Don a Superhero Cape and Drink Magic Blue while you Ponder the Booker Awards and Gut-busting review of 50 Shades of You-Know-What

A few of my students during downtime,
donning superhero capes
and drinking magic blue flying potion
Photo by C. Mittelhauser

I'm back from teaching overseas. What a great experience! My students were smart and curious and hard workers. They excelled at the writing prompts I gave them. I missed being able to post as much as I normally do, as the Internet on the Greek Cycladic islands was spotty at best. But I'm back in the swing, and happy to see that I've been granted a Booker Award "For those who refuse to live in the real world" (but prefer to live in books) from the fabulous Kelly Hashway. I am also delighted that the equally-fabulous Candilynn Fite is offering my Fireseed One novel as the prize for her flash fiction contest, which you can enter here, through July 20th. What a great community we have!

The Booker Award states that I list my five favorite books. ***I'm tweaking it to add the option of listing five books you read this summer. Here are five books I read:
The Soulkeepers by GP Ching (inventive world, interesting mesh of Christian myth)
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (sensual, clever concept)
Point Omega by Don DeLillo (love, love, love DeLillo! He's the writers' writer)
The Backworlds by M. Pax (funny space opera with a lovable, bumbling antihero, stay tuned for Idea City's hoopla for the launch of her book #2, on July 23rd)
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (Had to reread this master of raw, heartbreaking prose)

To receive this award, your blog must focus at least 50% on books and aspects of writing. I awarded it to:
Mina Lobo's Some Dark Romantic (new adult fiction)
Susan Gourely/Kelley's Susan Says
Sarah Negovetich's at Sarah Nego Writes
Michael Offutt

Before you jump off, please leave a comment, but first read Katrina Lumsden's funniest ever review of Fifty Shades of Grey (with equally funny animations to illustrate points). No, I haven't read it, nor would I, but you've all heard about it, and I'm sure you're curious! She starts her review with "What the h*ll just happened? Did I really read that? Oh, my g*d, I did! I did read that! click here to read review.

Summer Writing Retreats!

It’s that time again for the writing retreat I attend. I look forward to it for months. And I’m willing to endure crawling highway traffic and power outages for it. We have coffee on the porch in the morning while we talk shop. Then we go to our “writing stations”, at various spots on the wraparound porch. We work pretty much through the afternoon, with a quick lunch break. And then, when we're hot, tired and our brains are on overload, we trek through the woods to the beach. We take turns cooking dinner, and play writing games at night. Not a bad life for a week.

I’ve attended an assortment of writing workshops, conferences and retreats over the years. There are ones where you mostly workshop, and spend lots of time reading other authors’ work and critiquing. This is great when you're jumping in for the first time, and really want feedback on your work. There are conferences, where you listen to seasoned writers talk about their novels and how to best negotiate the writing life. This type of event is perfect when what you want is a shot of inspiration and information. And there are many permutations of the above. Summer retreats are also a chance to spend time in a deluxe location—Lake Tahoe, Southampton, Big Sur, Mendocino—you get the drift.

There are so, so many to choose from! You’ll discover this when you Google retreats. And they occur throughout the year. If you’re considering one, find out who the presenting writers are, and whether they’re a good fit for what you’re working on. You may prefer a smallish one, or perhaps a huge one, like the LA SCBWI summer conference, where you can blend in and pick and choose which breakout groups to attend. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a spa and two swimming pools out there.

So, Happy, Happy July Fourth! Have you ever attended a writing retreat? How was it? If not, what kind of retreat or conference would you look for? How are you celebrating the holiday? Getting any writing done?