Retreating to Move Forward

Back in 2017, I participated in my first (and only, so far), writers retreat. I have no recollection of what camera I had, but it was probably a little point and shoot.

The retreat was held in Colorado Springs at the Franciscan Retreat Center, which has an interesting history. It started out as a tuberculosis sanatorium back in 1909, founded by the Modern Woodmen of America, a nationwide fraternal services organization, and was a self-contained community until 1947 when the sanatorium closed.

(Side note: I used some of what I learned at the center in my latest book, Deadly Ambitions. )

They’ve restored one of the tent-cottages patients used.

Now, it’s owned and managed by the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration, and includes a nursing center, counseling services, and the retreat center.

I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and checked in to my room in Marian Hall.

Since this was a convent, the rooms were spartan and the amenities were few (not that much different from my dorm room at UCLA in the 60s) but the idea behind the retreat is to give attendees a quiet, peaceful place to write. No phones, no television sets (but they did have an internet connection). No elevators, valets, or room service, not that we expected them. No housekeeping service.

Here are some pictures of the grounds .

Meals were served in a dining hall across the facility. We didn’t go hungry!)

Our first official gathering was dinner on Thursday, followed by an informal meet and greet.

We were officially underway on Friday after breakfast with a workshop session on Marketing. The basic schedule was very simple. Breakfast, workshop, writing time, (which was really “free time” for work, or wandering the grounds, or reading, taking pictures—whatever worked for you), then lunch, more “writing time”, dinner, then a group gathering time where authors could read from their works if they chose. There were also critique sessions of two varieties. One, a group session where everyone had read the offerings of the group. The second, the one I chose, was a “cold read” of two pages, one-on-one with an agent or editor. Since I’m working on a new book, and it’s moving in a slightly different direction, I wanted feedback on whether it seemed to be working.

I didn’t write quite as much as I’d set as my goal, but without any outside distractions, I was able to go through the manuscript and patch holes and check for continuity before moving forward. I confess, sitting at the small table with Jesus watching took a little getting used to for this Jewish girl, but there were comments from Catholics and others who also found it a bit disconcerting at first, so it wasn’t just me.

That was back in 2017. The way things are—or aren’t—progressing with the current wip, maybe I need another one.

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