Today we had our second Writers’ Happy Hour and we had even more folks than last time, if you can believe it. Unfortunately, I had to miss most of it because of my Job Search. Fortunately, my good friend and most excellent author Martin Wilsey stepped up to do introductions and get the conversational ball rolling.
Of course, there wasn’t time for me to get comfortable when the business call was over, as then someone wanted me to get Hulu working on her iPad. It wasn’t until 20:45 that I was finally able to dedicate some time to our exciting and free-form happy hour discussion, missing the first one hundred and five minutes. But for the bits I did attend, I had a lot of fun, and I think everyone else did too.
A couple things though did come up when Marty and I considered the post-mortem discussion. For our second Writers’ Happy Hour we had a few people dominate the conversation while others may have felt left out and thus exited early. Marty and I are thinking of ways to engage the shier folks to get them to feel more comfortable participating in the discussion.
Marty also informed me of the devolution of conversation into technical jargon of a non-writing nature. I missed it but agree that we need to steer conversations clear of such non sequiturs. We welcome all topics of discussion, but we must try to avoid fixating on a topic only a handful of participants understand.
Finally, there is the third rail of politics. Marty and I may be of different political bents but we first and foremost respect each other. Not all writers are progressive or conservative and we need to realize that and not demonize folks of a political leaning different from our own. As someone who writes extensively about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and the Equal Rights Amendment, I know first-hand how important it is to be non-partisan and respect differing political leanings while sticking to the facts. In future, Marty and I will be mindful of that too.
Overall, though, a great Writers’ Happy Hour with great conversations and delicious beverages. Of course, my beverage of choice is always Hydrogen Hydroxide, and I enjoyed every sip. Thank you for reading, and now back to writing.
Follow my socials!