• From Tara to Takeoff: One Last Irish Adventure

    We said good-bye to Temple House today. What an amazing week we had. After I get home and get some rest, I’ll be sharing more. By the way, you might not have realized that the only rain we had ALL WEEK was a bit of drizzle during our first day in Dublin. But I guess

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  • The Last Supper (of Salmon and Storytelling)

    Today was our last day of writing.This morning, we really focused on revising—learning some strategies and digging into our drafts. I’ve pretty much revised one chapter, just a little polishing left to do. One down – 82 to go! (I’m nor so good about cutting out unnecessary words!) At 11:30, we all piled into the

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  • From Templar Stones to Irish Tunes: A Writer’s Day at Temple House

    This morning’s writing session was slightly longer than yesterday’s and included a field trip! The focus today was on using setting and dialog to express emotion. After pulling on our “wellies” we trudged out to the side lawn of the the Temple House estate and explored the ruins of medieval castle associated with the Knights

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  • A Writer’s Day Out: Syntax, Sligo, and Bill Murray

    Today was an early start of writing. We had a quick workshop from 8:30 to 10 where we focused on improving our sentences—syntax, tone, rhythm, and all those good things that keep our readers engaged. Then at 10:30 we were on our way for an entire day of sightseeing! We started with a tour of

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  • Writing, Whiskey, and the Hill of Witches

    Today was the first full day of writing at the Family History Writing Studio Retreat in Sligo, Ireland. So far, we’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather. Yesterday, on our trip west, we stopped at the so-called Hill of Witches—actually a Neolithic cairn on Knocknarea. I had no clue what we were going to see

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