DAY THREE OF THE FORMERLY MAUI WRITERS RETREAT OR WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ELLA...

What do these photos have in common? Answer at the end of the post...


So another early morning arrival at the retreat. This time to hear STEVE BERRY talk about REJECTION!!!
Yes folks it's true. Get used to it. Rejection is your friend. Rejections come when hunting for an agent, when submitting novels to publishers, when submitting proposals to editors. Rejections come when a reader or reviewer doesn't like your book.
Embrace rejection. Be one with rejection. Rejection is love.
Okay so maybe I went a little far. But Steve's point was that it's part of the process. Tooloose says that he deals with rejection all the time. It made him a better cat.
So in homeroom we read our first chapter aloud and then everyone critiqued it. We are to take the comments and incorporate them into a re-write. So what am I doing blogging? I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!!
We all got together for lunch and bitched...wait no...that was the waitress...
And then after our homeroom session we listened to the phenomenal JACQUELYN MITCHARD talk about dialogue and how it shouldn't just be an info dump or preaching. She talked about how dialogue written in books is not exactly how we speak (Tooloose says I say WAY too many ums uhs ers and meows).
Oh. The best thing? Jackie gave us ALL permission to eavesdrop. Everywhere. With everybody.
Okay now the answer to the question...
One photo is of our homeroom and the other is where Ella's boat is usually docked. She is out in the Pacific Ocean cruising.
From Kauai to Niihau and back.
Taking a risk.
Just like these writers. Putting herself out there. Just like these writers. Taking a chance and flying in the wind.
Just like.
These.
Writers.