North Side Wrimos

I'm up in Cave Creek, and yes, I would be interested in meeting with other Nanowriters...maybe weekly?

Penny

I live at Cave Creek and the 101, so I consider that north. I would be up for meeting up as long as I'm not working. Work schedule is Tues - Sat 7am - 330pm.

I'm in!

New (ish) favorite writing spots include Scooters coffee house, which is on Cave Creek road and Desert Willow Parkway (between Tatum and Lone Mountain) and White August Tea, which is on Bell road and the 101. And there's always Starbucks/Borders/Barnes&Noble.

I live on 35th Ave, exactly half way between Greenway and Bell. Love to meet up with the North Side Wrimos.. This is my first year, so I'm a bit scared. NO! A LOT SCARED!
I met with the West Sidies yesterday, and we really enjoy ourselves and got lot's of information.
Looking forward to more information on the Northies.

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CAROL TREVILLION

I'm all for a north valley meetup-- they're much more convenient for me than most of the main Phoenix ones.

In terms of location, I'm fine with Starbucks, but I would love a more neighborhood coffeeshop kind of vibe. I'm not familiar with either place that Gamwyn mentioned, but according to Google Maps they both seem like good possibilities. I wasn't able to find any info about their hours of operation, though-- Gamwyn, do you know?

As to times, last year I think we picked out 3 different days/times per week, and then people just showed up whenever they could. If I'm remembering correctly, we decided to do it that way because we had people wanting weekends, weekdays, daytime, and evening, so we figured we'd cover all the bases.

Also (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but I think that our ML, rozeecheeks, asked that we not schedule non-official write-ins at the same time as the main Phoenix ones, so we should avoid Tuesday evening, Thursday midday, and Saturday morning if at all possible.

What does everyone think about setting up Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday times/places, and then people can show up as they please?

P.S.: Anyone interested in a north valley pre-NaNo plotting session? I have an extremely vague idea this year and need to nail down a number of things ASAP so I can hit the ground running.

I'm planning to spend Saturday and/or Sunday late afternoon (~after 4 pm) doing just that, so if anyone wants to join me, let me know. I was probably going to either go to the Starbucks at Kierland Commons or the one across from Desert Ridge, but now that Gamwyn has mentioned a teashop, I may have to go investigate.

This location is definitely convenient to me, and sounds like a cool place to hang out and write. If someone else has the initiative to specify a date and time to meet here, I'll certainly show up.

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There is a nice local coffee shop at 32nd and Union Hills also.

http://www.matadorcoffeeroastingco.com

I have been in there a few times and it's generally pretty quiet. They are pretty spacious from what I remember, but it looks like they have remodeled since the last time I have been there.

White August also looks nice. I drive buy that place all the time but always seem to be going the wrong direction easily get in there.

A few times to meet up would be nice. I liked the idea of a Sunday, Monday and Wednesday meeting setup. Anybody got any ideas on times that would be good to meet?

I have class Wednesday evenings and various other days. Any days that are convenient for the majority will be good. The Borders across from PV Mall is a good place as well. Whatever you can agree upon will be great and I will try to make some of them. It would be nice to get together before the madness begins.

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Once again I will attempt to reach the goal.

Ok, let's take a little survey and see what the majority of us would prefer as to dates, times, and locations.

Right now, I think most of us would probably prefer evening during the week and daytime during the weekend, but please correct me if I'm wrong. So, the days/times which seem best to me are:

Monday 6 pm to ?

Wednesday 6 pm to ?

Saturday or Sunday 1 pm to ?

(I put question marks as to ending time, since I know I personally would be there for ~3 hours at least, but I'm sure there are those who don't necessarily want marathon sessions)

The choice of location would then depend on what hours they are open. From poking around a bit, it seems that places like Starbucks or Borders are open the latest (til 9-11 pm, depending), whereas some of the fun independent coffee or tea places close a bit earlier. So I think we should go to the big guys during the week, so if people want to stay until 9 or 10 or whenever they can, and then on the weekend a little guy.

