 Hello and welcome everybody we're very happy to have you join us for our June writers lunch virtually here at mechanics Institute we're happy to welcome you all. The writers lunch is a casual virtual brown bag lunch activity on the third Friday of each month. Look forward to craft discussion informal presentations on all forms of writing an excellent conversation. My name is Alyssa stone. I'm the senior director of programs and community engagement here at mechanics Institute, carrying on the torch of the writers lunch from Taren Edwards who has moved on to another organization. For those who are new to mechanics Institute welcome we are so glad that you have found us and are joining today's writers lunch. Mechanics Institute was founded in 1854 and is one of San Francisco's most vital literary and cultural centers in the heart of the city. Mechanics Institute features a general interest library and internationally renowned chess club ongoing author and literary programs and the cinema lit film series. Visit our website. My library.org to learn more about our upcoming programs. For example, this this very evening we are celebrating bloom stay, which is the annual worldwide feast set to James Joyce's you will see his feast. And hopefully some of y'all are joining us for bloom stay this very evening. If you have not been to mechanics Institute before or it's been a while, we do a free weekly tour every Wednesday at noon of the building. It is a wonderful experience so please do come join us on a Wednesday for a tour of mechanics Institute. For this discussion with our esteemed guests, there will be q amp a from the audience. If you would like you can pop your questions into the chat, and I will read them out loud for our guests. Please mark your calendars for the writers lunch on Friday, July 21 for the topic of telling forgotten stories. Moderator Cheryl bees boot will be joined by three award winning writers poet Heather or bow journalist Alyssa Greenberg and author Julia series as they discuss writing overlooked histories. So why is community, an important part of the writing process and how can we develop a strong community of support for writers. Today we are joined by four fabulous writers who will help us learn how to create a community together. As part of this event, there is a companion tour at Page Street slated for Friday, June 30 at 1230. And I will be there to help greet and welcome all of our mechanics Institute community for that tour of Page Street on Friday, July 30 at 1230, and I'll pop some more information in the chat about that momentarily. I'm first going to introduce Janice Cook Newman, who will host and moderate our discussion with our guests today. Janice Cook Newman is the author of a memoir and two award winning historical novels. Janice has also been a well published travel writer for the past two decades. Publishing her first book in 2001, Janice has been committed to helping other writers get their work out into the world. In 2009, Janice started the highly successful writing classes program at the San Francisco writers grotto and curated them for five years. In 2012, Janice founded lit camp, a juried writers conference that's held annually. And finally, Janice launched an online community for writers called creative caffeine daily, and I'm very happy to welcome Janice now. Thank you Janice. Thank you so much, Alyssa, and just to speak to community. I'm going to say, there's a bunch of people here that I know Jane, I recognize you, Bonnie, I've seen you in ages, lovely to see you Carol, Tessa. And so I always see her writing so it's lovely to see this much of the community coming together. So I just want to kick off with a short personal story and that is, when I was working on my first two books. I've really had almost no writing community. I was pretty much on my own, I had some teachers one or two people who might be in a group but no real community. And it was very hard. It was hard to navigate the sort of dailiness of being a writer and it was really hard to navigate dealing with agents and publishers and editors because I did not have a lot of my peers to talk about. So when I started my third book, I was invited to join the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and it really was life changing. Suddenly, I had these folks I was surrounded by them. I could see them selling their books which I think we always need to see to remind us that it does happen. I got a referral to my agent from one of my peers at the Grotto. So it really convinced me that having a writerly community is important. The first year that we did the lit camp writers conference. And I expected when it was done that all the participants all the writers would be saying, you know, can I have the agency mail or can I have the editors email. And actually what they wanted was each other's emails. And that too drove home the idea of how much we as writers, grave community. What we're going to do today is I've invited three of my writerly colleagues to be here, because each one can speak to a different aspect of creating your own community that I've been involved with. So we'll go through each one, more or less chronologically, and then at the end for sure open it up to questions to all of you. I have a very good morning. Some of you who have participated in these things I might just give you a shout out to. Yeah. So I want to start off with Jackie Davis Martin. And I'll read her bio. Although, I have no Jackie I think I've known you for two decades for sure. Jackie has had a number of fiction and nonfiction pieces published in both print and online journals, including prizes awarded by press 53 new millennium soul making kids and others. A memoir surviving Susan was published