In October 1990, my family had reason to be both ecstastic and mournful. Ecstastic because I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mournful because my uncle Luis had died of AIDS.

I never met my uncle, but my parents always tell me I would have liked him. He liked books and owls, just like I do. He had a huge collection of old books, just like I do. And he wore glasses just like I do.

Of course, what's to say we would have gotten along based on those silly facts? I still like to think we would though.

I've been wanting to raise some money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust since I heard about their Freddie For A Day event. It's an amazing charity that fights AIDS worldwide and it has ties with my favourite charity here in Brazil, Viva Cazuza. 

So this week I found out about NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org). It's an online competition (only in the sense of the word you don't really win anything) to get you to write 50k words in one month to compile a rough draft of a novel. I was going to do it anyway, but I thought this was my chance to make a difference and use my powers for good. And if I have the weight of raising money on my shoulders, I'll actually write, because this is an extremely important cause for me.

This means I have to write AT LEAST 1,700 words every day, even weekends. This is in ADDITION to my freelance and reporter work, which I'm really digging into right now.

Anyway, I don't want to ask you to give me loads of money. I know times are hard. Just a few pounds/dollars/reais will do. Like a couple. Or just one.

I will post updates of my word count plus excerpts (I warn you, they will be badly written and unedited) here and on my NaNoWriMo page (my user name is nicolehf, so add me if you're on it). I start writing on the first of November, so be on the look out to make sure I make some progress!

Thank you for reading.

Nicole