Chris Baty's Blog, page 255

On the road... again?!?

Hi there. Lindsey here. Remember me? I've been quiet on the blog lately, in part because I have been really busy! Apart from getting ready for NaNoWriMo (just under 40 days and counting, y'all!), I have been traveling. A lot!

This month alone, I went to Atlanta, GA for a family event; Fort Collins, CO with Chris Baty to throw a party for that fabulous fundraising region; and this past weekend I went up to Healdsburg, CA for some bike-riding and bowling birthday fun.

And that's just September!

I started my year with a trip to Disney Land in Anaheim, CA with one Sarah Mackey, followed by trips to Mendocino, CA; Vail, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Charleston, SC; Brooklyn, NY; and Truckee, CA.

That's ten trips, seven of which were by plane, five of which were family-related, and three of which were red-eye flights. Ouf. No wonder 2011 has been a blur!

(To make things even more exciting, my "other half" Pat accompanied me on seven of those trips in addition to his solo travels to London, Mexico, Zurich, New York, and three trips to Seattle. Our cat surely thinks he's been orphaned by us…)

It's been a strain on my sleep cycles, immune system, and wallet. But also allowed me to see so much more of the country than I ever thought possible in one nine-month period!

In my travels, I struggled to figure out how to commemorate each place. For a second I was buying the Starbucks keepsake mugs in every city. I then abandoned that (spendy, impersonal) approach for (cheaper, less corporate) photo documentation. But that seriously interfered with my ability to actually participate in and enjoy the trips, versus spending the whole time capturing it on camera.

Only now do I realize that I should have written something about each place: a short-short that I could then share with you fine people, for example!

I am a little chagrined that I have had this revelation now, 10 trips later.
That's a lot of short-shorts to catch up on!

How do you document your travels and capture the essence of a place while you're on the go?

– Lindsey

On Appreciating the Hufflepuffs

Growing up, everyone wanted to be in Gryffindor. If you characterized yourself as a do-gooder in the face of fear, or weathered hardships without complaint, you were a Gryffindor. If you always chose the high road and completed every side quest in every RPG, you were a Gryffindor. Gryffindor was the house of heroes, the house of the chosen one, and the house that Dumbledore seemed to rain upon with numerous points for whatever reason he deemed suitable.

"Harry finished his supper all by himself! Fifty points for Gryffindor!"
– Professor Dumbledore

But any of my friends with a dark side (no pun intended) would tell you that they preferred Slytherin. If you were the least bit cynical, but read your horoscope anyway, you were a Slytherin. Additonally, if you listened to death metal, you were probably a Slytherin. Slytherin was the house of riches to rags, the house that felt the constant glares of hatred from across the Great Hall, the house that was sick of all those goody-two-shoes Gryffindors. More importantly, though: Slytherin was cool. It had a history, a rivalry, a dark reputation, and it was a place for you to feel at home when you hit bouts of feeling like your parents just didn't understand.

And Ravenclaw—don't even get me started. If you were bookish, collected random facts, and loved solving puzzles, you were a Ravenclaw. If you over-analyzed everything, but never noticed when someone was flirting with you, you were a Ravenclaw. Ravenclaws watched TED talks and listened to public radio. Ravenclaws weren't brash; everything was deliberate, calculated. They saw themselves as the brains behind the brawn, and in addition, might have been a little snooty. The worst Ravenclaws listened to bands you "probably haven't heard of," and read Gravity's Rainbow in public, and the best wrote scripts to help you access all the blocked websites at work.

Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, get a pretty raw deal in the world of Harry Potter. You could never describe a Hufflepuff as "ambitious" or "valiant," or "brilliant." "Loyal" hardly seems as flashy a trait as any of the others. Jokingly, I used to imagine introducing a Hufflepuff boyfriend to my parents. In the scenario they'd wait until he left before saying, "Well, he's… nice." A friend of mine once said that the sorting hat sorted everyone, the world wouldn't divide up into equal fourths because Hufflepuff was for the rest. Hufflepuffs just weren't that special.

