It's almost here! 2009 NaNoWriMo.
I hope you are getting geared up for a really great season this year! Get your 50k (or other goal) ready to go, your characters waiting impatiently (but not too impatiently!), and your settings built in time for a great kick off on November 1.
There are, however, some things to take care of first.
1. Pre-November meeting! I like to meet my participants before the writing crunch gets underway. Hopefully, I can remember names (but don't count on it, I'm terrible with names), and get an idea of where I need to go before November hits.
2. Kick off party! Do you guys want to have a Halloween kick off, or do it earlier? November 1st is on a Sunday this year, and I thought of a great place to have a midnight kick off. Wegmans, at 611 & Street Road, in the Valley Square Shopping Center has an upstairs eating area and they are open 24 hours. We can meet there, buy coffee and food downstairs, or bring our own. They have microwaves set up to heat things up, even.
I do not know if they have wifi, I will have to ask customer service.
3. Arrange our write-ins! This year, the powers that be are asking for 1 write-in a week. Which is ok, because I think I did that last year anyway. But I'd like a little more variety of meeting places this year, and hopefully get to some of you who got left out last year. :( My fault, entirely.
which brings me to...
4. Asking for a co-ML, because it's a large county, and I'm a busy girl. My weeknights are tied up for the most part and weekends aren't all that easy, but for NaNo, I do my best to free myself up. Still, someone else to help share this endeavor with would be welcome.
So, for meeting places, we have:
1. Doylestown Starbucks (very successful last year)
2. Wegmans at Valley Square (24 hours!)
3. Panera at Valley Square (has the advantage to being just a few doors from Borders!)
4. Warminster West Diner (24 hours!)
5. Panera at the Feasterville shopping center (good for weeknights that I'm not in school, after 7 pm)
I'm always open to suggested meeting places, so feel free. But there are things to consider: Is a tip required? Please let us know. Can the place accommodate an unexpected number of people, or not be disappointing in a small number of people? Are people welcome to bring food from the outside? etc. etc.
We can also have on line write ins using a chat program like mibbit.
I can't wait to meet you all!
Sheila
ML for Bucks County
PS: Oh yes! We must plan a TGIO party!
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--Merrihart, ML for P
37,000 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2009 - 16 52
Meeting places 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all good for me. #5, I am not sure about, but I can ask.
Also, I can probably not do the kick-off party if it is a midnight thing, because of the whole parent thing :P. & I definitely won't be coming out if it's on Halloween! Sorry! Priorities! :P (Though I'll probably be up to get started. Last year I got myself a pretty good 2000 word cushion that definitely helped out near the end, what with my birthday and Thanksgiving.)
33,525 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2009 - 08 51
My schedule is fairly flexible so any of those locations work for me.(:
----------2,245 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2009 - 15 34
Is there any possibility of having a meet closer to the Bensalem area? I don't drive and I don't really want to have to burden my parents with driving me all over Bucks County....
----------1,799 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2009 - 15 42
My writing group meets regularly at the Panera Bread in Levittown, and they've never asked for a tip of any sort. Yes, meetings in the southern parts of the county would be good, too! :)
----------1,807 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2009 - 13 28
I second the motion to have more write-ins in southern Bucks. Doylestown is, unfortunately, more than 45 minutes away. :(
----------2008: Blue Soul (first year & won!)
2009: Blue Soul (continuing w/ rebel-status :P)
40,038 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2009 - 10 44
Hey everyone!
Had a talk with merrihart on Sunday the 4th about some of the meeting places and meeting times.
Now I don't know about all of you, but I find some days that I don't have much going on during the day, especially on the weekdays. If anyone would like to meet at some point during the weekday, I'm definitely willing to work to try and get some meetings together for everyone to be able to join. I know merrihart and I are not the only ones who want to see a lot of people at these write-ins!
Also, merrihart, I'd be able to be a co-ML, because my November suddenly got free rather quickly.
Also, I've noticed a lot of people asking for some places in southern Bucks County. If you guys can suggest anywhere good in that place, I can see what can be done. I have family in that area, so I'm slowly getting to know my way around there, but that also means that I will be down in that area a lot more than I used to be.
One thing to mention as well, since I'm seeing how many younger writers are in our group this year (totally awesome by the way guys, I'm proud that we managed to snare so many young people into being crazy for an entire month), is that carpooling is always an option, as well as good for the environment. Of course, the parental units need to be okay with that as well, but if they are, I'm sure that some of us who have available space and have no problems with driving would be able to help get more NaNo-ers to the write ins!
-Amy
P.S: Sheila I'm gonna message you, but if you'd rather talk face to face or on the phone, you have my number :)