Writing Retreat Productivity

A writing retreat is a good thing.

With no worries but the words, the pressures of life relieve a little bit. And being surrounded by like-minded people frittering away on their keyboards … well, you tend to get a fair amount accomplished.

Now add in a beautiful location, good weather, and good friends old and new. That’s what made my recent days at the Woodthrush Writing Retreat (ironically) indescribably awesome.

I arrived on Wednesday after a long drive. Waiting for me on the Porch of Writing? Old friend Alethea Kontis, who was kind enough to smile for the camera:

And in the other direction, it’s old friends Mary Robinette Kowal and Monte Cook, along with new friend Shanna Germain. All of them, as you can see, are in deep concentration on the Porch of Writing:

It’s hard work, you know. And a writing retreat is all writing, all the time. 24/7. No breaks at all:

I didn’t grab clear pictures of all the other attendees, including (in alphabetical order) David Coe, Ellen Klages, David Levine, Cherie Priest, Sandra Tayler, and Kate Yule. But all were awesome.

And as if that isn’t awesome enough, we had a surprise (and unrelated) visitor to Woodthrush: Andy Irvine, who’s a world-famous Irish musician. He and I spent the better part of an afternoon chatting on what was, for that short period of time, the Porch of Conversation:

All in all, it was an incredible, unforgettable time.

Plus, in three days I nailed down 15,000 words in the new novel.