Retreat Day 1: Getting the Excitement Out of the Way Early

What were YOU doing when the fire started?

Kim: I was screwing around on Facebook, but I didn't have time to post anything before I had to go outside!

Fran: I was actually working, and thinking how much better my book is since I started working on it today!

Elizabeth: I was talking with Cindy about my plot, actually.

Vicky: I was reading a book on writing synopses, and taking notes.

Misty: I was listening to Megan talk about her book.

Cindy: Talking to Elizabeth about her plot.

I sense some collaboration going on here. Do we believe all this nobility?

Donna: I was writing! *points emphatically at interviewer* (and having a glass of wine)

Heidi: I was talking.

About what?

Heidi: Shapeshifting multi-partner sex.

Heather: I was listening to Heidi. *shudders*

Elaine: I was writing.

Mandy: I was trying to achieve my retreat goal of painting my nails.

Misty: How far did you get?

Mandy: I got em! *shows off blood red toenails*

Megan: I was discussing writing with Misty.


I won't ask Smith what she was doing, because she and I were outside watching the approaching storm. The alarm went off, and a moment later, writers in comfy pants started coming out, so we ran in to get our laptops. When we got back outside, I saw a couple of purses, several phones, and only, like, two laptops!

Me: What the hell kind of writers are you, anyway?

Half of them went back inside to get their stuff. LOL

Okay, not so funny. Our hall was clear of smoke or any other signs of fire, but a few minutes later, Misty came back to us and said there was a real fire. She'd seen smoke rolling along the hall ceiling from the laundry room.

Luckily, it was only about 9:20 p.m., so no one was asleep or anything. Everyone from both groups present was accounted for and safe outside. The executive on site put out the fire, but after the seven trucks showed up, there was still smoke coming out of the building. We hung out for about half an hour, then they directed us to a building on the other side of the property, so we could sit inside out of the rain.

Well, that didn't last long. The Three Stooges Musketeers (Me, Misty, and Smith) headed back out through the pouring rain to see why we heard more sirens. There were now fifteen trucks, still smoke hanging around despite the rain, and two ladders up to the roof.

We saw the manager driving back to the dining hall, so we ran (yes, RAN) back to beat her here. (Luckily, she stopped to talk to the priests in the other building, first.) They said the fire was out and had been confined to the one room. They were clearing out the building to see how bad the smoke smell was, and we'll have to decide if we're okay with staying. Our hall shouldn't be affected, or at least not badly. I'm now typing this at 10:44. We should know more in half an hour. I wish I had Internet access so I could live blog! :)

Update:
We got back into our rooms just before midnight. All is fine! Check out my Facebook page for crappy cell phone photos, including one of our hero!

Now, back to revisions.

Retreat: Final Report

I apologize for not blogging every day during the retreat, but I was so determined to do well this year! I tried really hard not to let myself get distracted.

I was going to post a few pictures, but my camera battery is dead and my card doesn't fit the reader of this computer. So maybe tomorrow.

I had no idea what to work on this weekend, so I started three different books. Here's my final breakdown:

Thursday:

Entanglement: 5067
Stealing Pain: 3597
Taking Action: 0

Friday:

Entanglement: 400
Stealing Pain: 595
Taking Action: 4026

Saturday:

Entanglement: 5134
Stealing Pain: 4029
Taking Action: 2042

Sunday:

Entanglement: 0
Stealing Pain: 839
Taking Action: 0

Book Totals:

Entanglement: 10601
Stealing Pain: 8221
Taking Action: 6907

Grand Total: 25,729

I think you can tell which book has grabbed me the most. :) Entanglement's story and characters have a built-in impetus that's keeping me going. Stealing Pain hasn't gone where I expected, and it doesn't feel like I expected, and I think I need to let that one percolate a bit. Taking Action needs about half of it cut because it really sucks, but I know how to fix it (I think). So I'm going to try to keep working on all three, though Entanglement will probably get most of my attention.

The retreat was typically great. Even the ER trip led to much laughter. As always, there was tons of camaraderie and encouragement, relaxation and silliness. And, obviously, writing!

We're Here!

Well, four six of us are, anyway. The other 13 seven will trickle in today, with a couple coming tomorrow. But retreat has BEGUN!