"There's more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking!"
– Cedric Diggory

But we all know a Hufflepuff. Some of our closest friends are probably Hufflepuffs. A Hufflepuff will split a cookie with you, and give you the bigger half without even thinking about it. Hufflepuffs always know how to defuse awkward situations. They make the best wingmen. They're not dramatic, they don't fish for compliments, and they never have problems dealing with change. When your ego gets the best of you, a Hufflepuff will keep it in check. Hufflepuffs are charismatic, empathetic, and easy to take for granted because they put their friends before anyone else.

Why? They don't need a reason why. A Hufflepuff doesn't need to know the good deeds you've done, or how powerful your wand is, and a Hufflepuff doesn't care how you do at math (thank goodness).

What in the world does any of that have to do with good friendship? If you ask me, all the other houses need to constantly reaffirm their identities, forever reminding themselves that they faced dragons, or got "Exceeds Expectations" on their OWLs. Hufflepuffs stand alone, knowing in themselves, who they are, being constantly under-appreciated, deserving of respect, but never demanding it. So I urge you today to appreciate the Hufflepuffs in your life because a Hufflepuff makes for a solid friend and all-around admirable person.

What about you? What kind of person did you see yourself, and, in your case, what house would make the best home? 

– Ari

We're all moving to Fort Collins.

Last week, NaNoWriMo Program Director Lindsey and I flew to Colorado. It was the first time we'd ever business-tripped together, and we were flying out to throw a thank-you party for the Fort Collins NaNoWriMo region. The FoCo folks gathered over 10,000 books for the drive last fall, which earned them a huge spot in our hearts. And a very large pizza party.

The fiesta, held in the space kindly donated by the Fort Collins library, was so much fun. We met a ton of great people, ate fantastic food, and even got a chance to sample a couple of the locally brewed libations. Before leaving town, we also visited a couple of Fort Collins' dreamy independent bookstores and cafes.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the party and inspired us with tales of high-velocity prose! We want to extend a special hug to the Fort Collins Municipal Liaisons Jewels and Bonnie, who did so much work to make the evening happen. Lindsey and I both went a little FoCo loco, and plan on moving to Fort Collins shortly.

– Chris B.

Some more snapshots from the party!

(Me, in the most frightening photo ever, feeling very sad that the party is over.)

File under: Blinding Silver Linings

That's my brother Daniel, he's a writer. Like most of us, he wasn't always a writer, or he wasn't, and then was, and then wasn't. Sound familiar? Daniel was a computer programmer for many years, the only other person in my family to go to college. When I was in grad school, working on the thesis that would become my novel, Daniel said, I'm going to write a novel, too. I was in an MFA program, surrounded by folks "writing novels" and I admit, I didn't take him too seriously. A few months later, Daniel surprised me by sending me a fat manuscript.

Almost three years ago, when I was the Champion Queen Fundraising Bee of the Night of Writing Dangerously, Daniel was my first donor, setting the bar for my other three brothers (which they met, go bros!), and then surprising me by flying from Georgia to San Francisco for the NOWD. He bought his plane ticket when I first started my fundraising endeavors, without telling me, that confident that I'd win.

File what happens next under Long Stories Short… About a month after the 2008 NOWD, Daniel was hospitalized, went into a coma, and many weeks later finally returned to us but having suffered an "anoxic insult," which is an incredibly insufficient Latin phrase for: brain injury. He lost approximately 20 years of his memory (it took weeks for him to understand I was his grown sister and not the nicest lady at the hospital) and many of his basic skills (it took this ex-computer programmer three months to re-learn to dial a phone).

I'm sharing horrors, I know, to be filed under Things That Are Not Supposed to Happen Ever… but I wouldn't have us crack that file open if there weren't riches in it. Inside the Things That Are Not Supposed to Happen Ever folder, and you know this if you've had to open it yourself, are the folders: Who Your Friends Are and What You're Made of. Nearly three years down the caregiving road, I've learned you can't even touch those last two folders without opening the first one. You aren't even sure they exist before that. Them's the rules.

