and my fiction writing. I'm going to go with 30,000 words written as my goal.

I normally read about 10,000 words a month (25 books/400 pages, average) but since writing can cut into my reading time, I'm going to reduce that to 8,000 words read or, roughly, 20 books.

And hopefully I can raise $250, at least. 

[#8]

I just signed up and posted my info on my blog at www.beckemartin.com (my pen name). It looks like it can take 24 hours for a donation to show up.

[#9]

Thanks for participating, Keri and Becke!

Tessa Dare and her Chocolate Mafia are back this year. I just got a report from CFF today and I need to update our website with all the teams that have registered.

Just to make the math easier we are doing reading in terms of pages. So--there is no need to convert your pages read into a number of words. If, for example, you read a 350 page paperback, then read an 800 page hardback that is 1150 words. Most likely those two books have a different number of words per page. It would just be too complicated to figure it all out, so our rule is--just count your pages read.

As far as donations showing up on the CFF website, it can take as much as 2 or 3 business days. I think it depends on how the credit cards get processed. I'm not sure how it all works. But if 3 business days pass and you don't see the donation, we can follow up on it for you. 

[#10]

If you have a website and would like to place an UYS bumper sticker on the site, go to our About page and scroll down. There is a code and some instructions for posting a bumper sticker that will link to your donation site.

[#11]

I'm signed-up for team RBTB, don't know what my goals are, my intitial goal was just to sign-up, so, yay, did that.

[#12]

I'm on the team too, my goal 10,000 words to read. Whew guess I'll have to give up sleep for a month. 

[#13]

Thanks, Debbie! Don't give up sleep, give up cleaning or something awful.   We'll have to find a place to share the names of the books we're reading so we don't miss out on any good ones.  Everything counts, including re-reads.

Excellent, amy! Thanks so much!  Who cares about details like goals anyway?

[#14]

Michelle -- I am SO excited you're a pacesetter for this year's Unleash Your Story campaign. What an incredible program this is, and what an incredible cheerleader/organizer our own Teresa Bodwell is. ;o)  Writers At Play has a team registered and I've just set my own writing goal -- 20,000 new words.  I'm thinking comedy. I miss funny. Anyway, here is to a great Unleash Your Story campaign and here's a HUGE thank you to you, Michelle, for being part of our efforts and success.

[#15]

Oh yeah, Debbie, like you don't read 10K a month already -- but now you're reading for a goal!

[#16]

yeah, becke, that's the thing! And, I'm saying that I'm giving up domestic stuff for this event, but truth of the matter is I gave that up a long time ago, it just worked out even better when I found romance books.

Hi, Kathleen!  Oh, yah, babee, do up the humor!  So great to see you here, and awesome that you WritersAtPlay.com babes have got a team shakin and bakin!

[#17]

I feel so registered!  I just registered for this blog and for UYS.  Yay!  Don't know what name will show up when I post here, though.  Sally MacKenzie was taken, so I had to go with Naked Sally.  Yes, that refers to my books, not me!

As another Romance Unleashed writer, I want to jump on the unleashed bandwagon and thank Michelle for being our reader pacesetter.  I know you'll do a superb job--almost as good as Teresa Bodwell did in getting me to finally get my act in gear and get over here.

I'm excited to be actually writing this year--durinig last year's event I was in the planning phase of a book.  But I'm a SLOW writer.  I don't work by word count, plus I'll be on the road for 10 days or so in the middle of September.   So my goal is a little different--to spend 3 hours a day when I'm home and at least 1 hour while I'm traveling grappling with the current book. 

Good luck to everyone--and spread the word!

[#18]

I just signed up for your team, MIchelle. I'll do my best to spread the word and help.

I need to get writing a lot more anyway.

[#19]

Awesome! Thank you so much, Ashley!  It helps me to have other folks doing it with me.  I'm really looking at those goals and goin', "what was I thinking?"  It is a great excuse to get to work!  For me, it forces me to read more, since I get so caught up in writing and doing the 'admin' thing...

Hi, Sally! We'll get you (and Ashley and other authors) all fixed up with cute red 'author' badges of honor. Or whatever you call em.  Thank you for putting this event together w/your fellow RU pals.  One of the neat things about this event, is that donors don't usually sponsor us by the word or page, they make an 'in good faith' sort of donation, one that says, 'I believe in this cause and am giving because I believe in you!" So they're sponsoring our attempt at reaching the goal, and our desire to be part of the solution. 

It's a shift in style of 'dollar per mile' fund raising we grew up with, but in many ways, it's way easier for donor and participant.And we all feel great being part of a great event that helps kids and adults who really need a cure found to help them live healthier and longer.

[#20]

Got my official totals today - 37,253 words written. Total pages read 6,766. Total money raised $190.

These were my goals:

"I'll go with a combined word count for my non-fiction articles, my blogs (I write a couple of them) and my fiction writing. I'm going to go with 30,000 words written as my goal. I normally read about 10,000 words a month (25 books/400 pages, average) but since writing can cut into my reading time, I'm going to reduce that to 8,000 words read or, roughly, 20 books.

And hopefully I can raise $250, at least."

So I exceeded my writing goals, but didn't quite make my reading goals or my fundraising goals. I'll have to push harder next year, but it was fun competing with everyone!