Current location:	our fuzzy brown couch
Current mood:	excited
Current music:	Amego - Pagoda

A Real Name
In 2007, the Skagit Writers League put on a mini-workshop up here in Bellingham. Those of us who were interested in starting our own league wrote down our e-mail addresses, and then never heard anything ;) We've been kicking around the idea of an official writing organization ever since.

I've been talking with some of my critique partners, and we're taking steps to form a group that would welcome all writers in Whatcom County.

At the moment, there is no system for local writers to find each other for critique, support, networking, or sharing resources. I know of several critique groups, but as far as I can tell, they can only be found through convoluted methods--knowing the right people is the easiest way, and that's unfair. It should be as easy as Googling "Bellingham + writer."

I personally find it unfair to ask potential members to sign up for a commercially funded blogging service or mailing list just to network locally, so I'm going to make an independent website for this new organization. (Also, it's less professional, even embarrassing at times, to give people our LJ username instead of a real web address.)

A few times, writers have shown interest in the bham_crit meetings until they found that nearly everyone writes SF&F, and then they wandered away. Several of these lost writers were interested in poetry or screenplays. I'm hoping we can make a miniature Bellinghamcentric Absolute Write, in which people can have subforums for other Whatcom towns (like Lynden or Blaine), and for different kinds of writing. That way we can welcome writers of poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, commercial and literary.

So, Bellingham writers, what should we call ourselves?

• We don't want something people won't remember ([edit:] "Is it the University of Washington or Washington University?" as kaerfel put it the way she said it below), so it can't be too generic
• It should be memorable. The eatpoo forum for graphic artists is a great example, though I think we'd like something a little less yucky haha. But that's a professional site and no one forgets the name!
• It should be a descriptive name, so it comes up easily in Internet searches
• Even though we want to include the whole county, people are less likely to Google "Whatcom" than they are "Bellingham," so it might be best to use the county seat's name
• 'Hamster is a common local word for "someone hailing from Bellingham," and a few of us like the idea of using it somehow
• I can make it Googleable even if the name ends up being something more fun and less descriptive--I personally think memorable is more important

I'm leaning toward literary references or clever language in some way, but my brain won't come up with anything. As soon as we have a name, I'll start work on the site. Start brainstorming!