The "Stowaway" on this Weekend's Writing Retreat

This morning is super busy since I went straight from work on Friday into the 5am writers club retreat, hosted by Ralph Walker.

So a full retreat recap won't be today, since I want some time to reflect and then write a thoughtful piece. 

But I will share this.

When Ralph opened the retreat on Friday night, he emphasized that the next few days would  be a safe place, where all the writers (and he made certain everyone realized they were indeed writers, no matter where they were on their writing journeys) coud be free to be fully creative.

At that point, I wondered if I should introduce everyone to Bertrand, the only attendee who didn't pay.

Although Bertrand is not technically a writer in his own "write," he does have his own line of books, and he does want kids to love reading.

And since he and I hang out quite a bit, it was natural that he would hang out on this retreat. But the right time to mention the "elephant" in the room (well, crocheted mouse) never appeared, so I let Bertrand just absorb the wonderful weekend and hang out.

Plus, he was enjoying his dinner and the opening remarks, and it's impolite to pick up a crocheted mouse when he's pretending to eat just to show him off to all your new writing comrades.

But he did enjoy all of the fun exercises that Ralph had some mysteriously tucked inside the "Do Not Open" envelopes in the program binder he had sent all of us.

In fact, Bertrand had so much fun...

...he was extremely sad to see the weekend go...

What Bertrand doesn't yet realize, although I hope he will in the days to come, is that the end of the retreat was the beginning.

It was the beginning of new ways to assess our writing.

It was the beginning of new books to discover, for most, if not all, of these writers have published books.

And, most importantly, the retreat was the beginning of new connections that, hopefully, only continue to grow and strengthen as we support each other on our writing journeys.

I'm forever thankful for Ralph's invitation to join the group and his acceptance of me into the retreat.

Follow Bertrand the Mouse at bertrand_bryonyseries on Instagram.