Fellowship Time

Hi, friends! I just returned from a wonderful time of fellowship. Twice a year, I host a writing retreat for authors from aspiring to multi-published. Sometimes it’s all pre-published writers, while others, it’s all published authors, but this recent one was a wonderful mix. We spent all of last week together in a lovely home in Orlando, Florida, but I’m still bummed we didn’t have a Pac-Man championship in the game room ☺ Though, we did get to swim in the heated pool and enjoy the hot tub in the evenings. 

There were fifteen of us, which is a large group for me, but it worked great. We had two lovely ladies helping with the food. A huge thank you to Laura Conaway and Renee Gentry! I had a co-teacher for the first time this year. Bestselling and award-winning author Jill Kemerer joined me, and she was such an amazing blessing to the group and to me. 

We also had the joy of the lovely Rachel Hauck popping in to teach a workshop and Elizabeth Camden zooming in to teach a fabulous one. 

It was such a great time of learning—even from me. I learned so much from our guest instructors. Jill spoke on planning and organization—my two downfalls and Rachel shared a new way for me to look at my stories from the start, and Elizabeth had us all ask ourselves a pivotal question. So helpful! 

But the best part was spending it with the amazing group of ladies God brought together. Younger writers, massively multi-published authors, a USA Today bestselling author, but you’d think we were all in the same place, and in a way, we are. We’re all writers. Only we truly understand each other. Only we can share things and get someone on the receiving end nodding their head in true agreement and sharing their similar struggles.

It was a time of learning, laughter (lots of laughter), and singing (we got the karaoke impression one night from an author who does it with her nieces. It was too cute). We chatted about our favorite GPS voices and agreed Australian man or woman is best. We talked story ideas, books we’ve enjoyed, and had deep heart-to-heart talks. 

God brought together such a group of beautiful women. I can’t wait until the October retreat. And, I do have two spots open, so if I didn’t scare you off about this retreat ☺ and you’re interested, shoot me an email to danipettrey@gmail.com, and I can give you more details. 

In the meantime, if you’re a writer or a reader and looking for “your people,” the ones who get your jokes, your love of book boyfriends, your struggle with writer’s block, etc., consider attending a retreat. While I’m tired, I’m also pumped up and ready to write, which is good as I have a book due in a couple of months. 

Question: Have you ever attended a retreat? Which one? 

Dani