By Christine Thackeray
I was supposed to blog yesterday* but got home from the Northwest Writer's Retreat exhausted. The four hour drive home took over six due to wet roads and a serious accident that clogged the freeway. Still, it was worth every minute. I LOVE ANWA!!! Not only did we laugh until we almost peed ourselves and talked into the wee hours of the night, (like how I worked pee annd wee in the same sentence?) BUT I learned so much about writing that will help me NOW with my current work in progress.
The conference was incredible. Mary Lou Bailey had us each write down our alias name, our secret fantasy and our biggest pet peeve. Who knew that Xanthea, Sawyer and Lady Constance were in our midst. The classes I attended included Monique L. taught about blogging, twitter and had an ipad to show us. It was SOOO helpful! Then Liz Adair taught about the six stages of writing: finding our inner matroyshka. For those of you that have now clue what that last word means, it's one of those Russian nesting dolls and when you get to the center, the doll is solid. I'm hoping to get there before too long. Lara N. taught a free verse poetry class and I taught the basics of story ark or is that arc.
The second day ended with Mary Lou having puzzles of different places. Everyone had to find the three other people with the other pieces to their puzzle and then we each began an story with our alter ego as the MC. After five minutes, we switched, round robin style, and had to continue the other person's story. That's when the laughing started. The best entailed a dead cat, stilettos and Ozzy Osborne.
Best of all, Janette Rallison came all the way up from Arizona and spoke numerous times, each with such great information. At the very end we sold books and I brought an autographed "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" for my thirteen year old daughter. I came home exhausted but she was thrilled by the gift and I just found out she stayed up until three in the morning finishing it last night. It was so good she couldn't put it down.
What a compliment to Janette and what a great weekend. I'm still smiling.
*Marsha made it show up on Sunday's date
Great way to make those of us who can't make it wanna be there.
ReplyDeleteHOw fun! I tried really hard to be able to attend. I'm excited for all of you that were there. Great post!
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful! Glad you all had a great time!
ReplyDeleteI had such a great time! It was so good to get to know more ANWA members. You have a wonderful group up in Washington!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great retreat and we missed the AZ ANWA sisters who came up last year. There were beds for all and SHOWERS that you didn't have to put quarters in, and some of the cabins were right on the beach.
ReplyDeleteBut best of all was the sisterhood. Makes me smile just to think of it.
Great recap, Christine. Now I can't blog about it tomorrow, though. I still might AND post a couple of funny pics of Liz.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds so fun.
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