Retreat West

With details of looming deadlines and more:

The clock is ticking on lots of deadlines! You have until one minute to midnight (UK time) tonight to send us your 100-word stories for the July Monthly Micro Fiction comp. Shortlisted writers go to public vote and the writers of the 2 stories with the most votes will share the cash prize, which is currently standing at £158 but all the last minute entries (there's always loads) will bump that up considerably by the end of the day. Winners also get published in our flash fiction journal area of the website. See the prompt and enter here. There's also just 2 more weeks to enter the comp to win a place on our Micro Fiction courses where you'll be working with Amanda Saint and Mary-Jane Holmes to create lots of new micro stories to hone and polish for submission to journals and comps. Get all the info here. Happy writing! Love from all of us at Retreat West x Copyright © 2020 Retreat West, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Retreat West Apartment 3735 Chynoweth House Trevissome Park Truro, Cornwall TR4 8UN United Kingdom

Exclusive author insights Welcome to your newsletter exclusive. This month's author insight comes from Gill Mann, whose memoir, A Song Inside, will be published by Retreat West Books in July 2020.   "Schizophrenia remains greatly misunderstood. By telling the profoundly personal and deeply moving story of how it changed the life of her son and her family, Gill illuminates the truth of the disease.’ Orlando von Einsiedel  Oscar-winning film director of The White Helmets   All author royalties from sales of the book will be donated to mental health charities  WORDS When I was little, I wasn’t much good at making myself heard in the fleeting spaces left by my three older siblings but I learned to find my voice a different way. I would play with words inside my head, roll them round my tongue and sound them out in a whisper – rambunctious, rollicking, uproarious. I discovered that individual words had shapes; and phrases, rhythms; that moving words around in a sentence could change the meaning. Only the bishop gave the baboon the bun. The only bishop gave the baboon the bun. The bishop only gave the baboon the bun. On and on until ‘only’ had leapfrogged its way to the end of the sentence in a word-scape of limitless opportunity. I became an observer too, logging in my head what was happening around me, things said and unsaid, seen or felt. Once I could write, I found myself scribbling little snatches here and there, sentences, then paragraphs, but it was always more about the words than the stories they told. In my twenties, I took off round the world for a year, tucking a pocket English dictionary into my overloaded backpack. It helped me to while away the hours on ambling trans-Indian trains and distracted me on windowless buses as they hurtled down mountain roads. But a few weeks into my travels it disappeared, and then I knew it was time to start threading my own words together on a page. It was my first extended piece of writing. The joy of putting words stayed with me and over the decades I discovered that at low or high points in my life I’d simply start to write. It was a way to check in with myself, to capture and record, to process and resolve. As a psychotherapist I think about words in a slightly different way. I look for the meaning behind them as well as in them, the feelings they reveal or conceal. ‘Well, anyway,’ when it’s simply too painful for someone to carry on. I watch for the things that go with words, a momentary hesitation, a silence, a peal of laughter when it could be tears. Like a detective I gather the smallest details; clues that help me to understand the person in front of me, how they move through the world, relate to others, relate to themself. I discover the things that have shaped them and their places of unresolved pain. I hold onto it all until the time is right to share with them my understanding of the things I’ve gleaned from their words. It’s a bit like that with my writing too. I learn about myself, and the world around me, when I write. I’d always thought of words as my friends until the day a young policewoman sat in my garden and told me that my son had died. They became my enemy as they floated across the table towards me. I wanted to push them away, change their order, undo their meaning but they had already set like concrete in the warm spring air. I wondered if I would ever be able to trust words again. And the world they were a part of. But just ten days later, at four one morning, I found myself reaching for my iPad and starting to tap away on it. Words came, and they saved me. I couldn’t undo what the young policewoman had said but I could make sense of it. It took two years, and 180,000 words, before I was ready to stop writing. I wasn’t sure what would come next, but I knew I wasn’t done. My book came out of those words. Over the next three years I discovered a different sort of writing process. I went on courses, joined a group, learned to critique work and have mine critiqued. And most importantly of all I grew a thicker skin and discovered that, precious though my story was to me, I could bear to learn from others’ views of it. I pared back my words and crafted them into a narrative that others might read. I lost my beloved Sam but I gained something precious too. Pre-order now ‘This beautifully written and tender tribute to a beloved son is full of sadness but also of love. I learned a lot from it.’ Cathy Rentzenbrink Writer, journalist and author of the Sunday Times bestselling memoir The Last Act of Love Copyright © 2020 Retreat West, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Retreat West Apartment 3735 Chynoweth House Trevissome Park Truro, Cornwall TR4 8UN United Kingdom

