Last weekend was our Sisters in Crime chapter’s annual retreat. Over the decades, we’ve done a variety of retreats at a variety of locations. The first few I attended were held at a member’s family lodge at Deep Creek, Maryland. It was great until that member left the chapter.
When we revived the retreat, we moved it to Paddler’s Lane in Confluence, Pennsylvania. We were there for one year: The Writers Retreat and Flood. Our spring event fell on a weekend following a heavy snow, a fast thaw, and lots of rain. You can read about it here. https://annettedashofy.blogspot.com/2010/03/2010-confluence-writers-retreat-and.html
No one really wanted to push our luck by going back, so the next year, we moved to another rental house in Confluence—That Dam Yough House. And we moved it to October. While we didn’t have a flood, we did have excitement when we locked ourselves out. Yes, I blogged about that one, too.https://workingstiffs.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-many-crime-writers-does-it-take.html
Despite the focus on our “adventures” in those blog posts, we really did accomplish a lot of writing. And cramming a bunch of crime writers into a single home created some wonderful bonds of friendship.
In the years that followed, we held another couple of retreats at That Dam Yough House until the owners decided to stop renting their property and move into it themselves. We bounced around for a while, and then the retreat kind of fizzled.
Two years ago, we decided to revive it. Our chapter treasurer at the time, Carole Jones, found the Mountain Ridge Retreat house and we fell in love with it. This year was our third visit there.
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| View from the porch |
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| My writing spot |
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| Liz Milliron's "office" for the weekend |
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| Michelle Belan picked a comfy spot to write |
We did have our annual “adventure.” Another flood! This was a small one though, produced not by snowmelt but by a dishwasher malfunction. Towels solved the problem. Hand washing our dishes from then on prevented a recurrence.
I had “planned” to stream a couple of webinars on marketing for writers on Saturday. But when I say “middle of nowhere,” I mean it. We could get a good enough signal for email, but not for streaming. After much effort, we gave up and returned to writing.
Other activities include eating, drinking champagne, a read and critique session on Friday evening, and on Saturday night, sitting around talking and laughing. And bonding.
I love the amount of uninterrupted writing time we have and how productive I am while there. But getting to know my fellow Sisters in Crime so much better is really the high point for me.
Fellow writers,
have you ever attended a writing retreat? Feel free to share your experiences.
And readers, have you done other kinds of retreats? Did you enjoy them?
What a great weekend! I miss Ramona's retreats at the convent hideaway. For many years, the Wicked Authors would work on our retreats in Maine, but now we play and talk blog business. And I do love my solo retreat week on Cape Cod every fall and spring, but it's different than hanging with writer pals.
ReplyDeleteRamona's retreats were the best, Edith. I accomplished so much in so little time when we were there.
DeleteIt was a great weekend. Fortunately, the owners fixed the dishwasher. Great weather, great productivity, great fellowship.
ReplyDeleteI'm very grateful we had someone to call about the dishwasher and didn't have to deal with repairs ourselves!
DeleteThat sounds wonderful! What a great way to get to know other writers and accomplish some work at the same time.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, KM.
DeleteLiving for half the year in a remote location doesn't have me lusting after other spots to write, but I do miss the comradery that a retreat can bring (and which I have experienced in small group week-long intensive writing workshops). I'm glad ya'll had a fine and productive time and the dishwasher was the only problem.
ReplyDeleteA week-long intensive sounds amazing, too, Jim.
DeleteThis sounds wonderful, but I admit to a fondness for the Dam Yough House based on the name alone--at least as it's pronounced in my imagination. There has to be a story there—or there should be one.
ReplyDeleteHa! That Dam Yough House (it's That, not The) sits within a half mile or so from the Youghiogheny (pronounced YAWK-ah-gain-ee) Dam on the Youghiogheny River. Hence, That Dam (not damn) Yough (pronounced Yawk) House.
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