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.