Nearly three years down the recovery road, Daniel's skills continue to increase thanks in huge part to a fantastic program he attends for those with acquired disabilities. He works around the short-term memory problems that might never leave him and has developed a great deal of faith to work around the long-term memory that might never return to him. He takes the bus, he volunteers, and many of his volunteer hours have been spent at OLL, a place he adores.

One of the perks of working at OLL is the merch, which we get to test-run, and so I gathered some posters for Daniel to try out for me, the four in the picture and the Script Frenzy "Page Frenzy" Poster. I wasn't sure if he'd hang them up or not but he took them home. When I talked to Daniel a few days later, he surprised me by saying: I'm writing a novel. I asked him what had inspired him and he said: That poster you gave me. Stop Watching. Start Writing. Then he read me the first page of his new manuscript.

Now, in-between our talks of doctor visits and med lists, Daniel and I talk about plot and backstory. In-between talks about memory exercises and insurance forms, we talk about foreshadowing and character development; in-between our talks about what is a true memory and what is one fabricated to fill in a blank, we weigh the mysteries of fiction versus nonfiction. He doesn't remember writing his first novel (you should have seen his face when I presented it to him) but my brother, the writer, is back. Talk about a perk.

Stop Watching. Start Writing. If those four words can be that powerful, think of what mountains will be moved with the 50,000 words you'll write this November. This has been my brother's story. Surprise yourself with yours. We believe in you.

– Tupelo

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

No, I'm not talking back-to-school. I don't care about the crisp fall weather or the turning leaves. I'm not a football fan (hockey is my game). I love this time of year because it means the new TV season is starting at last. Yippee!

I have written before about my enthusiastic appreciation for all things television. And there is nothing I love more than the fresh slate of a new crop of programs. Except maybe all my old favourites coming back for another season.

I picked up Community and Parks and Recreation over the summer, so I'm all set for sitcoms and am probably watching more of them than I ever have before. Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory are both on the bubble since they got a little repetitive for me towards the end of last season, so if either Up All Night or The New Girl turn out to be awesome, they might get the axe. I will watch How I Met Your Mother until the end of time, because I love that show even though it's not what it once was.

Dramas, though, I'm a little short on. I watch and love Castle, and all my friends watch that too so it's a good one for post-game Twitter discussion. But I'm short on the long arc shows that I love so much. My favourite kind of TV show is one that requires you to watch every week and sends you immediately online to analyze within an inch of its life. I've watched plenty in the past—Lost, Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, and Veronica Mars are among my most obsessive—but they all seem to have ended or been cancelled in the last few years.

So I'm giving a bunch of new ones a whirl to see what sticks. I watched the pilot of Ringer the other night (residual Buffy love) and I'll give it a week or two to find its feet. I've set my PVR for Pan Am and Terra Nova—the former because I like Mad Men and Christina Ricci, the latter because I think my husband will like it too and shows we both watch are few and far between. I'm hoping at least one of them is worth over-analyzing on the internet, because my post-Lost world is sadly devoid of obsessive dissection.

What are you watching this fall?

– Sarah

Photo by Flickr user 7-how-7

What's your favorite OLL shirt?

As you may have heard, we are celebrating the 13th year of NaNoWriMo with a very special sale. Through next Thursday, September 22, all t-shirts in the OLL store are just $13. It's an opportunity to pick up a design you've always coveted at a nice price, or stock up on extras for winter-layering in November. Who needs a coat?

We really love all the shirts we've designed over the years, but we each have our own special favorites. Here, let us tell you about them. And once you're done reading, be sure to post in the comments about your favorite OLL shirt!

Sarah – NaNoWriMo "Team 2008"

I have a sentimental attachment to this shirt, because NaNoWriMo 2008 was the year I attended the Night of Writing Dangerously for the first time and met the amazing people who are now my co-workers. There's a little bit of magic in this shirt, I think.

