Writers Weekend at the Beach

the path to the ocean
the path to the ocean

My first visit to the Pacific coast of Washington State took me to Ocean Park and the Writers Weekend at the Beach as a guest speaker. Lovely, welcoming folk; surprise sunshine; talented, enthusiastic writers: what more could a visitor from North Carolina want? Such fun talking about the cadence of voice, both the voice that is uniquely ours and the voice of our story reflected in the mood of the piece and the point-of-view characters. Reading aloud from various voices and listening as others read their samples, laughing, kicking up our heels: I feasted.

I wish you could have been there. But perhaps one day we can do this again, somewhere else. There’s a world of writers I’d love to meet.

See the wave?
See the wave?
Lovely ocean
Lovely ocean

 

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into the sun
Path back to the center
Path back to the center

 

woods on the way
woods on the way

 

From the deck
From the deck

 

And then it was back to the Portland, Oregon, area, where Cheryl and Harrison Martin made me welcome. What a view they have down into the gorge! We ate like royalty, laughed, sipped a lovely red or two that Harrison offered, bit into See’s dark chocolate, toured Portland, and lunched on mussels and other goodies at Little Bird Bistro in Portland. Yum!

Monday night, I met with another group of enthusiastic writers from the Portland ACFW, who listened to me chat about writing for the general market, which is Wayside’s specialty. I’m ready to return to that neck of the woods anytime. Thank you all for inviting me!

My hosts in the Portland area:

Cheryl and Harrison in their backyard. Gorgeous.
Cheryl and Harrison in their backyard. Gorgeous view of the river.

What’s your favorite retreat site? Do you have a small conference where attendees become family and look forward to returning year after year? That’s what those Writers Weekend folk do.

Maybe we should start such a gathering at a North Carolina beach, a writers retreat where we’d gather and learn and walk along our East Coast beaches. Your thoughts?