in 2012 and a novel stop gaps in 2022. She is currently working on a new memoir, those several summers, and I read some of this memoir I think it's terrific. And I'm going to ask Jackie to talk about the online community creative caffeine daily, which came out of a manual version Iran that 2009, and which we finally launched in 2020. Jackie and also I see Bonnie who's here. There are some of the original members so Jack I'm going to turn it over to you to describe how creative caffeine works, what it's like, how and if it's helped you. Okay, thank you Janice, and thank you Alyssa and everybody for the opportunity. Yes, Janice is right we go way back. I've known, I've taken everything that Janice has offered I think on the past two decades. And I think one of the initial things was creative caffeine in addition to classes at her house and in the grotto, but creative caffeine has benefited me personally, a great deal. I want to explain how it happens. It, she did it manually at first and then later on turned it into an app but function basically the same way. So that is, we would kind of sign up for a month, and each week we would get a prompt on Monday, well get five prompts Monday through Friday, but we'd be assigned a partner for the week also on Monday. The idea was you would write to the prompt for 10 minutes or so, send that writing to your partner, and expect a comment, not a big one but at least an acknowledgement perhaps some comment. And in turn that partner would send their writing to you. And at the end of the week, if all went well you would have five little things that you've written. Personally, I actually developed an entire novella based on moving through prompts. I just started some of them down. I think one was something like virgin or something and I began Virginia met Henry in the coffee room. I took the word and turned it into a name, and I just kept moving through with that. I also with my current memoir use those prompts. But so, in addition to that, so many short pieces and everything, but we're talking about community. So, yes, I too know Bonnie and I recognized her. I was creative caffeine partners with my good friend Pam. I was let's see some other other people here that I was creative caffeine partners with. But what was nice when Janice had this open house at Page Street and also before that you had an informal when you were still doing it manually. It was so much fun to say, Oh, I know you from creative caffeine. And it kind of, it was another way of building community. These were these were your friends you got to know them pretty well through their writing. Let me see. I've had a number of short fictions and nonfiction pieces just based on these daily prompts. They're interesting prompts. It's not just something like love. Janice pulls phrases out of what Janice poetry or something. It's enough to keep you going, swimming underwater, moving toward crisis those were a couple of things on the brink that kind of pushed me forward, because they suggest some sort of movement. And I have enjoyed the program enormously and it's been productive to me both in friendship and in writing. That's it. Cardinal sin, not on meeting. Thank you for that. And as I'm thinking, and I'll coordinate this with Alyssa. I will create a coupon code for anyone tuned in here who was interested in trying creative caffeine for a month for nothing. And you can see if it's for you if it if it helps you or, you know, doesn't, but at least you'll have a chance and I'll coordinate with that with Alyssa and she'll pass that on to all of you. I just want to be at one little thing and that is Janice you become more merciful. Not that you weren't before, but I mean, people sometimes feel uneasy about having to produce five different things in one week. And you have said just try to do three. And yes, and we get to kind of evaluate each other's ability as a partner, the reliability. And so we do that. And you can write every day Monday for Friday, but there's the option to just do three in a week. Right. So I'll make sure to, I'm going to get a chance I'll put the link to creative caffeine in the chat and then you can read more about what it is. All right, I want to move on to Suzanne. I'm also known for quite a while. And I'm going to read her bio. Suzanne Perry is a novelist journalist essayist book reviewer and author interviewer whose writing focuses on stories of displacement and belonging of identity and assimilation of trauma and resilience. In New Jersey to an Iranian father and an American mother. She grew up both in the United States and Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced her family into permanent exile. Her first novel the fortune catcher has been translated into six languages, and her nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times Sunday magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe and National Public Radio. She divides her time between Northern California and New York, and this January her second novel which you can see behind her in the time of our history, which is a beautiful book. I feel like I've been involved in the writing of it for a very long time. And I highly recommend you get Suzanne's book but I'm going to ask Suzanne to talk about something we created during the pandemic, which we hopefully humorously titled surveillance writing and created some community and also I think kept our sanity. So Suzanne I turn it to you. Thank you Janice. I first want to say that I also used creative caffeine. While I was waiting for an interminably long time for my agent to sell my novel. I was really at a loss so Jackie, I was on there anonymously so I've definitely exchanged work with you with others. Next, I just put myself on there as word