Thanks for being part of our reading and writing community. We hope you're enjoying our courses, competitions books, and finding inspiration and time to write. Last month we had to take the tough decision to cancel the Novelette-in-Flash Prize as entries were just too low. The first time we've ever had to cancel a competition and although COVID-19 definitely had a part to play in that we've since got lots of feedback from writers too that we've acted on. So we're delighted to relaunch this competition today with a new judge, great new prizes and a longer deadline so that you can hone your mini masterpieces! Get all the info here. After doing a poll with our followers on Twitter about what people want to see more of from Retreat West, we're also going to be launching more flash competitions soon. Plus we have an exciting competition opening next week where you can win a writing retreat at the stunning Casa Ana, which was named by The Times  as one of the Top 50 Holidays in Spain and featured recently in The Guardian as a great place to get over writer's block. Something many of us suffered from this year when lockdown happened. We're sending a huge congratulations to Retreat West Books author, Amanda Huggins, who won the 2020 Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award this week, with her sumptuous story, Eating Unobserved. Read it here. You can read more of her brilliant work in the two collections we've published Separated From The Sea and Scratched Enamel Heart. Happy reading and writing! With love from all of us at Retreat West  Competitions News The latest Micro Fiction competition prompt is now online. You have until Sunday night to send us your tiny stories! This month's intriguing prompt comes from author, Reshma Ruia, who has a story in our charity anthology, No Good Deed, which is supporting Indigo Volunteers. We're busy reading all the musical entries for the June themed flash competition and the longlist will be published later this month.  It's now time to get writing for the September comp on the theme of GLASS - the judge is Amanda Huggins, who also chose the prompt. The deadline is 27th September. It's time to start thinking about your entries for the annual prizes now too as the deadline for both the Short Story and Flash Fiction prize is 25th October. We'll have interviews with the judges, Peter Jordan and Susmita Bhattacharya, on the blog soon. Get inspired by previous winners in the annual anthologies. Courses and Workshops News We ran our first Micro Month group course in June and got some great feedback from writers who spent the month with us creating tiny stories.   "Each day’s learning point explained with at least one example story (often more) before the the prompt encouraged you to try out the specific technique. An excellent course!" Malcolm Richardson "If you'd like a supply of creativity starter to help you bake better stories, and cooks to advise as you go, this course is it." Anne Elliot This course is now available as work alone, start anytime option, still with feedback on the stories you write, and we're also running another group course in the Autumn. The deadline for applications for the 2020-21 Novel Creator course is getting close. You have until 14th August to apply for this year-long, fully mentored course that will show you how to create tight drafts first time and every time and take you from wherever you are now with your novel to a professionally edited draft. Get all the info and apply here.   "An excellent course. Each tutorial brought into focus different aspects of creating a successful novel. It made my writing stronger as I was guided through the novel-writing process."  Sallie Anderson See all of our courses here Books News Our newest release is publishing on 22nd July. We're so excited to bring you our first memoir, As Song Inside by Gill Mann, which is beautifully written, emotional and compelling. Perfect for fans of Take My Hand and How to Stay Alive.   Get all the info and pre-order here Retreats News Now that the world is starting to re-open again, in November 2020, Amanda is the mentor-in-residence at Casa Ana in Spain for two weeks. You can work on novels, short stories/flash fiction or memoirs, and get 1-1 guidance and feedback from Amanda throughout the retreat.   Creative Writing Retreats at Casa Ana Casa Ana is a 400-year old house in the village of Ferreirola in the Alpujarras, Andalucia. Once an important family home with a wine press, olive oil store, barns and stables, Casa Ana has been transformed into a stylish and comfortable guest house with south-facing terraces, a garden and spectacular river gorge views. 2020: 14-28 November Mentor: Amanda Saint Retreats are for one week or two, include all food and drink and your own en-suite room with desk. All info here. Memberships Sign up for membership to make a deeper commitment to your writing. Plus as part of your membership you'll get feedback, competitions entries, courses, discounts, books and weekly emails to help you learn, write and submit more included. Author Membership starts at just £2 a month or £20 for the year and is for writers working on novels, short stories and flash fictions. Flash Fiction Membership starts at just £5 a month or £50 for the year and is for writers working on stories at the short-short end of the scale!   Copyright © 2020 Retreat West, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Retreat West Apartment 3735 Chynoweth House Trevissome Park Truro, Cornwall TR4 8UN United Kingdom