All of the welcome items are organized and ready to hand out. I squee'd over my *-***** and my ***** *** from Misty and my **** and **** [all redacted to protect the late arrivals] and the super-secret gift made by retreat chair Vicki Smith and CPRW president Misty Simon (no links, I'm on retreat, too lazy!).

We have a full house this year, and a different conference room, which is farther away but super-big and actually away from the rooms so our Saturday night game, which is always raucous, will not disturb. Not that we disturb anyone, anyway. The other group that's always here, a quilting gang, stays up even later than we do, some of them. :) And we give them free books, so they love us.

So.

I am unpacked and put away and ready to go!

My laptop is set up and plugged in!

*taps fingers*

*trims nails*

*checks empty e-mail inbox*

*smooths wrinkle in super-secret gift*

*ponders opening book file*

Is it lunchtime yet?

My Personal May Sweeps

I don't know why I always say October is my favorite month. I mean, it is, until the end of April, when I become giddy about May and all it will bring.

Besides the obvious (hopefully good weather, the best TV of the season, and the start of the summer blockbusters), I always have a series of events that allow me guilt-free selfishness. We have something awesome every weekend this year!

May 2 is my local chapter meeting, and it starts half an hour late than it used to, which means I don't have to miss the early soccer game or the meeting, or any parts thereof.

May 9 is Mother's Day.

May 13–16 is our annual writers retreat, and Number Two's last soccer game is the 16th, after the retreat ends, hallelujah.

May 21/22 we get to see my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, as well as my cousins and their new babies (and the adorable toddler brother) and my aunt and hopefully uncle and grandfather.

May 29 is a City Islanders game. The season started this past Saturday, but the next home game isn't until the third week in May (which we'll miss, but that's fine, more important stuff going on!). That is also Memorial Day Weekend, so there's that day off of work/school.

The not-so-great part of May? Well, May sweeps means the best TV (ideally), but it also means finales. Supernatural only has 3 episodes left, and by the end of the month, LOST will be done forever. :(

But that's a small thing in the grand scheme of awesome. What are you looking forward to this May?

Beach Retreat 2010

Here's a sampling of our adventure. More photos are here.

Beach Retreat: A Running Journal

Friday, 5:55 p.m. Yay! We’re on our way to the beach!  I happen to be lucky enough to have a friend who bought a beach house, and five of us are going down to test it out for retreatability this weekend. We’re all packed into a Suburban, making dirty jokes and cursing people who annoy us. I’m carsick, but I won’t say so or Megan will leave me on the side of the road. She hates vomit. Not that I’m going to vomit, but she’s paranoid.

Friday, 7:02 p.m.  Dinner. All the chain restaurants are packed, so we stop at a diner.  Bix, who doesn’t travel well, orders a side of ham. Side to nothing, but hey, to each his own.  We make fun of the typos on the menu and specials list. For a special accasion, be sure to order off the sauteed pan menu.

Saturday, 1:59 a.m. After unloading, claiming beds, changing into comfy jammies, and talking forever, we all suddenly decide to go to bed.

Saturday, 7:12 a.m. My roommate got up to pee, which gave me permission to get up to pee, but now I can’t go back to sleep. Misty and Bix are whispering out in the living room. Misty boots up her computer. The chime galvanizes me and I leap out of bed. Yay! Writing.

Saturday, 8:59 a.m. I’ve only written 94 words. Smith’s Windows Live Messenger won’t autolaunch anymore, her iPod is working, and I’m excited to write. But it’s snowing, and I’m giddy. I’ve never seen the beach in the snow. And now Smith and Simon are eating bagels and that woke up my stomach. After Simon is done picking on me for being too sensitive (I moved my mug so it wouldn’t be in her way and she said “Are you afraid I’m going to contaminate your mug?” and I was like, “See, I knew you would think that, so I debated whether or not to move it!” It’s a neurosis. She’s decided to mean me out of it. Yay.

Saturday, 9:21 a.m. Megan’s finally up. I’m still eating, but the others are, of course, done. But now we’re all at the table sharing “how I slept” stories. Burkholder has multiple noses. Megan dreamed there was a tornado here, and we’re like her kids to her. Smith is a canine racist, thinking all black dogs look the same. 118 words

Saturday, 10:37 a.m. 627 words. Ate, showered, talked about adoption and stupid people. Starting a 20-minute writing challenge. Ready…GO!

Saturday, 11:05 a.m. We start walking, in the snow. After ten minutes, Smith and Simon wimp out. “Snow in my face.” “Too friggin’ cold.” Wah Wah Wah.

Saturday, 11:33 a.m. Bix and I reach the beach. Awesome! I’ve never seen the beach in the snow. Slightly disappointed because the wind is stronger here, so the snow on the sand is patchy. Take a few pictures, start to leave, but the ocean is calling me, so I walk down to the edge and watch it for a minute. Wind is fierce here. I want to go in the water—it beguiles me—but I’m not psychotic.  We head back and wave off the offer of a ride. We’re having fun!

Saturday, 12:05 p.m. We laugh at my frozen dredlocks.

Saturday, 12:45 p.m. I am way overstuffed from lunch. It was healthy, except for the cracker candy. Starting to write again now. Not planning to stop until it’s done. We’ll see how that goes.

Saturday, 1:45 p.m. 2785 words. We’re being so good! One chapter to go.

Saturday 2:07 p.m. 3218 words. Now the other three are driving down to the beach. I feel a little stupid, but WTH. I didn’t want to risk missing my chance to go there, if the others decided they weren’t going later. The two-mile walk felt good.  But now I’m cold and I don’t want to get wet again. Finishing the book now…

Saturday, 3:16 p.m. Sooooo close! 4980 words. Very last scene. But I had a desperate urge for Supernatural, and since the wireless signal is weak, I knew it would take a while to download. But even on my brand-new laptop, if the signal is too weak, iTunes locks up. Dammit. I need Sam and Dean.

Saturday, 3:33 p.m. Crap. About 3 pages from the end, one phone conversation left, and I typed a line that required me to go back and totally revise the big climactic scene.  I’m never going to finish this thing!

Saturday, 3:43 p.m. I just felt a surge of contentment. Four of us are working at the table, three on laptops, one longhand, all deep into our stories. The energy of creation is…oh, forget it, that sounds pompously fruity-tootie. Anyway, it’s awesome. If only the fifth member of our group wasn’t hiding in her bedroom…

Saturday, 4:55 p.m. 6,301 words.  Aaaaand DONE! The Supernatural episode downloaded on the second try. Plus, the book. I finished it. Yay!  I’m such a dork. I edited a little bit to make it come out at exactly 80,000 words.  It’s silly, because when I revise it later, it will change.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to goof off the rest of the weekend. I need to update my book’s timeline, make sure it all works right.  And maybe I’ll start revising Hummingbird. In the meantime, dinner is smelling awesome, and I have that SPN episode.

When I get home and have my camera cable, I’ll post snow!beach pictures!

Retreat Craziness

Oddly, all the craziness--or, at least, all the craziness I captured--was on Saturday.

First, we wanted to go for a post-dinner walk. But the weather wasn't quite cooperative. So Mandy suggested we use the excellent canvas bags Joyce and Kristine gifted us with:



But it cleared up for a while, so we managed to get out.

Then we hazed Elizabeth.



She was a new member on her first retreat! Had to do something! Actually, someone said something about how we should make someone lie down on a grave, and she volunteered. Said it was peaceful.

Remember the weird circle from two years ago?



It's still there.



Misty decided the weird circle demanded more weirdness, though.



Supernatural fans know what a weird circle in a cemetery means, but the only zombie we encountered was Megan:



Vicki demonstrated how NOT to ride a playground dog:



And then we went to the other cemetery, which we haven't done before. I don't know, it's just not as creepy without the fence:



I don't think we'll be going back. I mean, how much fun is a cemetery if you can't bring coat hangers?



Saturday night we played our game. Here's Beth, posing after she won putting Johnny Depp together, defaced as he was.



We laughed harder than at any other retreat game, and that's saying something. Joyce hyperventilated and had to sit down:



Gotta love David Beckham as Spock played by @ZacharyQuinto.



We were equal opportunity defacers, of course:



But honest, among all the insanity, we did work!



Now, don't you want to have a retreat of your own?