Las Cruces Writers

I didn't get a lot of response last time, so I'll just try it this way. I'll be at Spirit Winds on this Sunday, May 25, at 2pm to write until... whenever. If you don't know how to get there, send me a PM. If you intend to come but won't be there until later in the afternoon, let me know so that I'll be sure to stick around.

I'd love to hear about what awesome new projects you all are working on... or preparing to work on this fall! :)

I'm presuming you've had a nice December to relax and actually catch up on everything you didn't do during November... right? :) If anybody's still out there, I'd love to get together sometime during this month, perhaps a Saturday or Sunday, for coffee and writing talk. If you're up for it, either reply to this or just send an email to sybbis at gmail dot com.

Remember: We only have 297 more days to get ready for NaNoWriMo 2008!

*ducks*

This is experimental only, but hopefully it'll work out. You can visit the chat I've created at this link:

http://www.xat.com/chat/room/16667124/

I'm not sure if I'm going to be out today due to being sick, but I'll be in the chat either way, and I welcome anyone who wants to talk, get or share encouragement, maybe do some word wars. :)

Officially, we'll still be meeting Sundays, 3pm, Spirit Winds. If you didn't make it to the kickoff, you can still get a goody bag if you come this week, I've still got a number of them left. These will be primarily working meetings, so bring something to write on (whether a laptop, PDA or just a pad and pencil) and any spots where you'd like help by Sunday.

We're at less than 24 hours now, and I hope everybody's as excited as I am, even though I'm still frantically working on my outline. I have a bit of a cold, too, what terrific timing. Since my laptop is supposed to be arriving this afternoon, I will probably be spending at least part of Thursday afternoon at Spirit Winds myself, and anyone whose schedule permits is welcome to join me! I'll have to go at around 5pm, though, because I've got a church thing on Thursday evenings.

I want to make sure that everyone who wants to attend a write-in has that chance, so if you can't make it on Sundays, let me know when you *are* available and we'll work something out. Milagros and ID are both open later, so weekdays aside from Thursday are a real possibility... and even Thursdays are fine if you want to set something up on your own. Just drop me a line and let me know what you want to do.

Things are hopping along. I'm officially ML now and I've got goodie bags in the works for you folks, hurrah. At this point we officially have less than two weeks left until November 1! Are you ready?

Right now, the only time I've heard that generally works for people is Sunday afternoons. To make things simple, my thought for the moment is that we should stick with that--do kickoff on October 28, and write-ins every week after that, at Spirit Winds. If there's a time during the week that any of you would like to meet, though, I'm open to doing a second write-in, possibly Tuesday or Wednesday evenings, at a different location.

What do you all think?

I'll be at Spirit Winds this Sunday at 3pm, just like last week. Because we're having some issues with the internet at our apartment, I may be a bit slower responding to messages until then, but it still shouldn't be more than 24 hours between, just not necessarily immediate. :)

Sunday Meetup:  Since nobody said there was anything wrong with the time, just the day... 3pm Sunday at Spirit Winds?  They're not open too late on Sundays, but I figure this first time would just be a couple hours, say hello, get to know one another, etc.  I'll be there, anyhow, in my light blue '06 shirt, in case it helps people find each other.

Links added:  Just some stuff I really like and want to share.  I think Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic is good just in general, but it also has a lot of "how to get the muse going" ideas which I think are going to be useful come November.  It's been totally worth what I paid for it and the rest of the author's site is also terrific.  The outlining style it recommends works very well with something like Supernotecard, a virtual notecard program which has a free trial but so far seems to continue working even after that point with some nag screens.  (It's $29 to register.  I probably will at some point, it seems worth it.)  Cayra is totally free but PC-only, it does mind-mapping which can be a cool way to brainstorm.  I'm still toying with it but anything that facilitates ideas seems like worth sharing.  Any other ideas still welcome. :)

Recruitment:  I put up posters today at the university (got permission from the English department thanks to the SO, and also on several more public boards outside), and at Spirit Winds. I'm going to Milagros and the library tomorrow.  Carl's going to email the MFAs just to see if anybody wants to participate, with the caveat that we are not workshopping, we are just a support group. :)  Although I think doing some workshopping later, perhaps in December or January, could be pretty cool.  If anybody knows of anywhere else that'd be good place to put one up, I'm all ears.  I'm not using the official flyer because I thought it'd be better to have one that had tearoffs with the Nano website and instructions to look for us under the New Mexico region.  I can turn it into a PDF to share with anybody who'd like to put it up, or else there's the official one at http://www.nanowrimo.org/flyers .  If people come on Sunday, I can give you already-printed and cut (and tastefully colored in with crayons, I was bored) copies.

Places:  I like Spirit Winds a lot, Milagros is also good, those are both within walking distance of me and my admitted preference is for places I don't have to drive, but other spots are also good.  Milagros may be open later, I'm not sure.

Dates and Times:  Thursday evenings I have a church thing.  Just about anytime else is good for the moment, although closer to actual start I expect that I'll be working normal weekday daytime hours.

What's good for you guys right now?  If I said I'd be at Spirit Winds at 3pm on this Saturday for a meet-and-greet, would anybody else join me there?  Other suggestions are terrific!

Just go ahead and make a post or reply here to introduce yourself!

My name is Susan.  I got to Las Cruces in August.  I participated and won in '05, but last year I got a bad respiratory infection and never got to participate.  (It's a miracle that I survived work and school... I was in graduate school at the time.)  I'm 26, I live pretty close to the university because my fiance's in the creative writing MFA program there and we wanted the apartment to be close enough for him to walk.  He's mostly a short story writer, though, so although he might come with me if we have a meetup, he won't be participating.  He's very supportive, though, and helps me work out plot details.

I'm working on outlining right now, it's a middle-grade fantasy that I'm hoping will run somewhere from 65k-75k when finished, so my goal is to actually finish it during November.  Hopefully the outline will help!  I've included some helpful links in the sidebar here, if anybody knows of anything else that should be included, just include it in a reply here and I'll add it.

I am currently in love with Spirit Winds (actually posting from there right now) and I expect to spend a fair amount of time here writing during November.  Hopefully some of us can get together now and then.

This is a community for anyone interested in writing who also happens to live in the Las Cruces area.  Anyone who's interested in the subject is welcome to join.  NaNoWriMo participants are especially welcome, and I'll be mirroring posts here that I make to the regional community there because of how slow the server there has been so far.

Anything related to local issues or writing (fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, whatever) is welcome here.