"Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own." - Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

The website Retreats for Writers says, "Everyone needs to get away, especially writers. A writers retreat is the perfect opportunity to focus solely on your craft for a period of time. With all the day to day distractions aside, it’s surprising how much you can accomplish." This week, Red Room would like to hear about your favorite place to get away to write.

For the second year in a row, the San Miguel Writers Conference is sponsoring this week's blog topic, with an exclusive offer for Red Room members. One of you will win free Conference attendance, February 18–20, 2011, in magical San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, featuring keynote speaker Sandra Cisneros. It’s a $725 value that includes two extraordinary Mexican fiestas, speakers, workshops, a world-class faculty, and an eight-hour intensive course of your choosing, all set in a World Heritage City that “has long been a hotbed for writers, artists, romantics, and musicians.”

Click here by Friday, January 28th, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. PST (GMT- 0:800) to enter »

Whether it's a conference in an artists' colony like San Miguel de Allende, Macondo, or Yaddo, a night at your local writers group, or even a stolen hour up in a treehouse, what change of scene has worked for you?

We'll choose one of your blog posts to feature on Red Room's homepage next week. A few selected bloggers will win the new book from Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. Demystifying the publishing process, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, "takes you through the entire process, from finding the right idea, to writing your book, to finding an agent and/or publisher (or self-publishing), to promoting and marketing, to finding your audience through social media, to e-books, soup-to-nuts, the only guide you'll ever need."

So post a blog entry today about Red Room's topic of the week

"favorite writing retreat"

For help on how to blog, please see the directions here. We'll choose one of these blog posts to be featured on Red Room's homepage next week. Post your entry by Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST (GMT-08:00) for consideration, and be sure to tag it with the keyword term favorite writing retreat blog in the Blog Keyword Tags field so we can find it. (Please don't forget the tag. For more information about tags, click here.)

And don't miss last week's favorite movie from a book blog posts. From an erudite consideration of Slaughterhouse-Five to a hilarious rundown at one family's outrage at the various Jane Austen adaptations, you won't want to ponder this week's Oscar nominations without reading what Red Roomers think about the movies.

Thanks as always for blogging!

–Huntington W. Sharp, Senior Editor, Red Room