Friday, November 17, 2006

Friday Night Faculty Potluck @ The Writers Center

The House on Q St, Ann McLaughlin's delightful WW II -era novel set in Washington DC, was one subject of conversation tonight at the Writers Center's faculty potluck. Madam Mayo dropped her jaw at the news that McLaughlin has started writing her seventh novel (!) Most of the other discussions, it seemed to Madam Mayo, were about the on-line world-- what the heck is a blog? How does an on-line workshop work? Writers Center Director Gregory Robison talked about the new on-line tools now available to instructors on www.writer.org. Blogging guru Chris Abraham, (who helped Madam Mayo get that RSS feed stuff up there), had plenty to say about the nature and power of blogs. Basil White, who gives the comedy writing workshop, talked about combining on-line discussions, or what he called "webisodes," with face-to-face meetings. Doreen Baingana talked about her experience giving an on-line fiction writing workshop, in part, from Uganda. Also in attentance: Sunil Freeman, Leslie Pietrzyk, Ginnie Hartman, Ellen Braaf, Margaret Blair, and poets Judith McCombs, Miles David Moore, and many others. Excellent to see all. Write on!