For years, I’ve dreamed of hosting a writing retreat on our farm. I didn’t think it would happen until the boys were grown. Once we had an empty nest and cozy rooms for writers to stay in our home. But Covid changed things. Because of the pandemic, Writers in Bloom was born. And it was amazing.

Last spring, we had tried to nail down a lodge to rent in California for our author group, but because of Covid, nobody could guarantee us a place. “What do you think of holding the writers retreat here at our farm?” I asked Alice. It was really her retreat. Alice Crider is my author coach and dear friend. She runs our authors’ group. “I think that is a wonderful idea,” Alice said, and we both got excited.

Alice’s Author Insider Mastermind kicked off in early 2019, and we finished that year meeting weekly by zoom with a delightful writing retreat in Tuscon, Arizona. The following year, 2020, we did Author Excelerator Mastermind and had to cancel our 2020 retreat due to Covid. This is when Alice and I hashed the plan to hold a 2021 retreat on our farm.

Can we call it “Writers In Bloom?” I asked. “That’s perfect if we get to come for the actual bloom in your orchard,” Alice answered and I could hear the laughter in her voice.

I have to tell you I was disappointed in the weather. I’d picked the third weekend in February specifically because our orchard usually explodes with blossoms on this weekend every year. Last year’s bloom was spectacular with warm, dry weather that felt like eternal spring all of February.

But this February has been cold and rainy and our trees didn’t cooperate in opening all their blooms for us. It even rained during the retreat while the rest of the country fell into a historic deep freeze. Alice barely beat a snowstorm in Colorado to board her plane last Wednesday morning to get here. And Macki Smith in Mississipi had her flight canceled midweek. The next day’s flight was canceled too. It was so disappointing Macki couldn’t get out here because of the ice storm. But she is such a clever person. Along with being a great writer, Macki is a talented artist and a Canva queen. She hilariously photoshopped herself into our retreat pictures.

This one of Macki pulling a thorn from her foot in an almond orchard on the way to the winery is my favorite. The original picture of Laurie, Macki, and me was taken in the desert in Tuscon at our first writers’ retreat.

The three of us wanted to get a pretty picture in the desert, so we climbed a little hill into the cacti. None of us are desert girls. We had no idea cacti can attack people. Thorns jumped on us, drew blood, and poor Macki in her sandals got the worst of it. I know. Laurie and I look so sympathetic to Macki’s pain, but we had thorns in our jeans too. We won’t talk about our backsides. I was wearing cowboy boots and thorns actually pierced the thick leather of my boots. I couldn’t believe the desert could be so unfriendly. Our orchards offered flowers to my writer friends instead of thorns. This is why I remain in California.

We were sad Macki couldn’t join us in person for the retreat, so we zoomed her into our writing classes in the living room. It worked fine but wasn’t the same. I also kept our fireplace burning the whole time because it was cold outside. I guess Northern California didn’t get the memo to warm up and show the writers from other states how beautiful California can be in early spring.

Even with the chilly weather, we took an afternoon to go wine tasting in the Sutter Buttes. Cordi Winery graciously hosted us and built a warm fire and turned on their heaters to keep us warm. We wore our masks until we sat down and enjoyed the open air. Of course, we talked in-depth about our book projects and made great progress with wine in hand because we were working. Okay, honest moment, we didn’t make any book progress at the winery. We laughed, relaxed, and the sun came out to warm our backs that afternoon after we’d spent the morning working at my farm table.

We brought in a photographer to take headshots of the authors in the orchard, because every writer needs a pretty headshot, right? These are not the professional photos taken, we’re waiting to get those back, but I’m so grateful our boys’ amazing youth pastor, Justin Bronder brought his spectacular camera and took photos of all the authors. I know Justin’s photos will be gorgeous. We also snapped plenty of candid shots too with our iPhones.

Writers tend to be an emotional bunch, so we laughed and cried and laughed some more, and of course, we talked about our characters like they were our imaginary friends. Like Macki with us in the orchard.

I’m hoping to host more writing retreats on our farm, God-willing. Scott and the boys gave us the house for five days so that was fantastic. My husband and boys hit the road to visit Uncle Fred in Idaho and came home Sunday night after all the writers left late Sunday morning.

The final night of the retreat we went out to dinner and delighted in each other’s accomplishments of the past year. We also shared our writing dreams for 2021 and celebrated that in 2022, Kate Barker, sitting beside me at the table will have her debut historical romance released with Love Inspired. We are so proud of Kate! Dreams do come true!

We also celebrated a special birthday coming next week. Laurie Davis is turning 50 and landed her dream literary agent last month. We are expecting great things from this amazingly witty and talented brunette at the head of the table.

It has been such a joy to see my beloved writer friends grow and bloom in the years we’ve been together. Laurie sweetly said, “Maybe we are still just “writers in bud,” when I lamented that our orchard wasn’t wildly blooming during our retreat like I’d hoped and planned and counted on. Some rows bloomed and those were the trees we walked through in wonder, snapping tons of photos, but it wasn’t picture perfect.

And yet, the trees still tightly budded are a wonder, too. Authors aren’t born overnight. It takes a tremendous amount of work to produce a book. A writer alone is like a single tree in an orchard. That’s not even an orchard. When the wind blows, the lone tree takes a beating from the storm without other trees to protect it and is often blown over and turned into firewood. When bees come for the blooms, there is no way to pollinate just a single tree. Some stone fruit varieties like our pluots need other trees to pollinate with through bees. Just like writers need other writers. And editors. And marketers. And publicists. And I could go on but I don’t have a publicist yet so I’ll just stop there. Haha.

Authors need to pollinate too. Sharing ideas and encouragement and writing wisdom with other authors is tremendously helpful. If you’re a writer, I encourage you to find your orchard. Right now there are lots of online writing events and they are less expensive than in-person gatherings. Because of Covid, it’s a great time to try out these writing groups without making big commitments of time, money, and your heart.

Whether you’re a writer, or something else. A teacher, nurse, lawyer, or stay-at-home mom– the hardest, most important job of all– Momming hard with your littles at home– I wish you a blooming good year full of unforgettable sunsets and success not just measured in this life but in eternity too.