United States :: California :: East Bay

Welcome Writers!

Kat Fireblade — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:51:33 -0700

Its almost that time of year again! We all embark on the wild ride of sleepless nights, cranky, neglected family, the visits of relatives and hectic rush of the holidays, school tests, work crises, and in the midst of pure chaos the wonderful exhilaration of living creatively. For a month we eat, sleep, and breathe our inner muses in an attempt to prove something, to our families, to the world, and most importantly, to ourselves.

Some of us just want to prove we can be creative.
Others want to prove they can finish what they started.

And some of us, mostly old timers, do it for the rush.

Whatever the reason you are here, I hope you're as excited as I am.

Take a minute to say hello to all your fellow East Bay writers. Tell us who you are, and maybe, if you feel like sharing, just a little bit on what you intend to write. Don't be shy, there are no wrong answers here, and no one can steal your idea because no one can write it anywhere near as well as you will.

As the date draws closer, you'll see more and more helpful information posted on this section of the forum. Write-ins in your area and the latest news and bulletins will all be here, as well as, I hope, lots of friendly canoodling between local authors. So keep your eyes to the forums and get your initial research done now, because November will get here faster than you think.

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We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
—Henry James

United States :: California :: East Bay

GoodSearch

TSEdiot — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:22:47 -0700

There is a note about this on the page about donating when broke, but I wanted to let everyone here know about the partnership with goodsearch.com

When you go to the website and put in Office of Letters and Light as your charity, every search you do will donate $.01 to NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy. Think about how many searches you do a day - 10? 20? I probably do about 50, which means in a month I can earn the OLL $15. You can even install goodsearch to most browsers and search from the bar. Awesome, right?

Need to do some research? Use goodsearch for all of your research queries this month. Then you're researching for your novel *and* paying for the ability to do this next year. Sweet!

Even if you just switch for November, it'll make a big difference to the event!

Happy Novelling!
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TSEdiot
anaheim_ca(at)scriptfrenzy(dot)org
tsediot(at)gmail(dot)com
North Orange County ML
Proud H.A.C.K. since 2007

United States :: California :: San Diego

Hayward Monthly Write-in Thread

Norsehound — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:06:30 -0700

Hello everyone.

A group of writers and I typically meet at the Panera Bread in Southland mall over the year, once per month, and basically continue writing outside of NaNo. During NaNo itself, the group meets every week on a Friday, barring serious scheduling problems.

Panera's Address is here:

24133 Southland Dr
Hayward, CA 94545

The meeting for October is on the 10th, and usually the group assembles by 6.30 in Panera, at the big table at the left side of the cafe. You can't miss it.

There are outlets for people with Laptops, and I think there's wireless internet as well.

Feel free to stop by and say hello! We're always welcome for new people.
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United States :: California :: East Bay

Night of Writing Dangerously

JCsAngelPen — Thu, 9 Oct 2008 21:41:08 -0700

Is anyone going to the San Francisco Night of Writing Dangerously write-a-thon? Or has anyone been before? It sounds pretty neat.
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www.laurafarrar.webs.com

United States :: California :: East Bay

Having Chris be from Oakland is the best!

okaysoya — Thu, 9 Oct 2008 21:41:07 -0700

It really inspires me even more that he is from Oakland
I don't know why but it does...
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United States :: California :: East Bay

Pleasanton write-ins

girlboxer5 — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 20:59:50 -0700

Just wondering if there was any interest in separate Pleasanton-area write-ins for the Southeast Bay... I remember we had three or four people last year.

I'd probably be up for a couple just to get my wordcounts up, but I'm not sure if I could make both weekly Pleasanton write-ins and the Hayward ones also. <-- Hayward's my personal priority.

Any thoughts on nights? Hayward will probably remain Friday nights, depending on what we agree on come October 10. And location? I remember the downtown Tully's didn't work so well. Borders, perhaps?
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United States :: California :: East Bay

East of the tunnel - Concord area WriMo's say "howdy"

mclemens — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 09:34:09 -0700

Who's hanging out on this side of the tunnels?
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http://clickthing.blogspot.com

United States :: California :: East Bay

Oakland Write-Ins

Kat Fireblade — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 18:10:17 -0700

Since there have been splinter conversations for different areas of the East Bay, I figured I'd start one especially for Oakland residents.

I am expecting that, like in previous years, Berkeley locations will be the default for most NaNoers. However, I'm going to try to to find Oakland locations convenient for Oakland residents as well. If you are an Oakland resident, let me know where/when you can meet and we'll see what we can throw together.
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We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
—Henry James

United States :: California :: East Bay

Berkeley kick-off planning -- opinions needed!

Reading Redhead — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 16:19:41 -0700

Hello! So Rebecca and I are trying to think out the details of Berkeley's kick-off party as early as possible, mostly because we know that our moth will be crazy and would like to stay on top of things.

