By Ute Orgassa
The weather was lovely, and the spirits were high when members of Pen & Pier descended on SLO locations for their third annual writing retreat. This year’s motto was: “A Tidal Wave of Inspiration,” and we followed this theme over three days.
The first evening, we did a book-binding project. Our resident arts and craft person, Katelyn, led us through fights with cardboard, fabric, stubborn paper, and waxed thread. Some people made journals, some people bound copies of their own stories, or made mini anthologies of their own work. As is tradition for Friday retreat nights, we had a stabby good time.
On Saturday, we met at Banner Cafe in the morning and practiced our craft. We worked on our stories, displayed a proof copy of our upcoming anthology ‘Rough Seas & Strange Yarns’, and made necessary changes to it for the final version. Ute brought her manual typewriter. We all wrote a communal story on it for the fun of it. It turned out to be rather hamster-centric.
Saturday afternoon, we had the privilege of staying at the home of one of our members. Kevin graciously hosted us, and not only did he ply us with great food, he also gave us an insightful presentation about marketing.
The evening was rounded out by our traditional Saturday bonfire. Katie built and lit the fire. Between s’mores, brought by Barbara, and a dramatic rendition of the finished hamster story by Joe, we had a roaring good time.
It was time to say goodbye on Sunday, around noon. We had a lovely breakfast at Lil Bits, where some of us, like Michelle brought future writers, and then we went on our merry ways. Some of us drove 3 hours up to San Jose, some drove 1 hour down to Santa Maria, and some went onto the nearest hiking trails. All in all, it was another successful gathering, and we can’t wait to do it again next year.
Kudos to Katie and Joe for the wonderful pictures of the event!
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