Lindsey – Camp NaNoWriMo "Logo"

The Camp NaNoWriMo t-shirt preceded the actual event by a year, but ended up perfectly encapsulating the wonderful whimsy, nostalgia, and naturalism of writing a novel "at Camp." The only thing this shirt is missing is the sound of crickets and the crackle of the campfire.

Chris B. – It's a tie!

NaNoWriMo "Est. 1999"

When we were designing this shirt, we really wanted a simple, clean, timeless NaNoWriMo shirt that featured at least three nines on it. And we got it. I love this shirt.

OLL "Bubble Logo"

I wear this shirt at least once a week. Slate gray shirt + light blue logo = So beautiful it makes me cry. (This means I cry at least once a week, which is problematic.)

Chris A. – NaNoWriMo YWP "All-Natural NaNo-Novelist"

The first shirt I helped make as YWP Director! I still think it's a very clever visual idea, awesomely brought to fruition (sorry) by designer Graham Dobson. The brainstorming for this was also when I realized that I work with geniuses: I came in with a loose slogan, and just a few minutes with Lindsey and Tavia inspired an overall concept and aesthetic that I couldn't have come close to on my own.

Max – NaNoWriMo YWP "All-Natural NaNo-Novelist"

This was no easy choice. I'm still yearning for a reprint of my old typewriter-keys-and-finger-prints shirt, which I enthusiastically wore to nerdy tatters in high school.

My current favorite is definitely the "All Natural NaNo-Novelist" shirt. You know the one: with that attractive-retro novel-juice-box that says "I'm in a good mood" just by using the proper bubble-print. The straw seems to be reaching up, into the future, away!

Paige – NaNoWriMo "Love Books"

I just think this shirt is so classy. Simple design, elegant graphics, lovely script, and gentle colours. Plus—my favourite part—the little heart in the pen nib! (Other people must love this shirt, too, because we just sold out. But don't worry, we'll get a new shipment in October!)

Tupelo  – Script Frenzy "Ext. Day"

All of our shirts help create confidence, but did you know that confidence extends to those around us? I was proposed to while wearing this shirt! I wore it and someone believed in me, for, like, ever. Wear it and believe in yourself!

Breaking the Reader-Author Boundary

I don't know how many of you have Kindles, or any sort of e-reader, but I ran across something last week, and I think it's relevant for anyone who reads or writes at all. On The New Yorker's book blog, Mark O'Connell posted "@Reading in the Age of @Author," about a new feature in the beta-testing stages for the Kindle. The feature is called @Author, and it will allow readers to highlight certain sections of text (in books from participating authors) and ask the author questions about it.

There are many factors at play here, from super-connectivity in our technological age, to the process of reading itself. However, I think the most crucial is what this means for the role readers play in creating meaning. As O'Connell points out, the prevailing attitude has long been that an author is separate from the work, and that "the reader's interpretation should carry just as much weight as the author's intention." Much to the consternation of many high school English teachers, I agree with this statement, and I'd wager many of you do, too. Thus, my biggest fear about the @Author feature is that it will demote the reader's experience and interpretation to a thing of lesser importance.

On the flip side of the coin, @Author could facilitate some great analytic conversation about a piece of literature—conversation that readers don't usually get to have with the creator of that work. As an author, I would be very interested in this conversation, and finding out what readers are taking away from something I have written.

What do you think, Wrimos? Do you see danger, or exciting prospects? And does your opinion of @Author change when you consider it from either side of the author/reader fence? (Also, it's a shame @Author can't get us in touch with deceased writers! Now there is a piece of technology I would jump on.) I want to know what you think!

– Paige

Photo by Flickr user bfishadow.

Double greetings!

Hello, lovelies! I'm the other new intern, Ari. I haven't written anything this summer aside from book reviews and letters to my friend in Hungary, so this intro blog entry has to be the most difficult task before getting back into the swing of things. "People want to know about you, Arianna!" Chris A. said to me. Challenge accepted.

