Retreating from Writing

To begin with: I’m writing this on my phone. There is supposed to be internet at the campground, and a few of the other writers here have said they get it… but the First Reader and I are in the very furthest cabin and the WiFi is elusive and fleeting. For sake of my temper and current state of deep relaxation, phone data seemed the best idea.
I am currently at a writing retreat. To say I needed this would be putting it mildly. Or, to put it another way: I didn’t write anything yesterday. The first day of the retreat. Instead, I listened. I listened to people around me tell stories. I met a few new people and because this is a small event, had a chance to really listen to introductions that were much deeper than simple name and associations. Conversation is a wonderful thing for this writer’s soul.

 

I had Intended a longer post exploring a nascent sub genre I’d like to encourage because I was to read more of it: Tactical Romance. That will have to wait. Instead, you get this. Hanging out with new friends and old. I’m not going to be able to do it again soon. So I am making the most of it. This isn’t a writing experience, it’s feeding my soul so I can write more when I get back to the humdrum of life.

This is a place where I can answer honestly when a friend looks me in the eyes and asks me “Cedar, how are you?” How many times a day do you get asked that in hurried politeness at work or on the go? Those people don’t care. These do, and it matters.

aside from my need for social interactions at least once a year, the stories… listening to world-class storytelling is priceless. That some bits may wind up in my own stories? Perhaps, but more likely my brain will feed all of it into the gristmill and it will come out as something new or at least with the serial numbers filed off. Except for Lawdog’s python tale. That one is uniquely hilariously his own.

I talked a little yesterday with Dorothy Grant about what I am trying to figure out – the Lazy Woman’s marketing scheme. I have not got the time to promote my stuff. Not and write, and work, and run a house. But I don’t want my books to fade entirely from view. I’m going to pick a few brains about this today and tomorrow before the Door to Summer closes and I have to fly home again.

I have to thank the indefatigable JL Curtis, author of the Grey Man series and the highly enjoyable Rimworld series, for putting this together. It’s a highly informal event, a gathering of minds. Someone yesterday put it well ‘I didn’t know groups like this existed, but it’s like finding my home’