nerd. So now everybody knows who I am. But it was really, really helpful for me to use the prompts to sort of go through that period of time. So surveillance writing right before the pandemic Janice and I, and another writer friend went on a writing retreat which is something we try to do as often as possible when we're able to afford it. We went up to see ranch, and we spent five days up there and what we do is we write silently all day long. So no talking. So with, you know, writing and possibly in the same room with another person. I had started something called cafe writing at the writer's grotto, where we would get together and sometimes, or we would go out to a cafe and sit and write together silently and then chat after 90 minutes. And then we would, we would, you know, feel like we were forcing each other or helping each other to actually write, because when you buy yourself and you're sitting at your desk, nobody's going to help you stay there. Besides yourself. So having other writers doing the same thing that you're doing is a wonderful way to get things done and to stay in your chair. So we went on this writing retreat and we came back and lockdown happened within a few days. And I was just bereft. I missed everyone. I really, really wanted us to continue maybe, and of course nobody could be together so we decided to reenliven the writing retreat online in a smaller form. So we meet at 10am on zoom, there are, or at that time there were four of us, and then it became six of us and now there's seven. We met in the first year, every single day, seven days a week. And you stay online, you're, you're on mute, you write for 90 minutes which is the, which is what neuroscientists consider the best amount of time for the mind to be creative. And then you unmute, and you talk, you don't you can share a paragraph or two it's not a critique group. But it, you can share a paragraph or two and ask for some response, or just hear yourself getting it allowed, or you can talk about the struggles you're having, or talk about possibilities for a next scene. And over time, I was able to finish a book that had taken me 50, well 10 years to write. And so, did two other people in our group, managed to finish their books. And of course, then there's the support of okay send it to the agent what's happening, you know, don't worry it'll be okay and there's sometimes tears and there's lots of laughter and and ultimately, three of us sold our books, and two of us have had our books come out. And we're still meeting it's not seven days a week anymore or five days a week and, you know, not everybody comes every day, but I'm working on my next novel right now. And two of us are about to finish what we're doing so it really did work to have the community and the accountability of other writers, because our work is really different from everyone else's work. And when we're doing it by ourselves without the knowledge that anybody else is struggling the way we are doing the same kind of thing we are the same doubts, etc. If you know what I think is so important about this, anybody can do it. Right. All you need is is one person with a zoom account, anyone can do it, you meet, and you begin to create your own community. That's what Suzanne says, because each writer there says you know who would also be great for this group and you bring someone else in. Another thing I think you can do on your own, which I think is even more fun and what Suzanne has been part of with me is something we we called the roast chicken writers club. So you want to talk a little bit about that. Sure. Sure. So before the pandemic once once a month once every couple of months, Janice would, and of course, it was called the roast chicken writers club because we, we would all go Janice would invite up to 15 writers to her house on a Sunday afternoon. So everybody we three o'clock we were supposed to be there. 330. We stopped talking and everybody would find a corner with their laptop and write for was it two hours Janice so 90. It was two hours. Two hours. Yeah. And it's great you know you're sitting, you're sitting there and nobody's paying attention to you but at the same time, the energy of everybody working on their laptop or working with pen and paper. It's just a wonderful and some people would go downstairs and other people would go into, you know, sit at the kitchen table or, and you wouldn't talk. And at the end of it, Janice of course would put a roast chicken in the oven. I always made Persian rice, which, and then by the end of course we were all dying because it smelled so great for dinner. And time was up, and then we would just eat and drink and talk about writing and talk about ourselves and taught and it was truly, it truly was like the Algonquin round table in a way. The best is necessary was it boosted your, your creativity, your confidence, your ability or your understanding your belief in this career that you've chosen. So, of course then Janice became a vegetarian and it became those chicken writers club. We figured out some other options. It's not chili then for everyone, but again that's something that you can do. Reach out to the writers you know, maybe people you're meeting on creative caffeine or in a class you take, or if you do a shut up and right and, you know, people you like and over Sunday afternoon is a great time. It's a time you probably wouldn't be writing, you're probably not doing anything else either. So to gather with a group of writers is just really inspiring. Can I just say one more thing before we go to Kelly, because it's a segue to Kelly. So I used to write a lot in cafes, because I needed to be before I was at the grotto and then I was at Page Street and the, the Castro coop. And I would