I personally have this grand vision of a kick-off Halloween night where we all come dressed as characters from our novels-to-be and hype up on discount candy until we begin to novel at midnight. Unfortunately, I don't own a large public space in which to make this happen! Rebecca, acting in her role as voice of wisdom, has also suggested that people may already have plans for Halloween.

If anyone has suggestions about when we should throw this or where there is space in Berkeley to hold a group of crazed writers, this is the place to talk about that! If we make any decisions, Rebecca or I will be sure to post them here.
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Candace Cunard
Office of Letters & Light // Editorial Intern & Press Liaison
Co-ML, Berkeley CA // 3-time participant & winner

United States :: California :: East Bay

Berkeley wrimos: pre-November meet-up?

Reading Redhead — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:09:03 -0700

Hey everyone! I posted about this before, but my post (along with many others) seems to have been a victim of the server crash.

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in getting together before November for a meet and greet type event. This could just be hanging out in a coffee shop for an afternoon and talking about our plans, goals, and expectations for this November. I'm personally in favor of this, because I want to meet you all before November starts. I'd feel like a pretty bad ML if I showed up at the first write-in and didn't know anyone! This could also give us an opportunity to figure out timings for future write-ins, which is much easier to do in person than via forums.

So, if you're interested in getting to know your fellow Berkeley writers, please post below! Time and location TBA, so if there are any preferences regarding those, please make note of them. (However, the time and location preferences of your co-MLs -- i.e. not during school hours and somewhere within easy reach of the UC campus -- will probably carry slightly more weight.)

I'm so excited that it's October!
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Candace Cunard
Office of Letters & Light // Editorial Intern & Press Liaison
Co-ML, Berkeley CA // 3-time participant & winner

United States :: California :: East Bay

Pre-November Meet-Up?

Kat Fireblade — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 19:48:46 -0700

This is just a tentative prod to see if anyone would have any interest in a pre-NaNo meet up? I was thinking of an informal meet-n-greet, and possibly pulling a few things together for a sort of "writing clinic." I have a number of useful techniques for kick-starting plots and ideas I'd be willing to share, and I'm sure others do as well.

However, I need some idea of how many people would be interested and who'd be free when, as this will help me set up a good place/time to meet. I'm thinking evenings are best for most of us?

So...takers?
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We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
—Henry James

United States :: California :: East Bay

Through the Tube - Alameda

gooberthemighty — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:26:22 -0700

OK, Alamedans, who's in this year?

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United States :: California :: East Bay

Write-Ins: Because it's never too early to plan

Kat Fireblade — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:47:42 -0700

There are two favorites found in the Berkeley area:

Cafe Trieste off of San Pablo has been a popular location two years running. It can get crowded and noisy, but we've always found room even for large groups. Bring your own power strips for extra room, but even when we've forgotten ours, the friendly guys in the back have offered extension cords with multiple plugs.

Spuds Pizza in Berkeley has also always been terrific. Lots of space, plenty of plugs, and pizza and pastries. Who could ask for anything more?

A favorite in El Cerrito was Central Perk, however, that was sold and became 33 Revolutions. If this is someone's favorite place, please feel free to hold an informal write-in there, however, its not a place I will be trying to gather our NaNo-writing hordes. Unlike the old cafe, it seems there are both time and space restrictions on the tables, I have heard bad things about the food and the service, and it takes a minimum purchase of $5 just to use the "free" wi-fi. I am all for everyone paying a fair price to the places we use, but I am against being told to leave before we have hit our word count goals for the evenings.

I haven't heard what the favorites are for Oakland proper, or if there is one. This year they have broken up locations into smaller chunks, so instead of serving all of the East Bay (hence the centralized Berkeley locations) we can concentrate on home turf.

So, what's your favorite cafe? Where is your favorite chill spot to kick away a few hours? Do they have plugs? Wi-fi? Plenty of space? Make suggestions and we'll make write-ins happen!
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We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
—Henry James

United States :: California :: East Bay

Temescal/Rockridge Write-Ins

Fig1970 — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 13:48:13 -0700

My wife and I are both doing NaNoWritMo for the first time this year. We live in Temescal and want to create a write-in that we can walk to. Since we've got a toddler at home who goes to bed early (6:30ish), we can't both do the write-ins at the same time. So, we'd love to set up something that is frequent (4+ times/week) so we can alternate.

Here's our plan, which we are happy to modify based on others' interests:

Monday-Thursday
7:30-9:30
The Mixing Bowl and/or The Horseshoe

We are open to Rockridge, but are hoping to find a group a little closer to home.

Peace,
Scott, Sylvia and Atticus (the beneficiary of our hoped-for royalties)
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