Why we started our retreats

Here we go, my first blog. (I wonder if this will work? Other people do it. I can do this. I'm an intelligent adult. Possibly.)

We are writers. We aren't published yet but boy are we keen! Jane and I have known each other for decades. We have been each other's bridesmaids and are godmothers to each others boys. We trained together, worked together and now we write together. It was a natural progression to go on writing retreats and courses together.

We started with the festival of Writing at York in 2013 and apart from the penetrating cold, the geese and the lumpy pillows in the student accommodation, we had a blast. We met lots and lots of lovely and enthusiastic people, including the one and only...the fabulous human dynamo also known as Debi Alper. The woman who -for us - put the creative into creative writing

Debi Alper, author, industry guru, workshop demon, Psychic distance supremo. All round good egg.

The sun rises over York campus

Then we went on retreats.

What did we want? A place to write where we didn't have to worry about anything else. No housework, no chores, a bit of inspiration, some like minded company, plenty of coffee, a couple of workshops to get the creative juices flowing, some cake and a few laughs.
Did we find it? Well sort of.
We thought we could do better.


www.theplacetowrite.co.uk