go to cafes because there's something a lot of times about being at home that just, you know, there are too many distractions. So I go to a Starbucks or another cafe and I would take my laptop and I work of course but the problem was if you have to go to the bathroom. And of course there are other people there and they're making noise which isn't a problem for me but is for everybody. And so when Janice decided to start Page Street which Kelly is going to talk about. It's basically the better version of cafe writing, because it's got members and you can go to the bathroom and not worry about somebody stealing your laptop. Thank you. So yeah, I'm going to move on to Kelly to talk about Page Street but I'm going to back up a moment because Page Street grew out of lit camp, which Alyssa mentioned early on. We did started in 2012. It was originally under the auspices of lit quake and the grotto. By 2015, we have become our own 501 C3 nonprofit and kept doing our conferences every year so Page Street is sort of under that umbrella of lit camp. Because she's here. I'm wondering Carol, if you could say a couple things about what it was like to go to lit camp because Carol Stuyves here, who has a fabulous book called the mother code was awesome. She's a lit lit camp alum and she is also someone who's been on our advisory board. So just going to throw this out as a big surprise Carol. I got the last year that it was at the up in. I can't remember the name of the place what's the name of the place. My commerce ranch until they burned down. Yeah, it burned down that October and I think we were there in May. The only problem with lit camp that time was that I was stuck in a house, kind of a mile away up the hill. I wasn't down with the rest of everyone else sleeping and all so I did think I missed a few things. And also I felt like I was getting into the hang of it I was just starting to really enjoy my, especially my group of eight, because we were divided up into group of eight so that there was 40 of us and eight groups. But when it was over, but I did gain one thing out of it I was writing the mother code while I was there. And I pitched it to Elizabeth weed who was one of the editors that show I mean one of the agents that showed up that year. And she says oh that sounds really interesting why don't you send it when you're done. And I was working with a developmental editor at the time. And she says well I don't think she's going to like that and it was, it was science fiction and that's not her genre and all but I said well she did say to send it I'll just go ahead and send it. We send it to a bunch of people. And she ended up being one of the first people to offer representation so I didn't get that from and I and there's friends that I have from that group of 40 to this day, see them all over the place. So I think, you know, representing a going to a writer's conference, right, where you make friends. I wish it had been like a couple days longer and I've been staying down with the rest of everyone but other than that. Oh, also my housemates we became great friends and you know one of some of them are still my buzzing buddies. So yeah, I think if you're going to throw in go to a meet up like that and Yeah, thank you Carol for that and now lit camp is a little bit different than when Carol when we do two conferences a year. They are all on one location which is a retreat center in Booneville. In the spring we do and focused on craft. So there's time to write and I bring three other authors to do master classes in the afternoon. Upcoming in September. We will be back in that location, but this is our publishing conference. So for this one, there's much more content and we bring an agent we bring an editor we bring a publicist. We bring people who are experts on helping you build your platform. And in both cases, they're very small. They're each around 25 people. So you can really get to know everyone who's there. And I'll make sure you guys have a link to the camp if you're interested. But then, just a little over a year ago, we had the opportunity to rent a space of former Sam of our tea house in San Francisco. And even though the pandemic didn't seem entirely over, we got so excited about the idea of creating this co-working space just for writers that we took it. And we created what we now call Page Street. And that is what I've asked Kelly to come and talk about because Kelly is one of our fairly early members and still a member and she can speak to what it's like to work there. Thank you, Janice. Everyone for being here. I am a very frequent member to Page Street, which is on Page Street in San Francisco, not far from my house. And I love what Suzanne just said about it's a better version of cafe writing. If any of you hate writing at your home that for whatever reason I happen to be in a 400 square foot studio apartment in the most expensive city in the world with a cat. And I asked Alyssa to share one of my most recent published works, which was in the chronicle during the pandemic. And it kind of gives you a sense of a woman going crazy in her home during lockdown. As you can see, I'm getting to know my cat more intimately. And for some reason this is publishable content with the local rag. You can, you know, enjoy it at some other time but speaking about the benefits of Page Street, despite just needing to be out of your home. Exactly as Jackie Suzanne and Janice have talked about about the spirit of encouragement. I don't have older sisters, but you really get the vibe of people introducing you to experiences that you wouldn't otherwise I have not been published for work outside of journalism and hearing people who have, you know, agents and tired of their agents. People who have