The annual INRWA retreat began, as always, with about thirty female romance writers dragging all of the stuff they need for two nights away from home into the historic manor house at Bradford Woods.
I had a bag full of pillows from home, a box fan for white noise, one smallish suitcase, my computer, a pumpkin pie, Cool Whip, a loaf of orange-banana bread, and my trusty Boy Scout cup. By the time I'd dragged all of that up to the bedroom on the second floor, I was ready for dinner. Unfortunately, we got there at about 4 and didn't eat our pitch-in chili supper until six or so. And yes, I ate way too much.
After dinner, a bunch of us gathered in the living room,
drinking wine and generally getting silly. We normally light a fire in the fireplace, but it was too warm for that. Somewhere along the line, the subject of my blog came up. Which, of course, meant that someone pulled it up on their computer. After that, I had to go get my computer so that everyone could experience the Whopping Weasel file. We had tons of fun critiquing the weasels, but when the clock struck eleven, pretty much everyone headed up to bed.
There were four of us sharing the five-bed room that night, and though I did manage to sleep some, I had brought only one of the two pillows I normally sleep on at home, both of which are relatively flat, but neither is enough alone. The pillow provided was too big to use with the one I brought and I wound up wrestling with pillows half the night. Suffice it to say, I didn't sleep particularly well, despite having brought my fan. Ah, well. Best laid plans and all that. . . .
The next morning we got up for breakfast at 7:30, but instead of scrambled eggs and bacon, we had bagels because the refrigerator had quit working during the night. This was but a tiny foreshadowing of what was to come...
The day went well. Jenna Petersen was there to give a day-long intensive publishing industry presentation in the dining room. The other five members of the Sextet and I, however, were in the living room working on our short stories all morning, trying to get them ready to submit to an editor in December.
We had chicken fajitas for lunch and then got back to work. I finished up with my part of the critiquing in time to catch the last hour or so of Jenna's workshop, which was quite informative and very entertaining. Then I went back and hung out in the living room with the gang until dinner, which was some pretty tasty fried chicken.
The winners of the in-chapter writing contest were announced at dinner, and you'll be happy to know that my current work in progress,
Stud, won the paranormal division, which was pretty cool because I've never entered any contests before, let alone won one of them!
I stayed away from the wine after dinner, as it only made me sleepy on Friday, and we wound up in the living room talking all evening again, and went hunk hunting on the internet so we could find some sexy soldiers for fellow Sextet writer, Annie Morgan. It had rained a little that morning, so it was cool enough for a fire, but we never got around to starting it. We also worked on putting new pictures on our Sextet website. Check it out at:
http://thesextet.com/ Click on the box that says Vol 1 ~Sharing for a blurb about each of our stories.
Then the clock struck ten, and everyone went upstairs. I took a shower, dear Lynne gave me a flatter pillow, and I slept quite well until about 6:25. I got up and went to the potty, got back in bed (breakfast wasn't until 8) and at promptly 6:30, the power went off. If my fan suddenly losing power hadn't been enough to wake me up, the alarms and emergency lights in the halls would have done the trick. I got dressed and went downstairs to see what was going on. The guy who was cooking for us had been there, but had left when the power went off. No one knew where he had gone or if he would be back. I decided we needed to get a fire going in the living room, but though we had plenty of dry wood and newspaper, I searched the entire building without ever finding a single match.
By about 8:30, our prez, Sandy James decided to go ahead with the business meeting, which was relatively short and included an award presentation for service to the chapter. It was too dark for the presenter to see her notes, so I stood next to her shining my handy-dandy little keychain flashlight on the paper so she could read it. We had been discussing going to McDonald's for breakfast, but about the time the meeting was winding down, the cook came back. He'd gone somewhere else to fix the French toast and sausages, so we had a hot breakfast after all. Did I mention he was a hunky blond guy?
We didn't have to be out until 12:00, but with no power (and therefore no internet--OMG!!!) most everyone left. Mellanie Szereto and I sat in the living room for about half an hour discussing the injuries and treatment the heroine in her current project would need to have in order to be stuck in the hospital for a few days after a tree limb falls on her. Somewhere during that time, the power came back on, but we hadn't noticed because there were no lights on in the living room!
I went and drove my car up to the door to load up, but, as so often happens at events like this, I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten to take any pictures! I quickly got a few shots of the building and the grounds.
And Mellanie and Kimi!
Despite the problems, we all had a terrific time and you can be sure I'll do my best to be there again next year!
Oh, yeah. Right. It's Monday, isn't it?
Can't have Monday without the moons!
Donna sent me this recipe a while back, and though I've always liked this dish, I have an idea it would be quite tasty if made with leftover turkey too!