Here are the possibilities for weekday locations:

Starbucks
-Kierland Commons (map HERE): open until 10 pm every night
-Tatum/Rose Garden, across from Desert Ridge (map HERE): open til 9:30 Mon-Sat and 8:30 Sun
-Scottsdale/Mayo, off the 101 (map HERE): open til 9 Mon-Thurs, til 9:30 Fri-Sat, and til 8 Sun

Borders
-Scottsdale/Mayo, off the 101 (map HERE): open til 10 Mon-Thurs, til 11 Fri-Sat, and til 9 on Sun
-Tatum/Cactus, close to 51 (map HERE): open til 10 Mon-Thurs, til 11 Fri-Sat, and til 9 on Sun

And for weekend locations:

Scooter's Coffee (map HERE)
-open 6-8 on Saturday
-open 6:30-5 on Sunday

White August Tea (map HERE)
-open 9-5 on Saturday
-closed Sunday

Matador Coffee (map HERE)
-open 7:30-3 pm on Saturday
-open 8-1 on Sunday

Please reply to this post if you have a preference for any particular day, time, or location. If not, I'll just pick what seems like a good mix and then we can change things from there if need be.

--Megan

Ok, let's take a little survey and see what the majority of us would prefer as to dates, times, and locations.

Right now, I think most of us would probably prefer evening during the week and daytime during the weekend, but please correct me if I'm wrong. So, the days/times which seem best to me are:

Monday 6 pm to ?

Wednesday 6 pm to ?

Saturday or Sunday 1 pm to ?

(I put question marks as to ending time, since I know I personally would be there for ~3 hours at least, but I'm sure there are those who don't necessarily want marathon sessions)

The choice of location would then depend on what hours they are open. From poking around a bit, it seems that places like Starbucks or Borders are open the latest (til 9-11 pm, depending), whereas some of the fun independent coffee or tea places close a bit earlier. So I think we should go to the big guys during the week, so if people want to stay until 9 or 10 or whenever they can, and then on the weekend a little guy.

Here are the possibilities for weekday locations:

Starbucks
-Kierland Commons (map here: open until 10 pm every night
-Tatum/Rose Garden, across from Desert Ridge (map here: open til 9:30 Mon-Sat and 8:30 Sun
-Scottsdale/Mayo, off the 101 (map here: open til 9 Mon-Thurs, til 9:30 Fri-Sat, and til 8 Sun

Borders
-Scottsdale/Mayo, off the 101 (map here: open til 10 Mon-Thurs, til 11 Fri-Sat, and til 9 on Sun
-Tatum/Cactus, close to 51 (map here: open til 10 Mon-Thurs, til 11 Fri-Sat, and til 9 on Sun

And for weekend locations:

Scooter's Coffee (map here)
-open 6-8 on Saturday
-open 6:30-5 on Sunday

White August Tea (3607 E Bell Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85032)
-open 9-5 on Saturday
-closed Sunday

Matador Coffee (3230 E Unions Hills, Suite 135, Phoenix, Arizona 85050)
-open 7:30-3 pm on Saturday
-open 8-1 on Sunday

Please reply to this post if you have a preference for any particular day, time, or location. If not, I'll just pick what seems like a good mix and then we can change things from there if need be.

--Megan

Your day & time ideas seem right to me.

As for locations, my favorites in each group are the Kierland Commons Starbucks, the Tatum/Cactus borders, and White August Tea.

Thanks for getting so organized!

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Kierland Commons or Mayo Blvd sounds good to me for a Starbucks meet up evenings during the week.

I work Saturdays so I would definitely like to see a Sunday meet up so I guess that defaults me to Scooter's Sunday 1 - ?

Big thanks for taking the time to get all of that organized.

hi! this is my first year, so i'd love to meet up with some north siders for motivation!
the borders at cactus and tatum is a perfect location for me.
when the dates and times are nailed down, will they be listed in this forum then?

Thanks for being all organized, Megan! Sorry to not chime in sooner, I was without internet access all weekend.

The only thing I don't like about all these lovely indie coffee/tea shops is they're not open very late! Sadness.

Anyhoo.

Monday evenings: schedule is still in flux, but I can probably make the Kierland Commons Starbucks or Desert Ridge Starbucks

Wednesday evenings: totally down for the Tatum/Cactus Borders.

Saturdays: I would LOVE to hit up White August Tea. It's SO ADORABLE in there, and the tea is yummy and the people are so friendly! :-) I am of course down to alternate with Matador (not a WHOLE lot of room, but they make good chai :-)) or Scooters (which I might be hitting up on the occasional morning as it's literally three minutes from my house).

I'd love to plan with you, but I'm going out of town this weekend to kick off Nano with people I met from the Viddler group (http://www.viddler.com/groups/nanowrimo/), which you should all go join 'cause it's tons of fun. :-)

Can't wait to get writing with all of you north siders!! :-) :-)

Based on what people are saying, it seems like the days/times I mentioned are ok for during the week, and the weekend is the only challenge.