published multiple books and are now trying a whole different genre. It's really encouraging. And the actual space, as Janice mentioned, was a former restaurant that I kept my eye on. I'd eaten there it's right across from a Buddhist center where I poorly meditated. I think I got scolded for how I was approaching it but anyway. It is a really a lovely light filled space. And there's just so much about the place being peaceful that I really appreciate, and people come in with that, you know, I'm here to do a job as a writer. I have worked in co-working spaces because that's what you do in San Francisco and New York. Like you are in a shared co-working cult, usually I think we work was a frat boy energy space, and the wing was a mean girl energy space. And Page Street is a writers or cool space. And that really does a lot to your ego as you're sitting down and seeing everyone taking on the same task, which is usually a very lonesome task. It is like having homework every night of your life being a writer. I think George Lucas said that someone affiliated with Star Wars. And it can be a little bit of a solipsistic, terrible self loathing enterprise. And to see other people tackling it in sprints one of my persons I love the most every time I see her there Natasha Rook. She likes to do partnered work so that we would be busy for a bit and then check in with each other. Other types of folk don't you don't talk to them unless you're really everybody's getting coffee, which is free. And we get copious amounts of it, but you also get tips on how to get that, that holy grail of publication right and through Janice I've been able to really be connected to the world that I wouldn't otherwise in San Francisco even, and that is both in some workshops that we hear about first as members of Page Street. And also just little things like hey Kelly a great software for writing a book is not Google or it's not Microsoft Word it happens to be Scrivner, and you can you know prevent yourself from always beginning at the first sentence of your work, you can instead work on chapters and have some momentum so it's just one of the little insights I've gotten from my big sisters no matter what age they are gender or whatnot I really feel like it's an encouraging environment where you can go to the computer and go to the bathroom as Suzanne was saying. Thank you and I apologize because I did not read Kelly's bio which I'm going to do now because I got so excited about you talking about Page Street. Kelly daily is an award winning journalist performer and educator. She uses her multimedia storytelling skills and grit to advance truth, democracy, liberation in the common good. She uses media classes at the University of San Francisco, St. Mary's College of California and Mills College, where she also leads the communication program. She's held posts at outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, the Cincinnati Inquirer Time Magazine Asia Bureau, and the San Diego Union Tribune. In 2013 Kelly was awarded a John S. Night Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. She was a co-worker at Page Street. So the latest news on our co-working space is that we are about to sign a lease for a space in Berkeley. Because there are many many East Bay riders and crossing the Bay bridges a nightmare. So if all goes as planned in September, we will open a co-working space also in Berkeley, but we're going to call it Page Street East. But that that will happen as well. So that is more or less what we have and I'd love to open it up for questions from everybody. Hi folks, you are welcome to unmute yourself if you'd like to ask your question out loud, or you can pop your question into the chat and I'll be happy to read it out loud as well. We already have a request to open up a page street on the peninsula. Any thoughts about expanding or how could a prospect like this be replicated in different areas of the Bay Area. It takes some money, I'm going to say. We have to be sure that there are enough writers to come in and cover what our expenses are. We know for sure there's enough people in the East Bay, but I am toying with the idea of Peninsula and Marin. You know, I take I need like six months to a year to get one launched before I think about another one. Douglas, you were waving like you had a question. Yeah, I also wrote it down. I just wanted to ask about the requirements for admission to Page Street. I mean, you show a good piece of work or something. Actually, to be a member of Page Street, you have to be serious about your writing, and you have to be nice. If you write humor, you have to be serious. Yes, you have to be serious about because we're not for and I do get requests from people who write for their tech job and they would like to come and write at our space and that's not really what we're about. There are spaces for that. I mean, we are as much a community as a co-working space. We gather for lunch every day. We have various craft groups that meet like Jackie runs the memoir group. We have a poetry group. We have a fiction group. So we really want people who are doing their own work. So there's a questionnaire you fill out the questionnaire comes to me. And then based on whether I feel like we can take new people. I do an interview. If you seem on the interview like you are community minded and you are a nice person and people are going to like being in the room with you, you're in. So it's not super hard. And I don't make you send me right. So I have to become nice. It's really tough. It's really tough. So says the girl from New Jersey. We have a question from Bettina Cohen as well. I maybe I missed it. I just wanted to ask if they're just the recognition of the name of the group. I realize that Page Street is an actual street in San Francisco. It's about the appropriateness of it being a group, the name of a group for writers page, you know, as in writing a page. