Author Archives: mp

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Announcing PAPERCUTS

Hello Everyone,

We’ve finally settled on a title for our online literary magazine; the decision involved some pretty cool choices and a large poll. It ran for a suitable period before the unanimous decision was…yes, that’s right: PAPERCUTS.
We’re planning a new design layout in commemoration of the new title. Part of the reason of changing the design, was because we needed to upgrade our website in terms of the development aspect (migrating from Joomla 1.1.x to 1.5, a much more stable and universally acknowledged version). So that’s something to look forward to in the next couple of days.
We’re working on getting ourselves some more media exposure, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for that, we’re definitely welcoming them. We’ll be registering ourselves as an organization in late November/early December, and along with that, we’ve got the largest scale event we’ve ever had which will involve sponsors, people from all over Pakistan, and lots of exciting stuff like that. We’re excited. Are you excited? 🙂 We’ve been hinting at it for a while, and once the new website goes live, you’ll see it with a little more prominence.
Book clubs, readings and game nights will still proceed as normal. We still have the DW corner at the Paper Microphone Cafe that lets you write there and then, and leave the sheets there or take them with you as you see fit. Columns are Khutt, The B*tch Letters and ODTM (One Day, Two Minutes). Who knows? We might expand in the future. Be sure to check us out there, though and bring a little patronage to the Cafe while you’re at it; they’ve been our gracious hosts.
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Book Club Reconvenes Today

Alright, so we’re picking up where we left off in a slightly new and rejuvenated fashion. Today’s ice breaker is all about you and selecting books you want to read. So, we’re allowing participants to join us today, and either physically bring their selection with them (mine’s Shadow of the Wind, complete with the book itself), or create a list of books that’s on their must read list.

We’ll put all scraps of paper selections in a bowl, toss em around and pick one at random. We’ll open up a box of selections for the book club, allowing random visitors to the cafe to help us decide. The box will be left at the cafe.
Every month, we’ll pick a new title from the box and the cycle will continue.
So if you’re interested, join us today (Saturday) at the Paper Microphone Cafe, 2nd Floor, above Bukhari Furriers in F-6, Super Market at 6pm.
🙂
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Game Night Announced!

After much dillying and dallying, we’re finally announcing a finalized date for our second game night, the (hoped for) success to August’s event. We’re increasing the games played from wordy games to a slightly more pictorial debut, introducing Pictionary to the circuit bringing our games to Scrabble, Balderdash, Taboo, Boggle and now Pictionary.

The details are below:

What: DWL Game Night, Issue 2
Where: Paper Microphone Cafe (2nd Floor, above Bukhari Furriers, F-6 Super Market, next to the Shell Petrol Pump)
When: Saturdya, October 10 at 7 pm sharp
Extras: Rs 150 admittance fee. Please come early to secure a seat; space is limited.
RSVP: Click here (FB event)

Along with the GN announcement, there’s been a slight change of rules with regards to applying for registration in the forums. We now require a writing sample just to get an overall feel of incoming members, in particular their grammar and English language inclinations. This comes as an effort to streamline the quality put up on our forums, and in turn those that deserve critique less on the basis of grammar and punctuation, and more on the basis of structure and plot which is the heart of our collective vision at the Lounge.

Meanwhile, we still have the readings and the book club gatherings coming up in the future and our DW @ the Paper Microphone Cafe is operational, so please do check that out and let us know what you think.

We’ll be putting up event notifications on the white board at the corner as well, so if you patronize the cafe, check out their White Hot Chocolate and sip it while composing the next brilliance at the Corner. 🙂

Cheers!

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Naming the ‘Zine

Hello Everyone,

Thanks to one of our members for putting up the suggestion, we’re looking to brand our ‘zine with its very own name, creating a distinct identity for it apart from our site. So if you guys have any suggestions, either put em in the comments or mail them in.

Hopefully, we should get a positive response for this.

Meanwhile, yes we will update the Game Night post soon. We promise!

– TPTB

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Game Night Success!

Whoops, didn’t realize this blog wasn’t updated to reflect the success that Game Night was. We’ll upload the pictures and a more detailed write up, soon. 🙂

– TPTB

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We Get Our Game On, August 8th. Be there!

Game Night (First Edition)

Where: Paper Microphone Cafe (2nd Floor, Super Market, Main School Road. After the Shell Petrol Pump, right above Bukhari Furriers)

When: August 8, 2009 @ 7 PM (tables close at 10 PM)

Entrance Fee: Rs 100/person

The Details Consider this your chance to get even, especially if you’ve taken flack from us about your work. Codename: Revenge. Games include Taboo, Balderdash, Scrabble and Boggle…and Pictionary, for the artistically inclined.

Bring in a friend or two, create a two-player group or compete as individuals, it’s entirely up to you. Come early to nab a seat at your favorite game (we’re spreading things out Vegas-style, a game a table), register as a team or single player, pick up your score card and player number and let the festivities begin!

Play for fun, to win, or to get some cool prizes including cash…the admission fee goes to a cash pot, that will be awarded to the player (or team) with the highest score at the end of the night. More people, more cash! So rope in as many people as you can.

