A Writing Retreat in the Company of Women VI

This past weekend is the third time I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Writing Retreat in the Company of Women, the sixth annual event organized by Doris Larson held at Punderson Manor State Park in Newbury, Ohio. Doris is the author of the “Great Inn Getaways” and “Bed and Breakfasts Getaways’ both from Cleveland Ohio area. You can see her creations at http://www.innwriter.com/home.html.

Only this year Doris couldn’t be there as she began recuperating from an emergency hip operation. Marsha McGregor did a wonderful job filling in for her with the help of Celeste Billhartz. Sixty-two women came for the weekend. An additional 18 came for the day. This writing retreat is like the appetizer to the IWWG’s main course of a week-long writing conference at Skidmore College in Saratoga New York in June. It’s a cozy, friendly setting for writing. Very inspiring.

We wrote under the guidance of creative and skilled teachers of their own genres, Pat Carr, Judi Beach, Marilyn Zembo Day, Judith Prest, Deanna Adams, Sandra Gurvis and Judy Huge, teaching Write to Heal. I started each day learning a body/mind stretch with Yoga instructor Pam Frost. She put us in good shape to begin our writing day. Writing in the company of other women writing is encouraging and inspirational. Of course we had a lot of fun, too.

Doris and Marsha and a few of the other participants belong to an Ohio writing group that can be found at:
http://www.albanypoets.com/womanwords/womanwords_writing.html.