Maybe you noticed I didn’t send a newsletter last week? That’s because I was going to bed early so I could get up at the crack of dawn to head to Scotland for a writing retreat.
It seems like a retreat should be relaxing and supportive (and I was supported tremendously), but as it was writing, it felt like really hard work! To keep me on track with my writing (which was academically focused this time), I took lots of walks & did some tiny drawings. We had a reading on the last night, but since the writing I was doing wasn’t really entertaining I showed all my little drawings instead. Here are a few favourites:
I was at Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s creative writing centre, and I am already thinking about going back to work on some book pitches. It was not only a beautiful place, but I hadn’t realised how hard it has been for me to get quiet focused time these days. I have some ideas for books I really want to flesh out, but I find it is such a big transition from everyday life to get to them, so I’m already dreaming about going back!
I was with all kinds of writers, poets, genre fiction and literature, short stories, and it made the reading night such a delight. We also had one of my favourite foods: haggis! Everyone was so lovely, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to just be quiet and listen.
I think that’s one of the things I’m going to try to hold on to as the experience fades in to the past….it’s easy to say, but it was a real feeling this week that I’d like to keep fresh. Hope you all are keeping it together this week.
Sounds amazing! I would love to focus on writing for a whole week surrounded at night by a salon of artistic types, preferably drinking warm, spiked apple cider around a campfire.
A book is certainly a marathon labor of love, and your illustration ability would be a great accompaniment.