YA Author Megan Crewe

For the second time this month, I’m back! This time from my in-person critique group’s fourth annual writing retreat. 🙂

The five of us who were able to make it convened at a cottage just east of Parry Sound, which turned out to be even more ideal than it sounded online. All the trees made it totally private, there was a big living room and kitchen for us to hang out it, lots of big windows for excellent views, and three of the four bedrooms had a little balcony!

(The view from my balcony)

I very quickly set up a writing spot down by the lake, where the was a bunkie with a deck, and a handy electrical outlet on the outside wall! It also came with handy log seats to act as water bottle/notebook holder and foot rest:

One of the special features of this spot was that, because the cottage was on quite a high hill, I had to go down a whole lot of steps to get to it, which meant if I had any thoughts about heading back to the cottage for any sort of non-writing activity, I had this view to discourage me:

(About half the the stairs you’d have to climb up to get to the cottage)

Not that I ended up needing a great deal of encouragement to keep writing. This is the first time I was finishing a book at the retreat instead of starting one, and having all that plot and character development already in place created a lot of momentum. My goal was to finish the book by the end of the retreat, and I have returned victorious! I typed “The End” at 9:20pm on the last night we were there. I got down about 29,000 words in four days, bringing the total for the book to just over 73K.

I think it can be said that a most fun and productive time was had by all.

(All of us on the dock–sorry, this was the best lighting we could get!)

As promised, the final report on my trip to Nova Scotia!

There was a lot of driving in the last couple days, but on pretty quiet roads, so I didn’t mind. The best part was having Chris put on my THE WAY WE FALL playlist (aptly titled “plague book” 😉 ) during the long stretches. Hearing those some of those songs while driving through the landscapes my characters would have grown up in gave me the shivers, literally.

Our first stop was up on Digby Neck, where we went out on a whale-watching cruise. We got to see several humpback whales (including one that breached–leapt out of the water!) as well as dolphins, porpoises, and a brief glimpse of a seal. Hard to take pics of them, but here’s my best attempt with the whales:

Then we headed to the beautiful little town of Annapolis Royal, where I got to take a spooky and historical graveyard tour and we stayed in the oldest inn there, by far our favorite of the places we stayed, Hillsdale House:

Totally recommend it if you’re ever in the area.

Our last full day, we checked out some more cliffs, in the Blomidon Provincial Park. It’s on the Bay of Fundy, so the tides are very extreme–the water depth changing by a few dozen feet between low and high tide. We were at the beach close to low tide, and you can get some idea of how much of the sea floor was left bare:

And then it was time to come home. But I’m sure we’ll return some day!

Yesterday was quite a fun day, as we mostly just wandered around wherever looked interesting on our way down to our next stayover stop. The first place we came across was Ovens Natural Park, which focuses on the cliffs and ocean caves along the Atlantic coast. The waves crashing inside the caves make a distinctive booming sound, and there are all sorts of steps and walkways built into the side of the cliffs so you can peer (and sometimes even walk) inside. And it was useful for me to see, because a cliff plays an important role in THE WAY WE FALL.

A little further down the coast, we took a break at Rissers Beach:

The sun only came out for a little while, but long enough for me to get into the water for a bit. Can’t come to the ocean without going for a swim!

It was a good thing I did then, because today has been too overcast and occasionally rainy for either of us to feel like taking a dip. But we still went over to Cape Sable Island to see an actual Nova Scotia island community. And while we were there, I found a house that fit what I pictured for Kaelyn’s! (Though hers would be on a town street, with neighbors closer by.)

Tomorrow we’re setting off to catch a whale watching cruise. Wish us luck seeing a humpback whale or two!