No registration for the event is required, just show up with your game face and play!

We hope to see you there!

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Book Club: A Case of Exploding Mangoes & Other Avenues

We met on Sunday to discuss the book (for some of us, the book had the impact of restoring our faith in Pakistani lit at large, and for all of us it was a most thoroughly enjoyable read. We also welcomed three new attendees to our group, one of whom is a Lahori and was interested enough to start a Desi Writers Lounge chapter in Lahore, or at least play a significant role in its coordination.

Our next pick is Ali Sethi’s The Wish Maker although we will, in all likelihood, be meeting post Ramadhan to discuss it. That said, there may be one or two plain DWL Isloo meetups/iftaris at the request of many of our members. Furthermore, after next Saturday’s Game Night, it will mark the last of our events until Ramadhan ends, after which the Game Night depending on the turnout will become a monthly event, as will our book clubs and the readings will continue to be once in two/three months.
Meanwhile, next week is Game Night and that cash prize incentive. The admittance fees pooled for a cash prize at the end that can go to either one individual or a voluntary team of two, playing as one. If there’s a deadlock, we’ll go into Death Match mode where an agreed upon game will be chosen to settle the final score. Festivities begin at 7pm and go through till about 10pm. Please come on time.
We’ll be issuing a formal invitation, soon. But meanwhile, check it out on our site. Event announcements will be going up on both our website and Facebook group, along with (hopefully) the Paper Microphone Enthusiasts group as well.
If you’re interested in attending our book club gatherings in the future, all that’s required is to show up, book in hand and preferably register with us so we can remind you a little closer to the date. We now have a field to input your cell phone details; please rest assured, this remains in complete confidence with yours truly (administrator) being privy to the information, and being used to send a reminder of the event you’ve registered for, only. We advise you to consider it.
And…with that, we wrap things up! Hope to see you at our coming events and at the other side of Ramadhan, when we pick up again. 🙂
– TPTB
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Mixers, Competitions, Publication…It’s All Happening (Hopefully)

Having met up with Nadine yesterday, we came back with much brainstorming to do and a whole lotta events on the brain. For starters, we have our own little section for event notifications over at the Paper Microphone Cafe so you’ll see us setting camp over there. Also, we’ve opened up Game Night to the public, instead of making it an invite only event, so hopefully that should help things along. It probably doesn’t matter now though, registration wise, as long as you show up and are prepared to fork over the Rs 100 admittance fee and agree to order. You will get the fee back in a way, however, because we’re planning on issuing cash prizes to winners which ups the stakes…by a whole lot. More people means more cash, means a whole different ball game. So spread the word to people you think will be interested in playing them wordy games. 🙂

We’re planning for the “official” launch of the DWL Corner with Game Night which is on August 8 at 6pm at the cafe. Aside from that, we’re also thinking of holding a formal mixer for writers, editors and publishers to all meet in one location, and discuss possible future collaborations held jointly under the Desi Writers Lounge and Paper Microphone banners. The DWL Corner may become a vantage point for editors and publishers to scope out new talent. So…yaay!
Another thing that is now most definitely on our horizon, post Vol 5 e-zine publication, is bringing out our own collection of short stories and poems. We need to compile the work into something presentable before pitching it forward to interested parties.
Writer and theater workshops are also on our list of things to get around to doing as and when the resources become available. Along with this, we’re thinking of hosting a scripwriting competition, which would result in the winning playwright getting the chance of converting his/her play into a fullscale theatrical production, with no other than Osman Khalid Butt aka our Poetry Editor, as a mentor and director. It would be a great experience for any budding playwright, and something for which we are incredibly excited. We’re hoping to launch that event either by the end of this year or some time in 2010.
And throughout all this, we’re still going to continue with the book club and readings as the hallmark of what Desi Writers Lounge is all about, in essentials.
So there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Hope to see you guys at some, if not all our ventures. Everything is full of possibility, at this point.
Tally ho!
– TPTB
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Game Night Announced…at last!

August 8th. Be prepared to bring your best game, a healthy sense of competition and a whole lotta fun. We’re finally bringing out our Game Night, featuring family classics like Boggle and Scrabble and newer additions like Balderdash and Taboo. Bringing the family activity to a cafe and opening up DWL to as much as it can be opened, with being a members-only event.

But don’t let the members-only tag fool you. Members can invite whoever they want to, so if you’re a member or know a member, good for you. The reason that we’re not opening things up is to gauge interest for the event. If we have substantial interest, we will open things up. Hopefully. We have a thread over on the Coordinations, Coordinations board of the forums where we’re encouraging registrations.

There will also be a cover of Rs 100. This marks the first time that we’re charging for one of our events, and since the amount is nominal at best, we hope this won’t deter participants from taking part in what promises to be a lot of fun.

If the event takes off, we might just include other games like Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit and any other games requested by participants.

Comments, questions, suggestions? You can always mail them to info@desiwriterslounge.net or write them in the comments.

We’re boldly going where we’ve never gone before. Here’s hoping we come out of this in one piece.

🙂

– TPTB