(Un)Official Welcome to the WritingChat Mailing List and Coffeeshop

by Adrian Bedford, 1995
Writers are people who spend a great deal of time alone. You can be alone at your desk, penning your latest work. You can also be alone in a great crowd, lost in your own fevered thoughts about your next story, article, poem, or graffito. This being alone gets old real fast. But what can you do about it? Your family doesn't really understand you and your peculiar scribbling ways. They don't understand why you *need* time to be left alone, and how if you don't write you feel like you're dying inside. They also don't understand how, when things happen in your life, or the lives of people you know, your first impulse is, "Wow, there's a story in this." Heck, you love these people dearly, but deep down you know they just don't get it. They don't understand about being a writer.

Which is where we come in. Picture a crowd of noisy, funny-looking, gorgeous, handsome, intelligent people from all over the place, laughing and yelling--and some even hanging from a ceiling fan.

You've read Debi's thoughts about her coffeeshop, about how it's for the group in the writing class who want to head out for coffee after class, and talk long into the night. That's us. We could talk under wet cement. We talk because we all carry the gift/burden of writing, just like you.
So come on in. Make yourself at home.

We have a few special points of which you should be aware, which are as follows:
  1. We will make up a special blend of coffee to your order, to make you feel at home.

  2. Some posts to this list get sucked into a "Writingchat Triangle" of sorts. If you find that nobody is replying to anything you say, or that your posts are not showing up, and you're feeling cheesed off because you were told this place is friendly and it doesn't seem that way at all--please let us know. Tell Debi. Tell anyone. We'll look into the matter. A friend of mine, the rather grizzled-looking Inspector Bedford of the Yard has been on the case these last few months sniffing around, chasing clues. In the process he has learned a great many disturbing things about the voodoo of Internet mail, and suspects much of the Internet was in fact designed by someone who had read much of HP Lovecraft's work while off his or her face on LSD. Currently, our recent troubles with the Writingchat Triangle appear to have abated, for the time being. Inspector Bedford, however, continues to pursue a sinister one-armed penguin he first encountered while searching for clues in Africa.

  3. From time to time you may run across an alien in here. He's a Gray, also known as a Reticulan, you know, one of those guys who are always abducting people. His name is, well, we call him Izzy. He's trying to get the hang of humans (and coffee). He's inclined to pinch people's backsides, and leave strange triangular scars. He has also been advised that abducting people while they are communing with their fellow writers is poor form. We're working on it. Please don't contact the government about this. It's our little secret.

  4. Don't hesitate to tell us about the great things that happen to you as well as the awful things. You never saw such a supportive bunch of folks. In fact, if bad things do befall you, and you tell us, stand well back from your computer. You may find yourself engulfed in friendship.

  5. Be yourself. If you're shy, and want to sit at the back, watching, that's just fine. If you want to talk and talk and talk, well that's fine too. If you want to complain about football, talk to Ike. He understands.

  6. Rides on the ceiling fan are free (but underwear is optional; the sign up there on the wall says it all). You will notice the recently-installed carousel horses on the blades. From up there the world looks very different, almost magical. You'll never want to come down. Also, please be sure to check out the contemplation garden outside, which Wolfpuppy likes to maintain for us, and has many interesting things to say about the Sixties, many of which are, no matter what you might think, true. Recently, we installed a luge track to take advantage of the icy conditions there in the Northern Hemisphere. So far Empress Barb and Adrian are locked in tense struggle for the Writingchat Winter Olympic luge team slot. Adrian thinks Barb hasn't got a chance, however. :) Last, but by no means least, watch out for the Brand New Tesseract Hot Tub and Water-Park! It will, when completed, look like a giant watery cube in the back, in one of the many many corners, but when you dive in, you will emerge in a vast water fun park, with huge slides, submarine rides, dolphins, whales you can talk to, actual hot-tubs, helpful staff which will provide suntan lotion, sunscreen lotion, various kinds of oil, and so forth. Also a sauna, in case you should be so inclined. We will no doubt have a huge party to mark the Grand Opening, so watch out.

    Oh yeah, you can also stop by and have a cup of coffee here in friendly surroundings and talk about stuff. No, really!

  7. Please dig up a photo of yourself and family for our web site. We'd all love to see you and wave hello. (This applies to all you other recalcitrants, too!)

  8. There is no eighth point.

  9. Watch out: this list can get very prolific. Expect lots of distractions. Personally, I do my writing late at night, after I've recovered from reading everything here. :) If you're subscribed to lots of other writing lists as well as this one, well, the only writing you'll be doing is email. And the horrible thing is, you'll enjoy it. If you need to duck out for a while here and there do get some actual writing done, that's fine, too. If you're feeling bummed out and blocked up, come and talk to us.

  10. Welcome aboard!