Any events/write-ins across the river in Indiana?

Open to weekly write-ins and found last go-round that sipping on good coffee or craft beer while at it was good. That leaves roughly half a dozen options in Clark/Floyd County.

After a lifetime of non-fiction work, I tried NaNoWriMo in 2007 and organized write-in's at Treet's Cafe (now closed) and Rich O's (off Grant Line in New Albany). Few stuck with the program and too many, for my sensibility, just wanted to have chatty sessions rather than get into the creative zone.

As a result, I shifted to the Louisville group--they were more into the project and they needed help fighting a challenge from the Nashville NaNo'ers.

I had a wonderful experience that month (52,000-odd words worth) and learned a lot. Last year I was teaching five-days a week and just couldn't. I'm on board this year and enjoy local options-- from Perkfection in Jeff to Bank Street Brewhouse, the Diner and HobKnobb in N'Awbany.

Would be glad to experience this wonderful craziness with a few Hoosier partners in arms.

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Yes, I would love to have some So. Indiana write-ins. I live in the Galena/Greenville area up in the Knobs so getting to Barnes & Noble or Preston Highway is almost a 20-mile drive one way.

There are several places each in Jeffersonville or New Albany that let you hang out, buy just a coffee or a beer, and with free Wi-Fi. Two years ago we tried meetings at least one night during the week and on early Saturday afternoons.

Interested?

Beating the pavement with a pen.

I've actually, sadly, missed a lot of the Louisville events because of the same issue. I live in Floyds Knobs, IN (really close to Greenville/Galena) and wouldn't mind trying to do something in New Albany or Jeff. Let me know if it comes about. ;-)
~ Renee

I live in Jeffersonville, so it's pretty easy for me to go to L'ville. But I think it would be great to have a meeting in Jeff. or New Albany, or downtown L'ville.

So I guess we all need to pick a place and a day to meet-up. Any suggestions on locations in Floyd Knobs, New Albany, Clark, or Jeff?

Lets keep it real people....

How about Coffee Crossing in New Albany? They have decent hours and good coffee... I can call them and see about reserving a few tables for us...they are more apt to do this if it's through the week...weekends are usually very busy there.

Let me know...sounds great!

How about Coffee Crossing in New Albany? They have decent hours and good coffee... I can call them and see about reserving a few tables for us...they are more apt to do this if it's through the week...weekends are usually very busy there.

Let me know...sounds great!

The places are out there. THE REAL ISSUE becomes good times for a write-in. I haven't picked a routine yet. All I know is I need two serious hours of concentration a day to progress the task.

Last time, I found early Saturday afternoons (while places were quiet when sports fans were elsewhere) and a couple week-night evenings worked best. Thursday night doesn't work for me.

Floyds Knobs:
Hobknobb Coffee on Paoli Pike at Scotsville Rd. roasts their own beans--fresher, tastier, and also a nice environment with original art, ceramics and the roaster machine in the corner like an odd sculpture.

Bean St. Cafe at Lawrence Banet and Hwy. 150 (across from Highlander Point), has decent seating, even a couch, but like Coffee Crossing is bringing their beans in in bulk bags from somewhere else, not a local roaster.

New Albany:
Hobknobb also opened a new location on State Street just before Spring (on your right when heading towards the river). Haven't been in there yet.

Toast has opened on E. Market near Bank St. They're friendly but only open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Still, it would be a nice spot for a 10 to noon session.

Destinations Booksellers in the 600 block of Spring St. is the only independent bookseller in So. Indiana and they just added a cafe. They would be very friendly.

Rich O's (off Grant Line next to Sportstime Pizza) is great on an early Saturday afternoon when people are elsewhere watching college sports. They have easy chairs and couches in one room and microbrews from the in-house New Albanian Brewing Company. Sipping on a quality brew as you work over an hour can stimulate both inspiration and word count.

