5 Things You Need to Know Today: Oct. 10

Here are five things you should know as you start your Wednesday.

1. So you want to write a novel. November is National Novel Writing Month! Head to the library tonight from 7-8 to learn about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a novel-writing program with the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. At this information session successful "Wrimos" will talk about their past experiences, review the many online resources available to participants and about NaNoWriMo events that will be held at the Merrimack Library. Light refreshments will be served. Registration helpful but not required. Read more about NaNoWriMo online.

2. Historical Society meeting. A quick note for anyone planning to attend this month's Historical Society meeting. The meeting will be at the Historical Society on Oct. 16, not Swan Chocolates as was posted recently in the local newspapers. The meeting of Nov. 20 will be held at Swan's.

3. Get fit. Mark your running calendar to join James Mastricola Upper Elementary School for the second annual Harvest 3K on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 9 a.m. Run starts on the JMUES softball field. Donations of any amount are welcome. Checks may be made payable to JMUES PFA. All students need to be accompanied by an adult and it's asked that participants please do not park in church parking lot. Proceeds to benefit the school's physical education program.

4. Don't just read Patch, contribute to it! Did you know that by registering with Patch, you can not only get a newsletter in your e-mail each morning with the top news from the last 24 hours, but it opens the doors to a number of ways for you to contribute to what's on the site? Register with your email and create a password and you can post events to our calendar, upload photos and videos to our galleries and share announcements with the Patch community. Best of all? There's no cost to register or share with Patch. Click "Sign Up" at the top of this page and instantly become a Patch contributor!

5. Weather watch. A slight chance of showers after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 64. Light and variable wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.Wednesday Night A chance of showers, mainly before 1 a.m. Patchy fog before 3am. Otherwise, cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 42.