Welcome to Montparnasse

August 28, 2003 4:47 a.m.

This is for all those who shake the thyrsus and go mad at midnight, for those who should have been born a century ago in Paris. It is refuge.

A place for all of us poet-bohemians to sit, drink absinthe and tell each other how brilliant and fantastic we all are. There will be regular literary feasts, duels, and love affairs. This affair accepts no bystanders; we are here to connect in the dark of this cafe which resides in the backs of our minds and cracks open the dawn with our voices.

Come, if you are dreamers and spinners of lies. We will hold a chair and a cold glass for you.

As sayeth Ghanima, the Founder: we are beyond the days of the beautiful ones in Paris, but we can fashion a web between those happy few of us for whom this exercise in journal-writing is more than a place to note what one had for breakfast. Pull up a chair, pour out a drink, and we will write until our veins run with ink. I do not wish this to be a passive project which simply sits in silence. I hope that we will all write together, and critique, and in general pat ourselves on the back for being much more brilliant than anyone else on this side of the Seine.

Now for some loose bits of Etiquette:

1. Weekly, or therabouts, a prompt will be posted on the site. All members should write a piece roughly along the lines of this prompt and post it. For evey piece you post you must review at least one other member's piece, and post the review. If you wish to suggest a prompt, email me.

2. This page is for prompt responses only. There is a free-write area, L'Appartements de Montmartre, where you may post any and all material you wish, for comment and review. The password to post to that site is "nerezza." This is structured, the other site is not. Accordingly, it is likely that only our best and most dedicated writers will care much for it--hint, hint. This means if you patronize L'Appartements, you are special and different and lovely in the eyes of the site mistress.

3. This is a circle for passionate writers. Accordingly, we are only interested in teaching the secret handshake to serious folks. This is an active place in which you may work, submit, review, edit, and challenge others. What you may not do is remain passive. Those who do not participate on a regular basis will be politely banished. Join the ring, post the html snippet, and add montparnasse to your favorites, and you will be given the password to the site.

4. When you join the site, please choose a pseudonym. It should be something literary, preferably French or British. Take a look at our member list and favorite authors page for inspiration. Your name will not appear as a member until you have chosen a name.

5.While we consider brutal samurai-editing to be useful, there will be no unnecessary roughness on the field. If you are purposefully and needlessly cruel, or post outrageously foul material, you will be impolitely banished and your honor impugned. All material you have submitted will be stricken from the site and the password changed.

6. The Louveciennes section is the private table of the three women who have had so much to do with the founding of this site, ghanima, erato, and bleue. We will carouse there as we see fit, and dance for your pleasure. If you are very good, you may be invited to sit with us.

6.All copyright laws must be respected. Beyond this, there are no laws.

Beyond that, all things are encouraged in this, the best of all possible worlds. Welcome, all you who are lost and full of light.