Since we seem to have some people only available on Saturday and others only on Sunday, do we want to set up times/places for both days? I myself wouldn't always be able to make it to both days, but it sounds like we may have enough interest for it? Plus, it would mean we could have a Saturday meeting at White August, which I have to admit does sound like a neat place.

I think we'd be ok with a Saturday-- the main Phoenix write-in looks like it should end a bit after 1, so there shouldn't be much overlap if people want to do both.

So here's what I'm thinking, based on what you all have said:

* Monday 6 pm to whenever, Kierland Commons Starbucks

* Wednesday 6 pm to whenever, Borders and Tatum/Cactus

* Saturday 1 pm to whenever, White August Tea

* Sunday 1 pm to whenever, Scooter's Coffeehouse

(I picked the Kierland Commons Starbucks simply because that seemed to be the one that most people were ok with. It is a fairly good-sized location, as well, whereas if I'm recalling correctly the Desert Ridge one is rather small. Similarly, since Matador isn't open very late on Sat/Sun, unless we want a morning meeting, I'm not sure it'll work.)

Does anyone want to change any of this?

And, as a final note, when do we want our first meeting to be? We could do a Saturday 10/31 last-minute preparation frenzy, a Sunday 11/1 write-in (though just fyi, there is a main write-in starting at 3 that I hate to conflict with, in case someone wants to go to that too), or wait til Monday 11/2. Thoughts?

--Megan

Schedule looks good to me. I say we leave Sunday 11/1 out and start Monday. Defnitely don't want to conflict with a main event plus there is already a write in going on for those that want to go.

Look forward to seeing you all at these meet ups.

The schedule looks great, Megan, thank you! :-)

I vote we start Monday the second as well, though I teach pretty late that night so I might not make it until after eight.

Excited!!

Guess I'd really better think about finishing that outline...

Another vote here for starting on Monday. I look forward to meeting you all! :-)

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Hey all,

I keep reading about folks in Scottsdale and North Phoenix. Anyone out west? As in Surprise, Peoria area?

Writing in the West...

Check the West Side meetup thread(s)-- I think there are definitely some folks from Peoria, not sure about Surprise.

Monday 11/2 it is! I'm glad we all seem to be on the same page with that :-)

Just FYI, I'm off work that Monday, so I'll probably be there around 4 or 5 pm. I want to get a substantial cushion early on this year because I know things are going to get very hectic for me later in the month. So if anyone else wants to show up earlier that day, I will be there.

Only 4 days left! Now to just get those last characters named...

I'm at 35th ave and Bell. Have car will travel.

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CAROL TREVILLION

looks good to me! i'll be at the wednesday write-ins and try for some saturdays and sundays too!
thanks for organizing this!

I'm a bit late to the thread, but it looks like you've made a good plan without me. Thanks, Megan! I shot an email to our ML to see if North and West Valley write-ins could be added to the official calendar. White August is a great choice, and I'm glad you picked Kierland (the space is a lot bigger than the one across from Desert Ridge!), so I look forward to seeing some of you at these events in the next few weeks. With White August on the schedule, I might be able to get my wife to try NaNo again, this year!

-Teel McClanahan III
http://modernevil.com

Hi everyone!

I just found out about NaNoWriMo and I am very excited and NERVOUS to take part. Is it too late to join the group on 11/2?
I have never written fiction before so I think it would be great to learn from some of you folks.
I live in North Scottsdale so the locations are listed are within a few minutes of me.

Thanks for this space and information. I look forward to hearing back from you.
~Shaun

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When I let go of what I am I become what I might be. ~Lao Tzu

Of course you can come! We are an all-inclusive bunch :-)

--Megan

I'm back.
I'm getting off to a slow start this year but I hope to get something done. I know August Tea but I wonder if they have the room. I'm going to head to B&N at Desert Ridge now and see if I can get going. I like to sit by the fountains outside if it's nice.
Nice to see my "old friends" here again.
Good luck to you all
Rita

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Rita,
Braving nano again.

I'm back.
I'm getting off to a slow start this year but I hope to get something done. I know August Tea but I wonder if they have the room. I'm going to head to B&N at Desert Ridge now and see if I can get going. I like to sit by the fountains outside if it's nice.
Nice to see my "old friends" here again.
Good luck to you all
Rita

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Rita,
Braving nano again.

Hey! I'M at Cave Creek and the 101!!! (Well, CC & Bell, but it's close).

What's up North SIEEEEDE!!

I'd love to get together for write-ins.. Tho weekends are best for me (work is bananas).
How about I continue reading the thread and see what's up...

Looking forward to North Side goodness :)

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2007 - Undertow - WINNER