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's why we did it. It made the whole naming the place a lot easier. Yeah. So, so in other words it really is on Page Street and it just worked out that you found a space there. And it made it feel like fate. Like, and now we're kind of in that 826 Valencia dilemma, or if we open the location in a different place. What do we do so that's what we thought we're just going to keep the page street name. We have a lot going we like it. That's funny. 826 Valencia opened a chapter near where I live in Mission Bay. So, yeah. Yeah. So, Melissa, do you have any others or someone want to wave at us? I don't see any other questions in the chat. I'm curious, when you have writers that need different things, some writers need silence, some like the cafe feel someone a chit chat when they need a brain break. How are your group agreements in the space and how do you help to settle the different needs of your writers. You want to answer that Kelly. Sure, we typically keep conversations to our kitchen space and during lunch time. So, and we have a zoom room where you can take calls. We're not calling from there today obviously because there's four of us and yeah that's it's a small little tiny space, but it's generally agreed upon that it's a pretty quiet like library spot. Yeah, and sometimes when people want to go and talk, they just go take a walk. They'll walk down to the actual cafe on the corner or down to Hay Street and, you know, chat while they're outside, but we are quiet space if you want noise you'd be in a cafe. Yeah, we kind of police each other to not really police. But if you walk in and say something loudly, Kelly or somebody will just. Sure, I'm the enforcer. Yes, somebody will, yeah, kind of remind you that it's silent. It's pretty, it's pretty silent. But lunchtime lunchtime, you know, from what 1230 to 13 it's just free for all kind of sits around a big long table and talk for an hour. Then go back to work. Yeah. And not everyone comes to lunch so if people want to keep working they put on headphones and they keep working. But otherwise, we all come to lunch and I think Kelly kind of touched on this. But it's no accident that we are catty cornered to San Francisco Zen Center there are landlords. They really helped make it possible because they're very fair with the rent that they give us and it's why we don't have to charge writers a lot of money. But also, I feel like it's very appropriate because if you have ever meditated in like a Zendo or with a group of people. And all of you in one space, a group of people with the same intention doing the same thing. It is so much easier to sit longer, and my meditation always goes better. And I think it works the same way with writing, when we are all in that space and we are all, you know, we have the same intention we're doing the same thing that energy feeds all of us and keeps us going. Pam, you have a question that you're muted Pam. Got it. I hear from Jackie about the readings that you have and the social occasions. So in addition to the community that's, you know, supports writing. So that's something about the readings. First of all, I love that you have a three limit, three minute limit on the readings I've been at readings where people go way over. So, but I, you know, if you all could say something about the camaraderie that that does happen quite frequently. That sounds wonderful. Yeah, I'm super happy you asked that question actually because this is one of my big, I guess, missions is that before you publish, you get very few opportunities to read your work in front of an audience. Right, emerging writers do not have a lot of chances to do that, which is a shame because you learn so much from reading in front of an audience. Like even if you're not looking at them, you can feel it in your body if you have their attention or if they're drifting. So what I try to do is create as many opportunities for emerging writers to read their work in front of an audience. That's partly why we've partnered with the Bay Area Book Festival and liquid because they give our community this opportunity. But we also do the events right at Page Street Jackie you want to describe how late nights works. I do talk to because I do tell Pam about them. Janice comes up with a topic and she has a submit a piece of writing that will not exceed three minutes when it's read, and then she selects I guess a group of 15 of us. And we invite friends and we all gather at that big bar. I love tending bar because then you can talk to everybody right so I always volunteer, but not only that but we get to and she puts up a platform, a microphone. One of the things that is just so wonderful is that Janice prefaces everybody's introduction with writers don't get enough credit. When I name them, you applaud like mad, like they're really famous. I can't tell you what that does for your ego. Here's Jackie Davis Martin suddenly the room erupts and applause is this. And, but it really is nice he gives a focus. It makes us appreciate one another. And we just love hearing from one another and we're all quite respectful. People stay in those three minutes, because as Pam said it just it really helps to know that nobody's going to drone on or whatever, because yeah, your attention just drips. So you get the applause at the beginning you get the applause at the end. It's quite nice. Kelly do you want to add something because I knew you've done our Bay Area Book Festival event. So, yeah, sure. One thing about the lit nights first it's so crazy to share a stage