Poetry Friday: Pulled Dreams

On the curved sand point

the inlet pushes and pulls

dreams about the house.  

Lorie Ann Grover, 2012

Off on a writing retreat in the cottage pictured. The wind is blustery and the clouds low. The cormorants are drip-drying on the buoys. And we are writing...

Photo Friday: On Top of the World

No haiku this week for Poetry Friday, but here's a photo from the top of Crystal Mountain. I'm still away writing. See you next week!

Retreating to the hills!

And I'm off for a week of writing with Dia Calhoun at her family's orchard in the Methow Valley. There will be furious plotting and typing, much laughter, gazing at the Milky Way, listening to the coyotes call from one hill to the other, careful stepping around rattlesnakes, and a wary eye open for cougars. Which have been on the property twice in 30 years. Still. Twice!

Here's to friends, creating, and creation!

Writing Retreat, August, 2009, Poetry Friday

*waving to you from Dia Calhoun's orchard*

No connection for Poetry Friday this week, my peeps. I'm writing my heart out! See you when I return!

5 minutes later...

Okay, so I just squeezed this in at a bakery stop. Haiku inspired by coffee which has no sugar because I don't even have a second to get up and get it!

The Orchard

The blue sweeping sky
brushes words and story through
my mind with the breeze.

Catch the roundup with Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Writing Retreat, 3/09

It's going to seem like I retreat frequently. But I don't. Really! It's just that this opportunity came up and so we HAD to go, right?

One weekend with members of the team who could make it: postergirl Jackie Parker, divas Dia Calhoun, Justina Chen Headley, and me, here:

Two fantasies and two contemporary novels were being born. And a few good photos. This is my favorite!


There are always surprises when you go to a place sight-unseen. The next photo looks perfectly normal. But it's a skylight! The eroding mud hill was LOOMING over us. Did it make for faster typing as we all worried we'd be washed out to sea? Um. Yes.

Of course dinner out is a highlight, the chance to share how the writing day went. Just in time for happy hour!


Then back to writing in the morning!


All in all, I'm liking this retreat lifestyle. Good friends, good writing, good fun.


Until next time...maybe the whole team will make it!

January Writing Retreat

And the retreat. It was wonderful! This was my view each day as I wrote for 10-12 hours. While the fam was back in the fog, Dia Calhoun and I had sun, sun, sun!


For a break, we'd walk down to the inlet, where there was beauty on all sides.

Dia Calhoun

We are looking forward to sharing the Steward's House in the WWII military encampment with our other writing friends soon.

In the meantime, let's see where these words go as they fly from our computers and out the metaphorical window...

Poetry Friday: Writing Retreat

Writing Retreat

Memories flicker
in the corners of the house
as the writer taps,

sloughing the echoes
along the white tin ceiling
and down the oak walls,

creaking the whispers
over the black-paned windows
to reflect her face.

Lorie Ann Grover, 2009

Catch the full roundup at Laura Salas' blog.

My Writing Retreat

So, I'm back from my writing retreat! What a fab time! I had an amazing chair to write in and visits from the nearby deer.

Then there were jaunts to the river to clear my mind and chill. And gorgeous sunsets!

Needless to say, it was entirely inspirational! I completed rewrites of 2 novels. Woohoo! So until next time, I'll be thinking of this special time and remembering it well.

As I get back to work at home, I think of a quote by Caroline Myss:

"Creative expression is not only alive in our major
projects, but also present in the normal course of
everyday life--how we organize our work space
or our home, how we prepare our meals,
or even how we structure our time."