hrj

As previously posted, I've been wanting to come up with a "regular annual party" idea that would eventually develop its own momentum so that I could have at least one contribution to the Greater Nebulous Social Circuit with a little more meaning than "hey, everyone come over to hrj's house and hang out today." Ever since I started envisioning the garden I wanted in my back yard, the party concept has been solidly anchored in that location (and, by extension, in a particular part of the year). And thanks to thread_walker's inspiration, I gained a concept ("readings in the garden") that gives the event a chance to develop its own personality.

For those who might think that having an outdoor party in Concord on a June afternoon is of questionable wisdom, note that I have an enormous mature mulberry tree that provides shade to a third of the yard. Yesterday's event cemented in my mind the decision that the space centered on that shade will remain undeveloped (in terms of plantings) in order to continue to benefit from this feature. I pulled every chair in the house (and from the camping gear) out into a loose circle there, set up tables with refreshments under the little utility shelter next to the house, turned on the fountain pump, and waited to see what would happen.

Turnout was quite satisfying. I'd estimate maybe around 30 unique people overall, with perhaps around 20 at a time present, with some rotation through. There was also a solid number who had planned to attend and had something Come Up at the last minute, or who simply found their lives had been over-scheduled. (This is one of the reasons why I get very anxious about organizing small get-togethers. Those are more seriously impacted by last-minute cancelations, which seem to be the rule rather than the exception these days.) A fair number of people thought to bring their own garden chairs, which I shall suggest in the future, since we would have been cramped for seating otherwise.

The attendees satisfied my interest in mixing up my social circles a bit: a fair number of SCA friends, brothers, people I know from sf fandom, and several lovely new friends I've gained from lesbian publishing circles. Having the literary theme meant that everyone who attended automatically had something in common, and it gave folks a chance to pull out material that they wouldn't necessarily have a chance to present in our usual intersections.

My original idea for the readings was to have "sets" of people reading, with everyone getting one time-slot, but in the spontaneity of the moment, we ended up with three sessions with everyone who wanted to participating in all the sessions. I'd guess that presenters made up about 1/4 to 1/3 of those present. If there are larger numbers of presenters in the future, no doubt the format will change, but as it was, my firm decision to be unprogrammed and spontaneous worked perfectly. We had story excerpts, poetry, songs--all original works (though I did tell a couple of people who hadn't come with original material that they'd be welcome to contribute as well). There was more than one work-in-progress presented that I hope to see in published form some day.

(For my own contributions, I did opening excerpts from three of my short stories that are in finished-but-not-yet-published state.)

The posted hours were "noonish to sixish". People started trickling in shortly after noon and I think we may have started the first readings perhaps by 1:30? I didn't look at the clock at all during the event, so I'm not sure how long things took. I'd guess there was maybe an hour of general conversation in between each of the reading sets. There were a few departures a bit after the second set of readings. When I called for the third set of readings, I had the definite impression that the party was likely to break up when they were finished, which indeed was the case. A solid crew of people stayed to help me put food and furniture away, and then a smaller group decided to go out to dinner afterward. We headed out right around "sixish" so it looks like my original scheduling was on target. (Though I could easily see scope for continuing on into the evening on a future occasion if more substantial food were on offer and if people felt free to rotate in and out over the day. I will need to keep this in mind.)

Food planning hit the target as well. There was a small amount of pre-planning with people who offered to bring contributions. I served up some backbone snacks (crudités, cheese cubes, deviled eggs). And given the usual suspects, other contributions showed up as well. I had originally mentioned BBQ, but decided that firing up the grill would distract too much from the literary activities. As I say, if at some point it looks like the event could expand into the evening, that may change.

One of the significant problems I need to address in the future is how to expand a "general open invitation to people I have some connection to" in a way that doesn't rely so heavily on facebook, but doesn't open me up entirely to random strangers showing up.

So if you think this sounds interesting, pencil it in for next June. I'll definitely be doing it again!