with a wide variety of perspectives. I'm a nonfiction guy up with fiction folk. It's really a great buffet for attendees and when do you get to rub elbows with Iowa writer workshop graduates like they're there at the Berkeley Book Festival to we do a similar thing where people submit her work and we get to share with the community. It's really terrific work that may not be published yet. And it's also on a theme Janice has just really made a ton of opportunities for us beyond. I'm doing my work in a cafe, it's okay now be out in the world so she forces us to engage as an only child it's really difficult. And really, there's a lot of anxiety about always being in groups but it, I've overcome that and had so much richness from being a part of this for just a year. Yeah, I'm happy you mentioned to, you know, the diversity of people who get up on that stage. I'm always blown away because, especially age wise, you know will have people who are in their early 20s. People who are 80. And everything in between and that also reflects our membership at Page Street, but it's so nice because I think so infrequently in our lives. Do we spend time with people who are a very, you know, ages that are really different from ours. And we all have this writing thing in common, which draws us together. And I really, really like that. The other thing I love about these is, I'm going to tell you now, if I'm doing a reading, and probably at this point Suzanne's doing a reading, our friends are not coming. They've already come. They've been there. But the emerging writers their friends have not seen them read very much. So everyone who reads brings a bunch of people. And those late night events have, we get it between 80 and 90 people in our space in the audience, helped a little by the fact we pour Prosecco and wine as well. All right, other questions or thoughts. Whereabouts will the Berkeley location be. It will be on San Pablo Avenue, just in from Dwight way. Good location. Thank you. That's what everyone tells me I'm super happy about it. Anything else would love to take a question or comment or two more before our last comments from our speakers. Doug, go ahead. So those lunches are more brown bag than served. There's no begging for food or anything. Now, okay, so the way that we work is, we put in a cappuccino machine, we put in an electric tea kettle, we put in a microwave and we put in just recently a toaster oven popular demand. Because we're a restaurant, we have seriously three refrigerators. So most of the time people bring their lunch and they'll heat it up and we eat together. But there's a cafe just down the street. And so if you didn't bring your lunch, you could grab something or walk over, we're like two blocks from Hay Street. So you can, there's plenty of options to bring your food in. But no, I am not cooking or serving food to anyone. And it looks longingly at your food, you're not going to. Well, I'm going to say this, we have a fair number of women at Page Street, and there's no way we can't give someone some food. Especially those of us who are moms, there's just no way. And also though I think anyone who lives alone will tell you you've made a cake that is too big for you, and you won't fit your pants if it stays at your house so people transport food all the time and leave it and yeah it's a snacky place. Yeah, yeah, I mean we provide all the coffee and tea we just want the writers to feel comfortable and be able to concentrate on their work. So if you have a picture of Page Street, you can share. I don't, I don't have one I can easily get to, but you guys have the link page street.org, and there's a ton of pictures there. It's a really pretty place yeah tell me just put the link there and you guys can take a look it's it's, it's very light it's on a corner. I'm looking for a picture I might have one. And it looks like we've got a last question or comment from Pamela. I'm going to have you unmute yourself. I've been with Jackie twice with Jackie and I seem to remember a room that you could do podcasts from or it's a room that's, you know that's available for something that people usually don't have in their home or could you say something about that. Well that's what Kelly referred to as our zoom room. And what what happened was because of the quiet rule. We were all running out to the sidewalk to take our phone calls, which, when the weather started to turn wasn't such a good idea. So we repurposed what was basically the alleyway but it's all covered but an alleyway where our trash can. And I turned the back into it and it is a very small room. There's like a big desk, and I put a carpet down and we put a bunch of acoustic tiles we bought off of Amazon on the wall. And I'm going to say it's relatively soundproof. I mean if you're in the room right next to it, you might hear some muffled talking, but it gave us an opportunity to take a zoom call so like if you were working and you had a zoom call in the middle of the day you could take it and not have to come home. And you can reserve it, or if no one's in there you just pop in there and make your calls so that's been really helpful. Our space in Berkeley is going to be smaller. It's about half the size of the one in the city the one the city is really big. It's about, and it's more than 2000 square feet. So I'm not sure how or where we will create our little phone booth, but I'm going to try to do it there too. So you don't have to be on the sidewalk. Yeah, I also want to mention that you provided printers in there as well. I mean you're pretty generous and that stand up desk she's sort of accommodates people and the comfy chairs. Yeah, it turns out writers also want comfortable chairs to read. So we put in two comfortable chairs