Last week I co-lead a writer's retreat in remote Diamond, Oregon.  (We kept referring to it as "the middle of nowhere" but one of the hotel's employees took offense to that.  However, it kind of is.)

It was an awesome week, with attendees and myself and my co-leader making strides in our writing.  I had come upon a wee block in how to reconfigure my novel and I had a breakthrough about that while gone.  Yay!  I even ran into an old writing buddy.  (Go figure–billeted where the paved road ends and you run into someone you know.)

The days went like this:

9AM-12PM:  Writing instruction, discussion of literary pieces, workshopping of participant pieces

Noon-1:30ish:  Lunch at the hotel

1:30, on: Writing, time to work on assignments

5 PM sharp: Happy Hour on the screened-in porch

It was a shock to drive from brown, high desert Diamond into lush, green Portland on Saturday.  It was even more of a shock to learn, as soon as I got into cell-phone range, that my daughter was at that very moment in emergency surgery to remove her gall bladder.

Which is why this week I am here, not there.  There being Maui, where I had planned to head for a spiritual retreat.  But a daughter recovering from surgery with a five-month old baby to care for is reason enough for me to stay home, don't you think?

Maybe I'll get some more writing done in between caring for them.  In the meantime, I've got another guest post lined up for this Friday, and I'll be lurking around, so stay tuned!

PS.  The retreat was so successful we're thinking of doing it again in the fall, probably for a shorter amount of time.  You should come.

Create a successful, inspired writing life: How do you retreat to write?  Or do you?  Are you one of those souls who fit in your work around everything else that you do on a day-to-day basis? Please share how.

The photo is of the old hotel sign at the Diamond Hotel and I snitched it off their website, but I don't think they'll mind, because they are really, really nice people.