We talked about doing our next meeting as a social event, and not just as much as a writing group meeting. We are thinking about going ot two meetings a month. We had talked about this before in terms of Sep and Oct, in prep for the next go round of the Na No Wri Mo thing. I thought that this made a lot of sense, in terms of preparation and plotting and outlinning and all of those things that can accomplised before the fact. I like the whole super hero thing, and the thing about invisibility and flying and which would be better. But I think that I am rambling now, and so I think I need to go back to the original subject of this blog. As I said, we had already spoken of having two meetings a month . . . eventually . . . but this is different. Now we are thinking about adding a second meeting from now on, so we can have a meeting about writing and all of that sort of thing and a meeting this is a little more broadeneing, either on a social level or maybe even a discussion of writing books and writing tips, that sort of thing. I am looking forward to it, I think. We have also had some problems with Borders and the reservations of the group in the cafe and other groups being in the cafe and the noise of other groups and not having enough seats for out groups and even with the discounts we are supposed to get, both from the cafe and on books. None of that has gone quite as well as we had hoped when we selected Borders as our location for the regulr meetings of the group. There was some paperwork and a discount card and we got free drinks for the first meeting, but since then it has gone a little bit down the old proverbial hill. So we are looking for alternative places to meet. The next meeting will probably be at a members' home . . . there were a few volunteers and we can do a pot luch for food, that sort of thing. This is good, I suppose, although we will not be meeting at my house any time soon. I suggested a park, or the meeting room of a public library. The local libraries in this town are excellent, and probably would offer their meeting rooms for a regularly scheduled writers group. We would probably have to be open to new members if we met at a library, though. So that is why maybe a different kind of place, such as a park or a house becomes an option. If we end up with two meetings, then maybe one is a more traditional location, and one is at a location like a home or some type of alternative spot. I think this is a good move for us, as we have always had a good relationship with in the group and it has always been a pretty social event. They are nice folks . . . writers. Pretty normal types of people . . . for writers. It is certainly a kind effort to open one's house up to the group and I do not want to diminish that, so I think we will definitely do that. Part of the agenda for that meeting is figuring out what we are going to do from this moment onward. Both in terms of location and in terms of what we will be doing. I like the fact that this gorup has led me to write more short stoires than I ever would and keep me on track . .. except for that one month that I missed the assignment. But all things considered I am pretty close to where I want to get. I am satisfied that I have publicly (to my wife and my daughter) my desire to write. This by itself was a big commitment. I figured there was no way I could accomplish the Na No Wri Mo without them knowing about it and even to the extent that they can, support it. My daughter is by far the more supportive of the two. I get the feeling that my wife just does not get the writing life or the creative life or the published life or the authorial life. She understands the academic life, and it is not too far of a leap from there to here, but she has not yet made the leap with me. I am not holding my breath waiting for her to do so. But she is her and I am me, and together we stumble forward and walk into the future. So although I do miss having a spouse as a first reader, I do have a group who can fill in that little gap for me. I like having a writing group and saying that I have a writing group and writing it on the calendar and scheduling other things around my meetings with the writers group. I wonder if I can expand myself to two meetings a month without the raised spousal eyebrows, but we will get to that moment when . . . or if . . . I have to. I am not sure what the reaction would be to joining a second group or at least a second meeting per month, but I think the reaction to me being published would at least be positivie. As long as no one in my family feels compelled to actually read my work. That would be a bad move, especially for the missus. In a few years, my daughter could maybe read some of what I have written, and maybe my parents would read it, and maybe even my mom would even like it. I can not say that the in-laws would be big fans either. But I could live with that if I could only get something published, and published by a responsible, respectable publisher. Well, we can all dream, can we not?