Where can writers meet people?

First off, I apologize for the lack of postage lately. I am one of those firm believers of no excuse is a good excuse, but my excuse is that my computer is nonfunctional, and I haven't had consistent access to a computer for a while. Anyway, I hope to be getting my computer and this blog back to normal functionality very soon.

So where can writers meet people? Or maybe the first question should be, why should writers even care about meeting people? Aren't we the lone souls slaving away at the computers in our parents basements? I think for both career/marketing purposes as well as emotional/personal purposes, it is important for writers to maintain some sort of social life. This is another one of those posts where I am looking for answers myself, so any ideas would be great. Here is what I've come up with so far.

Writerly places: Book clubs, writing groups, the library, bookstore, author signings, writer conventions, creative writing classes, etc.

Extracurricular places: A big one for me in this category would be theater. Whatever you are interested in are besides writing, use it to meet people. Ideas: gardening stores, photography classes, knitting groups, car shops, wherever you like going.

Friend-of-a-friend places: Going to parties, bars, clubs, etc with friends is not really my cup-of-tea either, but don't be shy about hanging out with some friends friends. They usually won't bite. They may end up being cooler then the first friend, and maybe your friends old roommates great aunts first husband is an editor at Random House or The New Yorker. You never know.

What are your guys' ideas? I know clubs and classes and malls are more typical places to meet people, but if you're like me, you're too weird to meet people typically, and you usually don't find typical people interesting anyway. So where can ambitious, intelligent, slightly odd people like us (anyone reading this blog has to be slightly odd) meet people like us?

Sarah Allen