Writing Retreat 2026, Day 1

It’s the Mon­day after my 29^th wed­ding anniver­sary and I’m in a stranger’s house for a week. It’s 9°C^[1]For the Fahren­heit folks: that ain’t warm. and rainy. I’m unpacked and I’ve had a snack and I’m con­tem­plat­ing dri­ving into the park to see if the gela­to place is open on Mondays.

I don’t have my bike with me this year—still nurs­ing my heal­ing wrist^[2]I broke it in ear­ly June, in case you missed it.—but I’ve got my lap­top, my cam­eras and tripods, and a print­ed first draft of a novella.

Goals

Here’s what I’d like to accom­plish this week:

• Fin­ish the first pass of edit­ing There’s Noth­ing Good at the Top
• Re-read Dried Flow­ers
• See if I can trim about 1,000 words out of a 3,300–word sto­ry so I can send it in to the CBC Fic­tion contest
• Walk a few kilo­me­tres every day
• Get some Milky Way pho­tos (and auro­ra if the sun and the clouds cooperate)
• Read at least a cou­ple of the books I brought along
• Relax and enjoy myself