Wednesday, January 4, 2012

YA HIGHWAY ROAD TRIP - THE DREAM WRITING RETREAT

Over at YA HIGHWAY, this week’s Road Trip is a little more literal than past iterations.

The question is, Where is your dream writing retreat?

I think I’ve touched on this a little in past posts.  I’m one of those writers who believe that places inspire the writing – I mean, that’s the crux of INKROCK – so trust me when I say I’ve thought long and hard about where I’d go.  Also, considering its ninety eight year old founder George Whitman just passed away, a little tribute to what he gave to us is the least I could do.

Without hesitation, if given the opportunity, I would spend a month or two in Paris.  Specifically, the Latin Quarter, where I’d work, and even bunk for a while, at Shakespeare & Company, the little English bookstore just across from Notre Dame.  I’d drink wine, maybe even smoke a cigarette, and write in only the way one can write in Paris.

It’s the history, you see?

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein.  The list goes on.  In their day, they all frequented that store.  In many respects, they still do.  Ernest Hemingway even goes to some length about what a resource it was to him in A Movable Feast.

Shakespeare & Company is just one of those places, you know?  It is literature.  It is prose.  They embrace it and they pride themselves on supporting the art of the word. 

If you’re a broke writer in Paris, they’ll put you up for free, provided that you work a shift or two.  Heck, when you’re there, maybe we can share a bottle of red and talk about the world.

13 comments:

  1. Wine! Cheese! Hemingway! I'm for it.

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  2. Wow, very cool. I didn't know about that place. How could I not know? I want to go there. And something is telling me to read that book by Hemingway. Seriously...this is the second time in the psat two days someone's mentioned that book.

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  3. Very inspiring place ;)
    Great choice!

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  4. "If you’re a broke writer in Paris, they’ll put you up for free, provided that you work a shift or two." -- what a neat concept! Talk about walking the walk when it comes to supporting writers!

    My wife went to Paris and had some really bad experiences. Perhaps one day the two of us can visit and replace her bad memories with better ones.

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  5. Paris would be up there on my list for sure. The history, the beauty, the food... Great choice! :)

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  6. I love Paris...every place you mention is bringing back a memory: drinking red wine by the Seine, walking around with no place to go, the old books everywhere, the little cafés. Ok I need to stop remembering: Great choice!

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  7. Paris would be such a fun place to visit, but I'd want to actually see Paris so I would be incredibly unproductive there :)

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  8. Great choice! <3 the literary inspiration of Paris. In fact, maybe I'll stop by on my way to or from Ronda.

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  9. That is going on my list of places to visit when I am in Paris.

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  10. My dream writing retreat is simple - just being in my own home with free time. I think I'd be too distracted to write somewhere other than my own environment.

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  11. Thanks for all the great comments!

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  12. Reading this just makes me want to go back to Paris. Beautiful place. I'd be back in a flash if I had the money and I'd be ready to sit in the Champ de Mars, waiting for the Eiffel Tower to light up.

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  13. It sounds absolutely wonderful. I want to go there now! Maybe next year.

    My dream retreat has to be some kind of remote desert island with a plug socket at the base of every palm tree, but unfortunately no internet.

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