A little bit about me: I play blues guitar, solve Rubik's Cubes, and read endlessly. I'm a nervous driver, and a reluctant internet junkie. I grew up in the Bay Area, but I studied creative writing at UC Santa Cruz, among the deer, the beaches, and the redwoods.

You guys. This is literally my first day. My first day. Someone must have set their phasers to stun, because that's how I awoke this morning. Wanting to dress to impress, I put some fresh Band-Aids on my knees where I skinned them this past weekend. Walking into OLL, I knew I was going to love it. If you haven't seen it, it's a long office with clean white walls, decorated with posters from past NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy events. The office chairs are pretty comfy, and supportive when I sit cross-legged and go into blog lady mode. I feel like a kid at a new school, except in this case my new school is classy as you-know-what. 

I eagerly await November with the rest of you! 

– Ari

The Magic of Portland!

In my gypsy-caravan-style life, I've lived in some great cities. I miss Brooklyn, Seattle is gorgeous, Los Angeles is like a mother to me, and I hella heart Oakland. But there's one city I haven't had the chance to live in yet that is so very seductive I find myself comparing it to Brooklyn (before Williamsburg broke my heart by becoming a tiny mall), one city that I find myself thinking about when Oakland isn't looking: Portland. Oh, Portland! The rain! The roses! The incredibly effective public transportation! I've been there many times and have happy stories about those visits but happy stories are easy. I think a sad story is the best data to prove my theory that Portland is especially magic. And so it begins:

I was visiting Portland to attend a wedding with an ex… and we became exes about midway through the wedding's reception. Back at the hotel, the Jordan almonds all gone (I ate his too, the jerk) and my mascara running, I called my BFF. I lived in L.A. at the time and my BFF lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. But guess where she just happened to be? In Portland, for a last-minute business trip! She came to pick me up and we drove around the city in the mist, our talk—about all the breakups we'd survived over the years and how that meant I'd survive this one—fogging up the windows of her rental car. And what is the most important part of this? What should we write quickly in the fading condensation on the windows of her rental? My BFF was in Portland!

The next morning, I wandered around the city and into a bookstore where I bought the first three books in the Mary Poppins series to read on the plane ride home. I'd always wanted them and would have bought them all if I had room in my bag. And what's the important part here? What should the security screen at the airport have read when I sent my bag full of Poppins down the conveyor belt? A tiny Portland bookstore had the entire Mary Poppins series! Despite the irony of breaking up at a wedding, despite the Jordan-almond hangover, I still think of that trip fondly because, just like a train running on schedule, Portland welcomed me aboard, mascara face and all, and took me to a better place.

If that isn't enough to make my case that Portland is magic, may I present you with some brand new evidence. Powell's (the glorious Portland bookstore) and the Office of Letters and Light are now partners! What does this mean?! It means we've joined ranks with the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin and the Portland Oregonian! It means, when you click on any Powell's link we provide, like this one for the Ready, Set, Novel! Writer's Workbook, and then purchase the book we've linked to, 7.5% of that purchase is returned to us! Doesn't that just sparkle?! Isn't that just like Portland?!

Have you been to Portland? Are you from Portland? Are you in Portland right now? (Say hi for me!) What cities do you love? Which ones do you miss? What magic is afoot in your town?

– Tupelo

Photo by Flickr user ColbyAley

You should come to the Night of Writing Dangerously.

There are a lot of things I really love about my job here at the Office of Letters and Light, but probably my favourite is everything to do with the Night of Writing Dangerously. This year will be my third as the Write-a-thon Cruise Director, and my fourth attending the event.

The trouble with our annual fundraising gala is it is very hard to describe in words or even pictures. While those who have attended can speak to the experience (and I hope they will here in the comments), the atmosphere of the event is hard to distill into a snappy blog post.

