“A room of one’s own,” Virginia Woolf once famously suggested, is what a woman needs to get any writing done. Alas, even if you have a writing room in your house, the rest of your house is still there to interrupt you when you sit down to focus your creativity… Wait! Did you remember to start the dishwasher this morning? Better get up and check. Oh, is that the doorbell? Look, a neighbor has arrived to chat. And did you ever return those phone calls from yesterday? Better do it now before you forget. Finally, a moment arrives when you can get back to your thoughts and really dig in… my, but how the time has flown and now you’ll need to get dinner started.

Sound familiar? Instead, why not spend the weekend in Lake Tahoe in a quiet room at “Write By the Lake” with other women writers, lots of wine, and wonderful food? I’ll be there too – Jennifer Sander, of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, 4th Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to) and some fifty other titles. A former Random House editor and long time book packager and publishing consultant, I’m happy to build a cozy fire and chat all night long about the trials and tribulations of the publishing world. Imagine the insider secrets you might pick up over a glass of our custom-made house wine, “Well Red.”

Other than drinking wine, what else happens on a Women’s Writing Retreat Weekend? The schedule looks like this:
Friday: Arrive late afternoon for introductions, socializing, and weekend goal setting. Dinner will be served at 7:30
Saturday: Breakfast before 9, private writing from 9 until 12. Lunch break and a short walk to the lake, afternoon writing time from 1:30-5. Dinner at 7:30.
Sunday: Breakfast before 9, writing from 9 until 12. Lunch break, another bit of leg stretching, and writing all afternoon until it is time for you to head back down the hill.

$235 fee includes all: a private room and all meals and drinks. I plan to hold this small event a few times a year at our South Lake Tahoe house, with a maximum of three writers each time. The first two weekends are Jan 25-27th, and March 7-9th. UPDATE -- MARCH LOOKS SOLD OUT, ONE SPOT LEFT FOR JANUARY!

This is your chance to get started on a new project, finish up an old one, or just sit quietly and let your thoughts and creativity surprise you. Let me know if you are interested, I’d love to see you there!

Jennifer Bayse Sander
Email: onedrymartini@hotmail.com

Thank you J.T. Long for passing along. It sounds GREAT.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen