Last day of the retreat

It’s the last day of our writing retreat. I’m saying good bye to Queensland and my friends, and heading home in a few hours.

It’s been a very productive week. As well as writing — all of us are multi-published and all have deadlines, we have talked about the changing face of publishing, we’ve brainstormed plots and a series (which was plotted in the spa!), and we’ve talked and shared a lot about self-publishing. Three in the group have never tried it, and are cautiously preparing to dip their toes in.

For some of the group, self-publishing their old books, to which they have their rights back, has become an interesting sideline.  Some of them  are bestsellers and have had millions of books in print (that’s no exaggeration — four of the group have each published over a hundred books internationally!) but not all their books came out in the USA, so it will be interesting to see how they go.

There’s also been swimming and shopping and eating and most of all a LOT of talking. We meet for lunch, and then again before dinner, and that’s when the stories start to fly. We are all storytellers and oh, the stories that flew around the room this last week. Some very very funny, others amazing, and a few sad. But mostly funny.

Now it’s time to have a shower and pack my bags. We’re meeting in an hour for a farewell breakfast, and then heading off in different directions — we come from all over Australia, and one is from NZ. It’s been a wonderful inspiring, stimulating and fun week. To finish, here’s another fabulous photo taken yesterday by Marion Lennox.