Bank Street Brewhouse (on Bank between Spring and Elm) is the new, modern, outlet of New Albanian. They love creative types, and if we went when it wasn't a lunch or dinner rush, it's convenient and with the same positives.

Jeffersonville:
Perkfection at Spring and Maple is a good, full-service coffee shop with a restaurant that does lunch and dinners. It's a great place that will let you hang out. The only draw back is you might run into a lot of acquaintances who want to chat.

There are other spots along Spring St. and in the Quadrangle off 10th, but I'm not familiar enough to venture opinions.

Clarksville:
Since Buffalo Madison closed on Eastern, I don't have a good sense of what this town has to offer other than some good tacquerias. The rest seems to be national franchises along Lewis & Clark and Veterans Parkways that have sucked the life out of local businesses. Panera is the only place that seems remotely worth considering, but would love to be informed otherwise.

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Here are some places I can think of:

New Albany:
As I mentioned before, Coffee Crossing. Internet included and great coffee. Located directly off the highway (265) so easy to get to for most.

Clarksville:
Panera Bread - wifi and good soup, sandwiches and salads..they have lattes also. :-)

Denny's - yes, even Denny's has wifi and for anyone wanting to eat while you write this may work. There is a section over to one side of the restaurant that I never see used..it may be useful if we call and request it.

I have at least two teens who will be writing and would like to join us...so the brewery's and things wouldn't work for them...I also know two 20 year olds who may enjoy it......so..thinking along those lines, maybe a coffee house or restaurant with a private room would work better?

I would be happy to coordinate a once a week meeting if there are at least a few more interested...if you would like to meet up once a week with us at one of the locations I wrote about above please send me nano mail...I'd love to get something set up as soon as possible.

Dee

I might be interested in participating and I have a friend who might be interested as well. I have no preference on location as long as it's on this side of the river and not in the Knob's. C-ville, Jeff, or New Albany would be just fine with me.
Lisa

Hi everyone!

So...from everything I've read here, and in the mails I've received, New Albany is the best location for all (I had no one say no to New Albany! :-) )

Now...how about the time and day? Please let me know your preferences on date and time by posting here or sending me a NaNoMail.

Here is mine:
Monday - Friday anytime after 1pm
Saturday & Sunday after 2pm

If there is a day you absolutely can not do please post that, too!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

GenLady
(Dee)

Sounds good to me. The only day Im not free is Thursday, but any other night works for me.

Lets keep it real people....

Sounds good to me too. I wouldn't want anyone to plan around my schedule since im crazy busy but if you guys made a So.IN. write-in happen (at ANY one of those places) I'd def do my best to make it.

Ok...how about this Friday from 5-9...? (if you'll be late due to work, etc. that's ok)

I will post the place in here and will send it to the ML for posting...(it will be in New Albany)

Please...if you will be there, send me a message or post in here. I will have some things for everyone and want to make sure I have enough.

If that time isn't good for you please contact me. If I'm not able to change it for this week, we will discuss it during the write-in and try to accommodate the next time.

Talk to you all soon!

Dee

I go to Bellarmine, but I spend a lot of my time at my fiance's in Georgetown.

Let me know when you guys plan to meet! I will try to be there. :)

Ill be there.

Lets keep it real people....

Friday, I will do my best to come by wherever GenLady (Dee) picks. The only wrinkle is Floyd Central is playing in the sectional final and our family might head out to the 7-ish game. So, I'll try to come at the early end.

Greg
wrtr

Beating the pavement with a pen.

I might try to get down there... if schedule permits and I haven't given up. :-) I'm not writing the story I was expecting to write, so I'm having to come up with the outline for this new one from scratch... and it's a YA novel, which I've never attempted before.

It's a bit over an hour's drive for me (I'm north of Jeffersonville), so I'd probably be there in the middle hours.

Where exactly is the Cafe (address &c)... I couldn't find it on the internet.