then someone asked for a standing desk so we put that in. You know that the great thing is that we have many, many members, which covers our bills, but also allows us to do things like give fellowships to pastry to people who couldn't afford a membership. We run classes. And so it also allows me to offer scholarships to classes and to our conferences. So some of the income generated from the page street from the co-working location, I can put towards those things I mean we are a nonprofit we're not, we're not designed to be making money. And then we try to make sure that it's comfortable for writers. Because if we don't have writers who want to belong, we can't function. Right, so I feel like it's my goal to make sure that everybody feels welcome and comfortable and that they like going there. You know that it's it's a place where you think, oh yeah, I want to go into page street. So that's sort of the plan. And a great chance to see page street will be on Friday, June 30 at 1230. All are welcome and invited to check out the space. Janice, if people are coming by is that an invitation to hang out during lunch as well should people bring lunch or is it just a quick look around and then off off we go. Welcome to bring lunch so we'll be in our space will be quiet till 1230. So I won't let anybody until 1230, but 1230 is when we break to have our lunch. And no you are very welcome to bring a lunch. Because you know, it's not that big you can tour the place in about two minutes. I'm going to come and I hopefully I'll encourage a fair number of our members to be there, and you can sit and talk to them and ask them, you know what they're working on and what they like about page street and, you know, even what maybe they don't like, and just get a hit from them so yes, you are welcome we do lunch from 1230 to 115. We recently had an MFA class from California College of the Arts, it's a class on like what to do after your MFA, and their teacher brought them to have lunch with us so it was really nice to meet all of them. So we are coming up to the end of our time today for the writers lunch. So I thought, if there are any parting words on how to create literary community from our four featured guests, we'd love to hear a little, you know, incantation on our way out the door on this Friday. And I thought that would be a nice way to wrap up, and then we'll bid everyone a happy Friday and often to the sunshine. I was going to say, I think I've been counted enough so handed over to you Jackie. Yeah, well one of the secrets is to bring wine. Now I'm kidding but if you offer some kind of. I didn't know snack or something we have these group meetings in the evenings, but what is funny is I would bring wine but now, you know we will have five people three people bring a bottle of wine obviously we can't do that, but it's it's a very contagious generosity, but it also is a welcoming thing and I think as long as you make people feel that they are welcome and want to hear from them. And the memoir group is a great group of writers I'm very happy with them. Suzanne you have anything to add running surveillance right. I'm still running it. Yeah, we still meet every day, every weekday. I guess my advice to writers is find a way to write every day, and one of the best ways to do that is to have a partner, even if you're not in the same room for accountability every single day, even if it's for 15 minutes. Yeah, you're here. Yeah. Janice, when the pandemic began you started three times a month right it was you and Lee and Emily were running this sort of online writer group that Suzanne is talking about. Three times a month and then there was a gal that attended that who said, Oh, I want to do it, you know, twice a week every week. And so she started that up. She got a real job at one point. And but the rest of us who had joined said, Oh, we want to keep doing it we're still doing it. And the fact that the pandemic is over, one of our members here at MJ is here today. We get everywhere anywhere from maybe two to 10 people depending on in the summer Tuesday Thursday. Yeah, I think that that not only did it help me get through the pandemic but now it's helping me stick with my writing writing and you know we offer each other a lot of comfort. I'm happy you mentioned that was part of the camp we created this virtual writing it was free. It was three times a month. I did it probably even a whole year after the pandemic, and then life kind of got in the way, but the fact that you mentioned it is interesting to me because I have just applied for a grant to bring it back. And the grant money would be so that I can pay various authors to host it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to bring it back that three times a month, keep it free, but every time you signed on you'd be with an actual author and be able to get something so fingers crossed we get the grants. And Kelly, your parting words comparison is the thief of joy. Don't compare yourself to anyone. Well, I think we're going to bring our official session to a close and a huge thank you to our four fabulous guests today, Janice Newman, Suzanne party, Jackie Davis Martin, and Kelly daily a big big thank you to the four of you for sharing your insights talking about page street, your experiences, creating literary community here in San Francisco and everywhere you go. We're so glad that we could welcome you here for our writers Lunch at Mechanics Institute, another literary community here in the city as well. So I'm going to turn off the recording. But if people want to chat for a little bit as you exit you are most welcome there are some lovely thank yous popping into the chat. So a big thanks to all of our guests. And thank you very much to everyone.