Ha, no I'm a bloke; I must have confused you by using the female pronoun for authors (one thing I like about being here is that you outnumber us by at least 2:1 ).

I was just trying to watch my behaviour in the Reception area, in case it was only for requests for access to the office

So, if I understand you right, I should just open an Item for each exercise each day, and set it to access by the Prep group only; then you will see it in my Port; EXCEPT for Contest Round entries, which I should post in THIS (public) forum in the way you have shown? Only Prep members can open the Item. This is good: the fewer people for whom I spoil the story, the better.

The only way I plan to 'cheat' is by getting through some of the challenges in advance, if I can, to help keep the dreaded daily guillotine at bay.

As NaNo is a nonprofit, and seems to be run by nice people, I won't join the rebels. Thanks for explaining!