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Read, Revise, Relax: Six Steps to a Successful Retreat at Windbreak House
You’ve revised and ripped up drafts and read writing books and joined a writing group and sent out poems and received rejections and started a novel and thought about quitting this writing business and...
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Strike Oil: Create Your Own Writing Retreat at Home
Rise early. Work late. Strike oil. — J. Paul Getty Before you invest in a commercial writing retreat, test your mental discipline and your toleration for silent solitude. Time at an exotic location...
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Deadline Met: Report on a Solitary Writing Retreat
Mystery writer M.K. Coker came to Windbreak House Retreats for a solitary retreat in October, finishing the next book in the terrific Dakota Mystery series in time for a November deadline. This report...
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Windbreak House: Looking Back at Twenty Years of Writing Retreats
Author’s note: I wanted Windbreak House writers to speak for themselves in this retrospective of twenty years. Unless they are otherwise identified, all comments in italics are from the Windbreak House...
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Windbreak House Writing Retreats 20th Anniversary: Part 2 — Evolution
As soon as I’d made the decision to turn my ranch house into a writing retreat, I started coming back to the ranch more often to help my assistant, Tamara, get ready to make the plan a reality. She...
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Windbreak House Writing Retreats 20th Anniversary: Part 3 — Guidelines
At first, I envisioned the retreat as being so harmonious that I would not need to set rules. Each group of guests, I supposed, would decide the mood of the retreat among themselves. Civilized women...
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Windbreak House Writing Retreats 20th Anniversary: Part 4 — The People
Writing is not the only art celebrated and practiced here. One woman played her guitar in the living room after supper, inviting a singalong. A writer who had studied the Japanese art of ikebana...
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Windbreak House Writing Retreats 20th Anniversary: Part 5 — The Writing
All that apprehension—for what? I ride in the palm of an unseen hand that gently deposits me in places like this—a waystation for my soul—a soft place to land at a turning point. If a writer asks me to...
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The Importance of the Pause
My wise retreat writer has headed home in her shiny red car. She has one more retreat promise to fulfill. During 14 hours’ driving time, she’ll analyze her usual schedule, and set a time to write every...
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