Let’s get this out of the way first. I’ve never been to a writing retreat.
An official one, at least. I know that may sound strange, given that my debut novel is actually entitled The Writing Retreat. The book focuses on Alex, a disillusioned writer who gets the once-in-alifetime opportunity to attend what for her is the ultimate writing retreat: a month-long stay at the estate of her favorite author, feminist horror novelist Roza Va llo. When Alex arrives, she finds that the stakes are more stressful, disturbing, and deadly than she could have imagined.
The idea to write a book about a writing retreat landed on me one day several years ago. I say ‘landed’ because it felt like it had literally fallen out of the sky. At the time, I was sitting outside in the Financial District of Manhattan, having a quick lunch away from my unfulfilling office job. I’d already been trying to write about the characters in a different form (sci fi, if you can believe
