Heather Lazare and me: Deep dive into writing retreats

Due to recent social media activity (those who know me are laughing already because of that phrase), more than thirty people have signed up for early-bird notifications of my next writing retreat (thank you so much for your interest!). Another number have asked what exactly a writing retreat is all about—a valid question as there is no consistent answer, which my good friend Heather Lazare and I can attest.

Heather and I met years ago on discovering we had parallel lives. We are both developmental editors, both teach courses on publishing for Stanford Continuing Studies, and both host writers’ retreats—in ways that differ from but complement each other. Heather leads the Northern California Writers’ Retreat; we also know at least a handful of other writing retreat leaders, all doing their own slightly different things.

On May 30th, Heather and I returned from a retreat I led in Kefalonia, Greece. (Look! This is where we were working on chapters!)

We thought, what better time to answer the many questions we’ve been asked over the years about writing retreats, and to reflect on our very different ways of running them. The recording of our conversation is below. just click on the screen shot. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

And, I’d like to give a plug to one of my personal fairy godmothers, Ginny Rorby, who is launching her eighth novel at the end of this month, Girl Under Glass. Here we are at a sneaky prelaunch event. Double congratulations are in order as the novel has just picked up the 2024 Maxy Award, MG/YA. Congratulations, Ginny!

Finally, back to the subject of writing retreats, I thought I’d leave you with what a private, one-on-one consultation about your novel could look like…

Until then, happy writing!

Shirin