LP

Fingers tap brightly,
Plum blossoms' drift on the keys,
And sewage pours forth.
*
Job: "O Lord, why hast Thou visited so much suffering upon me?"
God: "I got behind on My word count."
*

I talked to Randy Smith at Destinations Booksellers/Dueling Grounds Cafe and, as expected, he is very welcoming.

They have hours that would accommodate a broad range of write ins, a side room with table, easy chairs, stacks of good books to browse, an espresso bar and cafe that serves good soup and good panini (judging from the one I tried today), WiFi, and a cafe counter with stools that have power outlets in front of each seat for your laptop chargers..

Check it out at: http://tinyurl.com/thegrounds

While GenLady is going to designate a meeting spot for this Friday (Right?)--I will support a writing group at Destinations/Dueling Grounds (604 E. Spring St. in New Albany) on other evenings. Voice your preferences of days and time.

Greg
wrtr

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Something is weird.

I'm getting messages posted days ago resent to my mailbox. Like today, after my posting proposing write-ins at Destinations Booksellers/Dueling Grounds Cafe in New Albany, I got resends of both Dee's (GenLady) and my (wrtr) posts from Oct. 31. Also, SakerPup's day-late warning of daylight savings time ending came whizzing across again.

Anybody else experiencing these 'ghosts in the machine'?

Dee--we're still waiting for you to designate where Friday's write in will be.

I'm also waiting to hear if people want to meet in downtown New Albany on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesdays either mid-day or evening once a week?

Greg
wrtr

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Yeah, I'm procrastinating and watching to see if the Phillies will pull tonight's game out. So, here's the third post.

If we want to talk more directly, we apparently need to become "buddies" to get authorized for NaNo mail.

On this thread, this is who has posted with interest in So. Indiana write-ins that aren't grafting onto Louisville and half-way to Shelbyville or Fort Knox:

Lolzcats97 (New Albany)
Neverletgo (Floyds Knobs)
Dusty Pages (Jeffersonville)
tbradford (residence: "let's keep it real")
GenLady
wrtr (me, near Galena)
Booknose (Floyds Knobs)
Smitten (Georgetown)
LP (1 hour north of Jeffersonville [this is where I think Bloomington might be close])
HanleyNihon (Salem)

that's a beautiful 10 of us enjoying this experience.

GenLady: We want to know this Friday--Coffee Crossing on Charlestown Rd or elsewhere?

I'm proposing another session at Destinations/Dueling Grounds Cafe in downtown New Albany for some weekday morning or evening (not Thursday).

And, if we've satisfied the needs of youth, hangers on and the temperance league, I enjoy a work session on early Saturday afternoons at either the old Rich O's or Bank Street Brewhouse. Call me old school.

Good luck to everyone. It's the top of the 9th and the Yankee's just won the World Series (drat!) I'm going to go get closer to my word count effort.

Beating the pavement with a pen.

No, Madison area... so NE of L'ville. So Jeff. is closer for me than N.A., but not disastrously so.

LP

Fingers tap brightly,
Plum blossoms' drift on the keys,
And sewage pours forth.
*
Job: "O Lord, why hast Thou visited so much suffering upon me?"
God: "I got behind on My word count."
*

Dee/GenLady

Missed your tip where to meet tonight. Hope you stay in the game.

Greg
wrtr

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Are there any of you that want to get together?

My take on NaNoWriMo is that you have to chip away at it. Sure, 1677 words a day are nice, but that's merely an average.
You can do more and you can do less each day and stay with the alluring concept of having a 200+ page manuscript at the end of the month.

If you haven't got going, it's not too late. You can do amazing things , thousands of words in one day (really only half a day) if you care to apply, try, lean into the effort.

Don't think you can't do this. It takes just a few hours and you can surprise yourself beyond any of your usual boundaries.

There are stories (maybe legends) of people who pull off 10,000 words on the last day.

If you let your imagination have its ground, and listen to it, there is no limit to what you can pull off.

