It’s going to be a party. It’s going to be a Tweetup. It’s all about you and us and some food and some networking. It’s the first ever Castle Tojosan Tweetup.

You and you and you are invited. Oh wait, you’re not late though. The date is Friday, February 19th. The time? 6PM Central and beyond.

Warning – it’s mostly BYOB though I have a couple of bottles of wine in the house. I will take your keys if you’re toast.

This is intended to be a family and friend deals. Bring your kids, bring your wanna be tweeps, bring the garbage man if you like him.

I’ve got wifi, sodas, and video games and movies for the kids. As for food, the plan is to order some pizza, put out some chips, and make some finger sammies.  Whatever else turns up, I won’t mind.

We mostly stock Pepsi products but if ask ahead I can grab a few other sodas.  We’ll also have iced tea on hand.

Oh wait, you want to know where right? St. Peters, Mo. Um. Need more?

5 Westwood Estates Drive.

Google map?

Recap: Tweetup at Castle Jordan – it’s on Foursqure!

Bring yourself and your kids if you’d like. BYOB. Wireless. Big TV w/DVD player, Wii, XBox 360. Jigsaw puzzles. Cards. Yahtzee. Origami. Bring your camera/camcorder.

Food as it works out. If you have special food rules please contact me ahead of time.

Please RSVP here, vai Twitter, email, etc, and remember to tweet it up-  http://wp.me/pfLxC-uv

Note: we have a very friendly dog. He’s about 23 lbs. We don’t give him people food.

National Novel Writing Month doesn’t just take place on your computer; it is happening all across the world.  In my case that area of the world is the St. Louis metro. Today we held our first official write-in.

Hosted by the ML, Municipal Liaison, the official write-ins act as way to get a bunch of local are writers in the same place at the same time.  The idea isn’t to hold a big party, though you could have one.  Supporting each other is the goal.

Leading into my first write-in we held a little pre-party.  Folks showed up with food and beverages, and laptops.  Of course, they all showed up ready to get writing. In our case we mostly stayed away from the alcohol, but there was plenty of caffeine.

Music played a big part of our evening. The host provided some selections but a couple of the attendees brought their own as well. Quite a variety of tastes but a lot of fun.  Another cool party was a bit of Firefly flashback.

On the Halloween episode of Castle, the character, played by Nathan Fillion, is getting decked out in costume. The surprise? He’s getting decked out as a space cowboy, ala his character Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly.  It’s a hoot because not only does he recreate that look perfectly, he gives us a bit of the old swagger.  Producers managed to squeeze in a bit of the old Firefly music riffs as well. Needless to say in a room of fans it was riotous and required several rewinds and replays.

Midnight was brought in with another flashback, this time to Thunderbirds.  It was the countdown from the beginning of the episodes.  Again the group went wild with laughter. Talk about a great way to kick off the writing.

Writing commenced.  There were Macs, Dells, HPs.  Laptops and netbooks were involved. Music and chit-chat provided a continuous background for the writing. There was even a bit of a music battle going back and forth at one point.

In the middle of the 2 hours of writing, we had a word war. A word war is where two or more groups compete to have the highest word average for a given period of time.  We set the timer and went to town. Talk about a keying frenzy!!

This encouraging group lead me to about 1500 words in two hours. That’s with talking, laughing, and goofing around.  At the end of two hours, most of us packed up and headed out but this one event will stick with me the whole month.

Planning on making more of these this month.  If you’ve not been to one yet, I recommend you find one in your area and get involved.  Give one a try at least. You might find the writing much easier.

Do you have a NaNoWriMo experience to share?

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National Novel Writing Month is upon us.  As in years before, thousands of would-be authors will sit at their keyboards and attempt to bang out 50,000 words or more. Yours truly will be attempting it as well.

This will be my third attempt. In years past, though I’ve had writing buddies on the nanowrimo site, I’ve not attended in live events, nor had in person writing buddies.  St. Louis though has a large community of nanowrimo authors so I decided to get some face time this year; the hope being that I’ll be more encouraged, inspired and challenged to complete fifty thousand words.

Saturday we had a kick-off party hosted by etoiline. She brought some goodies, captured our names, and set us to mingling.  This Saturday is the Halloween pre-party in St. Louis.  Party will lead into a November 1st writing kick-off.  Hopefully there’ll be room for me in there somewhere. Writing should go till about 2 AM.

