Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic: Describe your dream writing retreat. Where would you go? Who and what would you bring? Ah, writer's retreat. The ability to spend every waking moment on your craft without feeling like an utter asshole.The thrill of talking books and nuance and subplots without people's eyes glazing over or waiting for the opportune moment to switch topics to the Red Sox. To get trashed watching THE ROOM with your friends. I had such a blast at the last writing retreat, I'm definitely down with another one. As to who I'd retreat with, that's a no brainer: the WOA ladies. We all bonded and it was fuzzy and great. That's why we're talking about this year's retreat. So if time, money, and location weren't an issue, I'd love to have...

I should probably let you all in on a not-so-secret secret: I'm anti-social. This totally contradicts the amount of time I spend on the Twitters and here, but sometimes that's how I roll. Anyway. Listing 5 writing communities shouldn't be too hard. Twitter . This is where I've made a lot of my writing connections. The #amediting and #amwriting hashtags are a great way to remind you you're not like Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. And since I'm chained at a desk all day*, this is a good thing. NaNoWriMo . The Boston WriMos have been awesome. It's well past November and I still meet up with them weekly for write ins. We'll overlook the fact that most of the time I'm so busy busting a gut that writing might not get done. Weekend of Awesome . I really can't stress enough how fantastic this weekend was and how awesome the ladies in it are. They've become my personalized writing community. I realize how lucky I am. SCBWI . Without SC...

I've never been so glad for Friday to come. This weekend promises to be a busy one filled with seeing friends, housework, and revisions on yet another WIP*. Summer makes me more productive, even if I feel like dying while I do it. Since we had our unofficial kickoff to summer almost two weeks ago, it's time to think about beach reads. You know those light books with no dark themes that you devour while you take in too much sun? The Paper Hangover peeps want to know ALL ABOUT THEM. Confession: I've only consciously picked books with summer in mind once. That was last year for the week I was at the Cape Cod version of The Real World house. This year I'm planning out the entire summer of reads, but here are my top five in cover form.   That first one, by the way? I'll be giving away later this month. However, I'm also giving something away today. During NaNoEdMo, one of my writing friends Megan had this awestome-tastic notebook she was sticking her notes i...

This past weekend marked the first annual Weekend of Awesome. If you lurk around here or around Kat's, Erinn's, or Pam and Quita's blog you might have heard something about it*. WOA was our version of a writer's retreat. Neat. So it was a conference? No, conference and retreat are entirely different. The purpose of a retreat is to focus on getting your project worked on. We scheduled a few non-writing activities like pitch practice and movie night, but everything did focus on craft in some form or another. Which, of course, is awesome. Ah. What was the best thing about the weekend? By far it was meeting Pam, Quita, and Kat in real life. (I've met Erinn before, but it's always fun to reconnect too.) It's always great to meet my "in the computer" friends. And as I've said before, some of my greatest friendships started through the internets**. The WOA Ladies However, there was more awesomeness to be had. Four For Friday, Special Mo...

The Pie received another award*! This time KO dropped us the Blog on Fire award . It's shiny and reddish. There's no meme attached to it, so I'll acknowledge it and give you a few facts about fire before this goes onto the sidebar with the other shinies. Fire Facts In the US, there are 5 classes of fires that are based off what is actually causing the fire. Boston is the home of the oldest continuously operating fire department in the US. There are 1,080,000 hits about the flammability of vampires and only 323,000 about zombies. In other news, I'm about a month away from my first ever writing retreat. The first ever Weekend of Awesome is taking place in South Carolina the first weekend of June. After the craptastic April, I definitely need a getaway to focus on writing. Erinn and I have been working hard on the scheduling and Erinn has definitely kicked some major ass on the retreat bags. Even though we had a lot of initial interest, life and finances got in t...

Friday, Holly blogged about her writing Christmas wish list . This spawned comments about how we all want time. Then, this happened: So Holly , Erinn , and I've been talking. We're going to organize a writer's retreat for our blog friends. Yes, I'm serious. No, I haven't lost my mind*. Here's the idea:  Bunches of blogging buddies, one trip, loads of laughs and learning along the way.  Critique sessions, all-night giggle fests, whatever your heart desires from the friends you only thought existed online!  If you're interested in being included in the awesomeness, give us your name and email address below.  Alicia is going to send out an email to everyone who responds with a survey.  We're using the survey to determine the where, when, and how so that the most people possible can be accommodated. <p>Loading...</p> The three of us are super excited about the possibility of meeting all of you in person! * ...