On Writing Retreats and Friendships by Wendy H. Jones

As I write this I am busy packing for a mini writing retreat/holiday in the beautiful Cotswolds in England. I'm not entirely sure if I've ever been there before but I can say I am very much looking forward to my break. I'm a bit of a wanderer and have spent much of my life travelling and visiting other countries and different areas of the UK. This having been stuck at home for the last eighteen months has pretty much fried my brain. I'm still writing but I definitely need a healthy dose of somewhere else to give me a literary  transfusion. So, I'm packing my bags and heading down south for a week. I'm currently feeling frightfully brave not having been over the border in nearly two years. 

This has been made possible by friend and fellow ACW member, Maressa Mortimer, who has generously offered me the use of her holiday cottage for a week. This is a real blessing but I am doubly blessed by the fact that the cottage is about a mile from Maressa's home. I am looking forward to seeing her children again, not just because they are my biggest fans. It will be fun to see people other than my own family and get back to a bit of normality. 

While I am there I am going to take the opportunity to get some writing done and I am hoping Maressa will be able to join me and we will have a mini writing retreat. I will also be soaking up the beauty of the Cotswolds and inhaling inspiration at every step I take. It's been a tough couple of years for everyone and I believe that taking tentative steps back to what will become normality is important. It's important for our mental health and also for our literary health. 

So, as you read this I will be in the car and heading down South. I have a ton of podcasts to listen to and audio books on my phone. I'm good to go for my journey and I am very much looking forward to it. I will report back once I return to Bonnie Scotland. 

Here's to writing retreats and friendship. Both equally important and both worth celebrating. I intend to enjoy every single minute. I will finish by saying, thank you, Maressa, you're a rock star.

What are you doing to give yourself a literary shot in the arm? I'd love to hear. 

About the Author 

Wendy H Jones is the Amazon #1 international best-selling author of the award winning DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries. Her Young Adult Mystery, The Dagger’s Curse was a finalist in the Woman Alive Readers' Choice Award. She is also The President of the Scottish Association of Writers, an international public speaker, and runs conferences and workshops on writing, motivation and marketing. Wendy is the founder of Crime at the Castle, Scotland’s newest Crime Festival. She is the editor of a Lent Book, published by the Association of Christian Writers and also the editor of the Christmas Anthology from the same publisher. Her first children's book, Bertie the Buffalo, was released in December 2018. Motivation Matters: Revolutionise Your Writing One Creative Step at a Time, was released in May 2019. The Power of Why: Why 23 Women Took the Leap to Start Their Own Business was released on 29th June, 2020. Marketing Matters: Sell More Books was released on 31st July 2020. Bertie Goes to the Worldwide Games will be released on 5th May, 202,  and the third book in the Fergus and Flora Mysteries will be published in 2021. Her new author membership Authorpreneur Accelerator Academy launched in January 2021. Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion for Writing the third book in her Writing Matters Series will be published in September 2021.

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