Gold leaves danced on the brisk air and dropped into the lake, drawing rings in the reflected sunrise…

I just spent the weekend at a writing retreat in rural Illinois. It was beautiful, quiet, and serene (everything that Los Angeles is not). It was a much needed break from the honking of traffic and the rush of urban life.

This retreat was also filled with the most important writers in the world. The most important writers in the world to me.

This group of writers aren’t published (yet), they aren’t fancy speakers and teachers (yet), they’re my friends. They’re VCFA Dystropians, and the life long support system I created at graduate school. These are the most important people in my writing life, and I’m not sure I would keep writing without them.

I could gush and gush and gush about this weekend… the inspiration, the laughter, the food, the writing time, but…

My amazing friend, Ellar Cooper, has already summed up the weekend with words of such beauty and grace, I would simply mar the experience by trying to say it any other way. So, please read her awesome blog post, Emboldened, about the importance of community and sharing.

We all need a writing community!

Tags: Community, Writer's Groups, Writing Retreats