favorite writing retreat blog | favorite writing retreat blog
Jan.27.2011
The truth is, I've never been to a real writers retreat, although whenever I visit my mother, it feels like a retreat.
In the late summer of 2000, my mother and stepfather retired from their day jobs and relocated from San Jose, California to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. They don...
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Jan.26.2011
I climb the narrow attic stairs to my secret writing retreat. I find myself humming that wonderful line of Cinderella's song, "In my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be whatever I want to be." There is a wonderful corner in my parent's attic where I've placed a small...
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Jan.26.2011
Between two volcanoes almost to the Oregon border in Northern California. On my left, Mount Shasta, on my right Mount Lassen. Inspiration from generations of railroad families and Native Americans. In the town of Dunsmuir, which still operates as a repair station for the Union Pacific, my son owns...
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Jan.26.2011
A café near the Leidseplein in downtown Amsterdam, where I conceived my first novel.
In the summer of 1995, I was traveling with friends around Europe before my senior year of college. The trip itself was a screwball comedy of missed trains, drunk late nights and grandeur...
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Jan.26.2011
The Writing Muse finds me in the most unlikely of places - laundromats, showers, commuter trains and even the occasional coffee shop. But, by and large, she chooses to alight upon my shoulder in public libraries. This makes perfect sense, since a library, after all, is the Writing Muse’s turf…I...
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Jan.26.2011
By mid June of 2006 I had already undergone six weeks of radiation treatments, which included carrying a chemo pump that was attached to my body through a needle inserted into a port surgically installed just under the skin on my upper left arm. Earlier that same month, on my 41st birthday, I had...
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Jan.26.2011
I like to write on a variety of topics, so my inspiration comes from many places, people, and things. My favorite writing retreat, however, is the trail. In recent times, I've spent 2-3 months of each year hiking and backpacking in the U.S., South America, and Europe. It's tough to keep up a...
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Jan.26.2011
I always blog in my room, my favorite place to write, to take my laptop on my lap and start gushing about what i want to write, close the door sometime so i can focus on what i want to concentrate on, without any one interrupting what i'm thinking,turning some music, the classics is my favorite or...
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Jan.26.2011
There are people everywhere, everywhere
rushing
busting thumping
steping on my feet
crowding my tweets
i want to stop
stop them
for a moment of solitude
a pause
so i can catch a thought
freeze
a moment of inspiration
capture fleeting words
cage the expression bursting
through the enclaves of my...
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Jan.26.2011
Writing is like having a wonderful dream while you’re wide awake. The world becomes what you make and what you make of it. Characters lurk in the shadows or burst into the room, some with their own agendas, others looking for one. Windows appear, draperies descend, wallpaper blossoms with patterns...
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