Cruise with your Muse – retreat :)

27th January, 2010 - Posted by traciella - 5 Comments

I really thought that at least one of us would have posted by now…lol. We are kind of wordy and hey – aren’t we supposed to be good at giving details? I’ll start the ball rolling, but then everyone else needs to chip in, k? lol. After four days with you people, I KNOW you aren’t shy
First day was great. We floated. Ate. Drank. Looked at the Miami parking lot. Sang karioke. Second day we bypassed the keys and went straight to open water. There was a lot of swaying and bobbing, but that might have been the leftover alcohol in my system. There were amazing workshops and our guests were awesome about taking their saturday presentations and moving them to friday – since we were going to be in Cozumel all day on Saturday. We are flexiblem, as a whole. Heather’s clan is like a party in a box. Add water, and voila! We have instant fun added to an already great time. I loved hanging with Alex and Erin (crap, am I supposed to be name dropping here? Uh, Heather GRAHAM, Alex SOKOLOF and Erin McCARTHY) Our Pres, Kathleen Pickering, kept everything lively with her smile and jokes – but I sort of felt sorry for poor Aleka Nakis, because we all looked to her as our personal cruise director. We are gunning for Kimberly Gonzales to take on the mantel for next year…but back to the cruise. There was so much food – and pizza! Yes, pizza. I am over forty and it is still one of my all time favorite foods. Cruise. Sheesh. Too much coffee this morning – I’m like an ADD lab rat. Saturday was amazing – by this time I’d grabbed my guts and mustered the courage to talk to Adam and Eric seperately about my upcoming manuscripts. Really what happened was so laid back it went more like “Hey, Trace – what are you writing?” (ship rocks, we laugh) Me, “Well, just a post apocolyptic love story…” it was a totally relaxed, chill conversation and my talk with Adam was the same way. I think theytold Aleka (back track with the name thing – Adam Wilson from Harlequin and Eric Raab from Tor – lol) that our submissions for Floridian Idol had improved since last year -which means fellow writers that we are doing what a chapter should be doing – GROWING as writers. Sunday Lyn Armstrong and Toni Andrews and I did tarot readings – okay – my phone is ringing and I totally have to get to finishing my spec sheet for my new medieval series…to summarize: we danced, we drank, we pitched, we wrote, we brainstormed, we fed the muse.
The End.
ps – pictures will be posted in the photo section of our website!

5 Comments

Kristin W.

January 27th, 2010 at 12:32 pm    


I think this trip surpassed last year’s conference, mostly because of the wonderful group we had (not that it wasn’t a great group before!!!) But exploring the Mayan ruins and surviving the hard sale push to buy a cheap knock off of a Mayan Cartush (sp?) with 20 of my closest friends is an experience never to be missed. “Buy an authentic cartush engraved with your initials, Amigos!” And watching Eric Raab (along with Adam Wilson) sing a truly twisted karaoke version of Purple Rain erased any intimidation factor I might have had when it came to time to pitch to him.

Patrice

January 28th, 2010 at 4:24 am    


Getting to know this fabulous group of writers and FRW members was awesome for me. I swear I’ll make it to more meetings! And this cruise was so laid back and fun, and I wish all our pitching sessions could be so easy with editors!

Kathleen PIckering

January 28th, 2010 at 7:14 am    


Highlights, highlights. I’m trying to think of some and everything was a highlight! I’m beginning to see a pattern here . . . FRW initiates an event and an amazing time is had by all. Word is spreading, I kid you not. Just ask the non-members who attended. Okay . . . I have so much to say, I’ll blog next.

Aleka Nakis

January 28th, 2010 at 7:14 am    


Wow! I get sympathy for a wonderful time. Love it.
I can’t agree more. We were productive and had a phenomenal weekend at the same time. I do think that the group of people (should I be like Traci and drop more names? nah, you know who you are) participating and their positive energy was the key. The ship rocked–guess the Brazilian rowing team wasn’t keeping in rythm–but it only served to push us closer together (literally).
This was the kick and boost my muse needed to keep going.
Thank you!

Nancy J. Cohen

January 30th, 2010 at 2:53 am    


I’ve been to Tulum before. It’s a looong bus ride. Takes the whole day. Now when I go to Cozumel, I visit my favorite shops, stop for lunch in my favorite restaurant, and end up spending more money than planned. This port stop is one of those featured in my cruise mystery, Killer Knots.

Leave a reply

Name *

Mail *

Website