Retreat! Retreat!

It happened like this. When I signed up for latest Writing Speculative Fiction course, I talked an old friend who’d just moved back to the area into taking it with me. We may not have written a great deal of deathless prose, but we had a lot of fun.

Now this friend and I happen to share a birthday. We used to get together to celebrate, but hadn’t done so in years. So this year we thought we should do something fun. At first I suggested going to Fallsview Casino in Niagara for the weekend. But then we thought, if we’re going someplace to gamble, why not go some place warm instead? So we thought about going to Vegas.

Shortly after this I got something in my email from this writing group I saw when I was at Word on the Street in the fall – I had signed up for a bunch of newsletters and theirs was one of them. Anyway, it talked about this writing retreat they were having in February called Winterfire. It sounded really interesting – I’ve always wanted to go on a writing retreat – and I jokingly suggested to my friend that we should do that instead of going to Vegas.

Much to my surprise, she jumped right on board with the idea. The political landscape being what it is in the U.S. right now, it seemed like a better way to celebrate. Plus there was the whole bright lights, people, and noise of Vegas as opposed to the quiet serenity of a small group of writers in the countryside.

Having never attended a writing retreat, we only had a vague notion of what it entailed. We had visions of a country inn, with room service and free wifi. We’d meet with other writers for workshops and exchange ideas. Then we’d sip hot toddies by the fire while sharing our work and discussing the finer points of great literature.

So we put down our non-refundable deposits and then found out what was in store for us.

The retreat is being held in a big old manor house that’s owned by a group of nuns up on Lake Simcoe. There is no wifi. There are no showers. Breakfast is provided, but we’ve been broken into five groups of three to take care of lunches and suppers – bringing the ingredients with us – and there is a whole list of food sensitivities and allergies to keep in mind when creating your meal plan.

Yikes! What have we gotten ourselves into?

Guess we’ll soon find out!