Not Kidnapped, Writing!

I just spent 4 1/2 days with 14 women shut up in a house.
No, we weren't kidnapped.
And we weren't there under duress. We wanted to be shut in for days on end.

I was at a writers' retreat. An annual affair I selfishly organize so I can get out of town to buckle down with my laptop to live inside my  head, only coming out for short sprints to eat, see if everyone slept well and look at the passing deer and elk out the windows.

My hubby asked if there was any drama this year and I looked at him like he had two heads.
These woman are over 30, are there to be productive and are WRITERS. Writers don't get snarky, competitive, mean, vindictive, nasty, dramatic. At least the ones I know wouldn't even think of letting those agendas into their lives.

My women writer Peeps are supportive, interesting, giving, lovely human beings who don't worry about furthering their personal agendas on a writers' retreat.
We eat healthy food, we hunker down for hours at a time at our laptops and we support each other. Someone comes out of the den to say they finished their book and we cheer. Another asks what's a good country song a dog can trot to and we put our brains to it.

This year we trickled in to the Lodge from Thursday afternoon to Friday night, one person getting waylaid on the highway when an accident temporarily closed the road. There were great stretches of time where everyone was quietly working but at meal times, we came together, emerging from the bedrooms, den, suites, office to talk, share, network, support each other's work and hear each others life stories. We talked travel, kids, politics, heartbreaks and of course writing. Our group this year all writes fiction and I did a little talk on how to adapt your work to a screenplay, something I've recently taken up doing. We discussed writing stronger, writing longer, marketing smarter and even had a 4-hour long Facebook party on the Sunday afternoon where six of us took turns asking questions and conversing with anyone who dropped in to our virtual party to win a free book.
Monday we packed, cleaned the massive kitchen, put all the furniture back where it was when we arrived, said our goodbyes and formed a convoy to support each other as we drove back to the coast through a snowy Snoqualmie Pass.
Writing can be a lonely life but this weekend, it wasn't.

I love this writers' community I'm a part of. It keep me going when I need something wonderful to grab onto.

I wouldn't be a plumber or a doctor or a real estate agent, even if I could.

I'm a writer.


KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon Bestselling Author best known for The Dream Jumper Series, which is optioned for film, with over 400 reviews on Amazon at 4.5 stars.
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Suncadia Writers' Retreat - March 24-27 - Seattle

I organize a getaway for authors that I call The Suncadia Writers Retreat in the Seattle area.

March 24th, 2017 will be the 4th year a group of about 15 authors congregate in a stately lodge-style mansion east of Seattle to talk writing.

If you are interested in joining us this year, we write, eat, drink coffee, then wine (after 5), talk about writing, promotion, share ideas, help each other with Indie Authorship and sit by the fireplace with our laptops writing love scenes and suspense scenes. We research, talk about publishing strategies, go for walks in the woods, stare at elk on the golf course, talk about showing vs telling, go wine tasting on the last day at Swiftwater Cellars, swap promo ideas, learn to set up newsletters, ISBN's, brainstorm on titles, plots, and jump in the hot tub. Last year we had our Taro cards read by one of the attendees!

Some writers find a quiet corner of the huge lodge to write for most of the weekend, some talk writing mostly, and some write at the dining room table while listening to the rest of us exchange ideas about social media and how to manage our author careers. A wonderfully supportive group of fellow authors always forms to cast one's net wider in this pool of Pacific Northwest Authors.

If this sounds interesting, please ask for more info. The cost is $220 for three nights and loads of food.
Check out the house!
Grand Fir Lodge

We have both unpublished authors and multi-published award-winning, bestselling authors in the group.

 I am at kimhornsby @ yahoo. com  (no spaces, of course)







Kim Hornsby is the Author of Award-Winning The Dream Jumper's Promise available on Amazon Books. She is a Bestselling Supernatural Suspense Author who lives in the Seattle area where she writes during the rainy months.