Last week I was at a rented cabin up at Minnedosa, writin’ words and takin’ photos. I had a bunch of goals for the week, but how’d I do?
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review”Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review
writing retreat
Writing Retreat 2021, day 3
Tuesday, I:
- Wrote more in the outline for “Praise the Torch”
- Went for a bike ride (it was cool when I started, but warmed up as the sun came out)
- Read about a dozen chapters in William Gibson’s Zero History—it’s been a long time since I read it, so it’s pretty much like reading it again for the first time
- Reworked a chapter in “The Slow Apocalypse” and made minor changes in a few other places
- Watched some Firefly
- Met up with my friend Tim (who was camping at Wasagaming) at Spruces for some very dark sky photos (it’s been a long time since I saw the Milky Way so prominent to the naked eye)
I saw a couple of meteors at Spruces, including one large, slow one that unfortunately wasn’t where my camera was aimed.
Writing Retreat, day 2
I woke up thinking I heard hail. It turned out to be only rain—at times heavy rain—but almost every cabin around here has a metal roof, which amplifies that kind of thing.
No bike ride and no kayak trip. I wisely forgot to pack a raincoat for my retreat here, so that was great planning on my part.
- More development on the “Praise the Torch When ‘Tis Burned” outline—the story is firming up in my mind, at least, and that’s a good feeling
- Rewrote the bulk of a scene between the POV wizard and his lawyer wife, sippin’ Welsh whiskey in a restaurant called Swansea, in “The Slow Apocalypse”
- Watched a couple episodes of Firefly
- Tried to get some photos of the rain; the only one I liked is above (it’s been a while since I saw water beading on a telephone line)
Some of the thunder was pretty exciting—shake-the-cabin exciting—but I couldn’t get a good angle to set up and try to get some lightning photos. Oh well, can’t win every time.
Writing Retreat 2021, Day Zero
It’s that time of year again: the 2021 edition of my writing retreat has begun. I booked my time at the cabin to coincide with the new moon, to make for some better astrophotography opportunities, and then found out later that, coincidentally, I’d also be up here for the peak of the Perseid meteor shower.
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2021, Day Zero”Writing Retreat 2020, day 5
Wednesday:
- Processed photos
- Wrote 1,000 words in the morning, 1,000 in the evening
- Biked about 6½ km
- Kayaked for a bit more than ½ hour
- Read a few more chapters in The Knight
- Went to the coffee shop for some (relatively) high-speed internet
- Rejoiced that the forecast calls for clear skies tonight — fingers crossed for more comet action!
- Muttered to myself when the sky was, in fact, cloudy at 10pm, 11pm, and midnight
- Checked one last time in my pyjamas at 1am, and saw stars
- …and so I found a couple dark spots, snapped some more photos, and fell into bed at 3am
The comet 
The comet and the horizon 
I found a nice photogenic tree with the Milky Way behind it
Writing Retreat, Day 4
Tuesday’s action:
- Processed last night’s astrophotography (it was past 2 AM when I got back to the cabin)
- Biked up 16A again, further this time (a bit over 10km round trip), and got a couple panoramas of the fields and skies (the image at the top is a wide panorama of a canola field)
Panorama with canola 
The prairie sky 
Highway 16A
- Wrote 1,000 words in the morning
- Went to town for some groceries and a (short) coffee / WiFi break
- Read a few more chapters in The Knight
- Wrote another 1,000 words before supper
- Took some comet and Milky Way photos, since it was clear again despite the forecast
The Milky Way, facing north 
Comet NEOWISE and a shooting star 
Comet NEOWISE and some faint aurora 
Milky Way panorama 
Milky Way panorama
I wish I’d noticed that there was some flickering northern lights just as I was packing up for the night; I’d have stayed longer, even though I was tired.
It’s supposed to be clear again tonight, and hopefully the solar wind will strike twice.
As always: if you’re interested in prints of any of these photos, let me know. We’ll see what we can work out.
Writing Retreat, Day 6
Saturday, I:
- wrote my 2,000 words in two stints;
- crossed the 100,000-word mark in my novel;
- debated changing the title from Translations to Reflection, Translation, Invasion (which is a not-completely-inaccurate summary of the story, at a very high level);
- turned on the air conditioning, because it was getting pretty hot;
- borrowed the neighbours’ kayak and paddled on the lake for a half-hour or so right at sunset;
- went and got some more photos of the Milky Way and (serendipitously) the Aurora Borealis.
Continue reading “Writing Retreat, Day 6″“Can I help you with something?” Headless mannequins wore flimsy cotton dresses in earth tones. Countertop racks displayed neacklaces and bracelets made of beads, pearls, or smooth and polished stones. A sign at the back said RESTROOMS FOR PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY.
“I need a washroom,” I said.
She motioned at the sign.
“No, I need a washroom.”
She sighed, though I couldn’t tell whether she was exasperated with me or with the situation I was evidently trying to put her in. “Policy,” she said. Then, giving me a good looking-over, she said, much more quietly, “You okay?”
Yes, I wanted to say.
“No.”
From Translations
Writing Retreat 2019, Day 1
I:
- wrote 1,000 words in the morning,
- went for a 11-km bike ride,
- visited with my landlords for the week,
- went on a scouting drive for the astrophotography,
- snapped some photos in the countryside (below),
- wrote another 1,000 words after supper,
- finished reading Provenance (review coming),
- went back out into the countryside and took some darker photos (above) till the moon rose and washed out the Galaxy,
- drove back to the cabin, and
- crawled into bed about 2 AM.
So far so good.
Country road. This is also where I took the Milky Way photo above. 
Two by two. 
Canola field under the big prairie sky.
Top photo: taken about 11:45 PM or so. 12mm, 44 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200 (I think).
Writing Retreat 2019
Last night I arrived at Minnedosa, to start the 2019 edition of my annual week-long writing retreat.
Goals this year:
- 2,000 words a day, or about 15,000 words, in the first draft of Translations.
- Sub-goal: Get to the ending.
- Photos of the Milky Way.
- Photos, generally; there are a few spots I’d like to get to. The Canadian prairie is photogenic, and I want to capture that.
- Ride my bike a lot, and also go kayaking a few times. The weather forecast seems to agree with this plan.
- Read at least a couple of the books I brought: Provenance by Ann Leckie (I’m about ¾ of the way through, so that should work out); The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro; Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer; and The Knight by Gene Wolfe (because it’s a tradition, apparently, that I read Wolfe while I’m at the cabin).
I’m also due in Winnipeg for my nephew’s birthday party, which means I’ll be able to pick up the copy of Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Mother that I pre-ordered in (checks notes) (…these notes are illegible) February? maybe. And a friend is camping at Clear Lake starting mid-week, so I’ll probably go bother him for an afternoon or something.
As my darling wife is wont to say, “Write faster, Johanneson.”
Header image: last night, reading Provenance on the deck with a glass of Writer’s Tears.