Writing will be helped along throughout the month by write-ins all over the St. Louis metro area.  Planning is in the works for write-ins out St. Charles and St. Peters way.

Beyond the face time though, I’d still love to have some extra buddies along for the ride.  You’ll find me on the nanowrimo site as tojosan. Go. Click. Buddy.

What’s your novel?

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Slideshow is from the St. Louis NaNoWriMo Kick-off party on October 24th. Jennifer, @etoiline, organized, while a couple dozen of us showed up to hang out, get some good eats, and chat about our novels-to-be.

Signup was more than just jotting down our names. After recording our names, and forum IDs, Jennifer asked us to create “plot ninjas”. A plot ninja is basically a sentence or idea recorded on an index card. These will be used later to help folks through writer’s block. In exchange for filling out a plot ninja card, novelists received a gift bag.

Conversation wasn’t just about novels. We talked about jobs, current and past. People shared past NaNoWriMo experiences, including what helped and what didn’t. Personal histories were shared as well, such as trips to foreign countries, family stories, and music they love to write to.

A quick survey netted a range of novel themes, from horror, to chic lit, and several folks planning a sci-fi novel. Me? I’m leaning towards horror/thriller. Dean Koontz will be a heavy influence either way.

Next up is the Halloween Pre-Party leading into the first write-in, at midnight.

Can’t wait to get writing!
Cheers,
Todd
Find me on NaNoWriMo and friend me.

Say Goodbye ChinaCat, Hello SeattleCat Tweetup

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You can read more about the story on the St. Louis Bloggers’ Guild site, but I wanted to write a bit here as well.  I’ll be plugging more of the guild’s events and get togethers as well.

This party didn’t wait for your’s truly to show.  Bloggers had already snagged us the best corner in the place, right by the DJ.  Lights hadn’t even dimmed and folks were already getting into groups, with conversation flowing like water.

Raquita and I cornered Jason Wall at one end for a while, while Bill Streeter and Dana held court at the other end.  It was packed house as names you know and love in St. Louis blogging piled in.  Soon there were beers, and burgers and appetizers in the mix, and then it got loud.

As it got dark, the lighting of the place really kicked in.  Even the disco ball was lit up.  The noise and music picked up at the same and folks had to huddle close to be heard.  This made it seems even more like friends gathered together. Of course there were heated discussions, lazy chats, and plan hatching.  Rumors of future events were heard as well.

Me? I’ve picked up some new viewpoints on religion, photography, and video blogging. I’m sure other’s got some interesting tidbits as well.  And then there were cameras.

I’d brought mine and several others brought their’s. I know Rebeccas, Raquita, Jason, Dana, and more had cameras in hand.  Bill even snagged some shots with his iPhone.  We grabbed a couple of us manly man together as well.

Atomic Cowboy is a great venue for a get together, but the evening wasn’t without incident. One of our bloggers had their car broken in to.  A few things were stolen but thankfully no one was hurt.  The police showed up after the fact.  It really puts a damper on things.

To sum up, I had a great time, even being a wall flower sort myself.  I took a few photos, which you’ll see on my Flickr stream first but some will be here and a few over at St. Louis Bloggers Guild.

Have you ever watched someone making video while they drove their truck? Filmed from inside the truck?  That’s Jeff Hibbard and his idea of social media gone crazy.

What about the live parties with chat and video from all over and guests? That’s what Jonny Goldstein brings us every Wednesday evening.  Now that’s a party and half to be part of.

These two guys bring the fun and social back into social media.  What makes these two interesting the most?  The conversational tone and viewer involvement.

Jeff doesn’t just sit there and make faces or act goofy. Okay, he does some of that.  Jeff does more though, by talking to us, about us, and he gives you the feeling of being there.  Especially when he’s talking with us while filming out the front window of the truck.  Cheers to Jeff.

Jonny? He’s all about the real time conversation.  Not content to just act silly by himself like most of the YouTube folks out there, Jonny invites guests each week to join him at his place for a live party.  And guess who else is invited? That’s right; you and I are invited along.

Jonny puts him and his guest(s) online live, and even brings in the occasional guest on another camera.  Jeff Hibbard joined one time live from the truck!  Now that’s what social media is all about.

Though I’ve highlighted Jeff and Jonny, they are far from the only two out there that are engaging us with their efforts.  One of my other favorites for putting the social into social networks and media is Jeff Pulver, who recently brought us his Personal Social Networking Toolkit.

So what interesting and fun things have your social networks brought you? Who engages you? Share with me?