I'd like to have some company next week, meeting in either Jeffersonville or New Albany.

Let me know if you'd care to join me.

Greg
wrtr

Beating the pavement with a pen.

I'm also guessing nothing happened Friday since nothing ever got finalized.. unless I missed a nanomail or something.

I think week 2 is make or break week for me - I had no outline or anything for the story I started writing on the first of the month; I've come up with enough of that now so I can move forward: I know generally what is happening and why, even though I don't yet know all that much about my characters. So now it's time to find out if I really have a novel (or the first draft of one) in me and whether I can force it out onto the page. I've never done that before.

I'm finding that working at a cafe or somewhere is a real help: when I try to work at home, there's lots of stuff that can get my attention; in pubic, I have to tune out the irritating distractions, which can actually make it easier to focus on just spewing forth new-writer quick-draft cr*p.

I have an evening commitment in L'ville most Mondays, and I drive past/through J'ville on my way south. Not sure what time I could get there (maybe 5:30ish and stay until 7?) but if there are other area NaNoWri-ers looking for a spur of the moment get together this evening, I might be up for it. Any further afield / off my flight path, and I wouldn't be able to stay long enough to make it worthwhile I'm afraid. :(

I don't know J'ville at all (it's somewhere I drive past, not stop in) but someone above mentioned Perkfection, which looks (on the net at least) like a good place. (Is parking easy? Does it have comfy chairs? :) )

Fingers tap brightly,
Plum blossoms' drift on the keys,
And sewage pours forth.
*
Job: "O Lord, why hast Thou visited so much suffering upon me?"
God: "I got behind on My word count."
*

LP:

Yeah, thanks. I'll try and get there about 5:15.

Parking is no problem on the street (no meters). It's right on the corner of Spring & Maple.

Your usual flight path probably keeps you on the four-lane all the way to the river, which is fastest, though staying on 62 at I-265 is not a bad stretch either, turns into 10th Street and runs pretty smoothly into town.

Perkfection has both a complete espresso bar and a very good kitchen, so you could check out the menu tonight and see if eating there would work in following weeks, if we choose to repeat on Mondays.

A few comfy easy chairs and I think they added a couch, but mostly table and chairs and outlets if you need your charger.

I'll have a small, brown paper bag with "NaNoWriMo Survival Kit" on a table.

Greg

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Looks like I'm going to be delayed; I'll probably get there around 6 rather than 5:30. *sigh*

Fingers tap brightly,
Plum blossoms' drift on the keys,
And sewage pours forth.
*
Job: "O Lord, why hast Thou visited so much suffering upon me?"
God: "I got behind on My word count."
*

Monday evening (roughly 5 to 8 p.m.) at Perkfection in Jeffersonville (corner of Spring and Maple) worked tonight. We'll repeat next week.

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Monday evening (roughly 5 to 8 p.m.) at Perkfection in Jeffersonville (corner of Spring and Maple) worked tonight. We'll repeat next week.

If any interest, we can do one or two nights in New Albany (Destinations Booksellers and/or Coffee Crossing) Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday.

Saturday afternoons are reserved for writing and a pint at Rich O's (Plaza Dr.) alternating with Bank Street Brewhouse on Bank St, both in New Albany.

Beating the pavement with a pen.

Hi everyone! I bounce back between the Louisville, KY area (where I come home for family and friends) and the Indianapolis, IN (where I go to college this semester). I think it would great if I could come down here and jump into a write in or two since I'm probably going to spend half of every week down here anyways. Gotta love November and Thanksgiving break!

Coffee Crossing is a great idea. It's perfect for me, but only because I could literally ride my bike there. ;) And the coffee is delicious and there's a Smoothie King right next to it. It's got good wireless service and it's always been a very enjoyable and had an open atmosphere. Plus, it'd be really easy to spot who the NaNo'ers are - we'd be the group with a bunch of laptops. haha

lannerz