Hi friends. I know I have been TERRIBLE about writing recently. My life … as per usual … has been kind of a rollercoaster. The things that are going well are going really well – like my new teaching job at The New School and June not being ridiculously hot yet. And kind of, maybe, sort of finishing a new draft of a new book that I’m somehow still in love with. But other things are kind of a dumpster fire – globally (this needs no explanation) and personally (money stuff, roommate stuff, boy stuff, etc.).
So it’s the nicest to get away for a four-day weekend upstate at my very first writing retreat. My friend Kristina (the best critique partner anyone ever had) organized it. We are ten girls in a gorgeous house in the woods – with a pool! Three attendants are going to have their debut YA novels published next year, six attendants work in publishing, and four went to grad school with me (there is some overlap in these lists lol). We haven’t gotten the most writing done yet today, but are hunkered down now – listening to jazz and sitting with our laptops around a very long dining room table.
I brought along The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo and a lot of different ideas I want to flush out/choose from for my next project. And a swim suit … because, pool. It is beautiful and quiet and exactly what I needed.
Alison Doherty 