Still, nobody ever said I didn't like a challenge, so I'll give it a whirl. Why? Because I want every single one of you out there reading this blog post to stop for a moment and think, really think, about whether you could raise $250 for the Office of Letters and Light and get yourself to San Francisco on November 20.I know what you're going to say. You live far away. You're broke. You have school/work/kids/a very needy hamster. I'm not asking you to drop everything and come to the Julia Morgan Ballroom that night. I'm just asking you to consider it.

Because when you arrive at the ballroom on the 15th floor of the Merchants' Exchange Building, you'll be greeted by waiters offering Cosmonoveltons and Noveltinis. You'll mingle with your fellow attendees, admiring everyone's noir-themed outfits while basking in the warmth of supporting your favourite non-profit and the large, beautiful fireplace. You'll check your coat with our friendly volunteers.

And then the doors will open, you'll walk past the mahogany bar, and you'll find yourself in a giant luxury ballroom full of tables and chairs, with a 27-foot fireplace at the other end, surrounded by windows overlooking the lights of San Francisco. You'll settle in at a table with the friends you made on the Write-a-thon forum or during cocktail hour, and you'll dive into your tote bag full of goodies, including the Write-a-thon poster you see at the top of this blog post.

You'll plug your laptop into the power bar and log on to the wireless that Dan and Jezra set up. You'll post on Facebook, "I'm at the Night of Writing Dangerously RIGHT NOW!!!" and all your friends will like your post and beg for photos. You'll tweet with the #nowd hashtag, and you'll find everyone else doing the same, and you'll all squeal together virtually, then realise you can squeal together in person and agree to meet at the candy buffet.

And then you'll discover the candy buffet and temporarily forget about your new Twitter friends. You'll marvel at the array of candy and then launch yourself into what promises to be an evening-long sugar high, propelled by not only the sumptuous display at the candy buffet, but the craziest selection of donuts you've ever seen in your life, followed a few hours later by cookies homemade by Tavia, OLL's Operations Manager.

You'll take your fists full of candy over to the door prize table, where you'll pace back and forth with your new Twitter friends, debating which prizes to enter your name for. You'll chat with the OLL staff manning the table, and you'll get to put a face to the names on the staff page. You'll finally make your choice and carefully fill out your name on the tickets and enter them into the boxes in front of your picks.

When you head back to your table, name entered for door prizes and pockets full of candy, you'll find the waiters there, offering you another beverage from the open bar. You'll talk to the rest of the OLL staff as they make their way through the crowds, and you'll thank Chris Baty in person for the craziest 13 years of literary abandon anyone could ask for. He'll hang out at your table for a while, and when he walks away you'll all comment on how tall he is and that he looks nice in his hat. (The man can really wear a hat.)

And then you will finally remember to turn on your laptop, and you'll dive into your novel and experience the magical feeling of writing your novel in a room with 250 other people doing exactly the same thing. Maybe you'll win a word sprint, and you'll be rewarded with prizes and the delight of the flowerpot hat. You'll write like fury, propelled by the collective energy of 250 writers who have had way too much candy, and you'll stop only to devour a delicious array of easy-to-eat-while-writing dinner choices.

Perhaps your table will win the first word-count challenge, and you'll toast your victory with your newest friends. You may even reach 50,000 words, and you will experience the glory of sprinting to the front of the ballroom to ring the victory bell. You'll receive your winner's crown, and you will wear it proudly as you make your way back to the table clutching your prizes.

After six hours of sugar-fueled mayhem, you'll make your way to the elevators with your new friends, laughing and arguing about what the most awesome part of the night was. And you'll split up when you get to the street, getting into cars or catching cabs or walking to BART with a dozen other writers so you can prolong the feeling a little longer. You'll get home, and you'll tweet sad things with the #nowd hashtag about how you can't believe it's already over.

And you'll start making plans to come back next year.

If you want to attend the 2011 Night of Writing Dangerously, you can find all the details on our Write-a-thon page.

All I'm asking is that you think about it.

– Sarah