gathered at the home of Nancy Moser for a brainstorming retreat. At right is our annual "staircase picture." From top going left to right: Stephanie Grace Whitson, Nancy Moser, Judy Miller, Deb Raney, Colleen Coble, Rene Gutteridge and Doris Elain 'Till' Fell. The beautiful dog, Maggie, is sitting in for Cheryl and Mel Hodde who write as Hannah Alexander and couldn't be with us this year. Over the years, we’ve developed a routine that has worked 
well, so we don’t deviate much. We gather on Friday afternoon at Nancy’s beautiful home and then head out to the Elephant Bar for dinner. That's our dinner picture on the left--we only managed to get Steph's arm at the lower left. This year I had orange chicken with wild rice and a nice salad followed by mud pie for dessert. Before you groan, Nancy and I shared the entire meal and dessert. I figure by sharing it was only about five thousand calories. After dinner we return to begin our brainstorming session. Each person is given forty-five minutes to tell a little about their story, what they need to brainstorm and then the fun begins. 
As you can see from this picture, Rene was showing Nancy how she could impale a victim with an antler in order to kill off the antagonist in her story. We’re willing to go to the extreme to make certain things will work. Just glad Nancy didn’t make an unexpected move during that session. We usually complete two sessions on Friday night before ending the evening with visiting. Glad Nancy lived to complete the session!
Saturday morning begins with breakfast and the next two plotting sessions. Then we have our lunch break—we always have to keep the nourishment going. And each year Dave Coble (Colleen’s husband) heads off to Starbucks to bring special caffeinated drinks to everyone so we don’t end up in a mid-afternoon snooze before we complete the final brainstorming sessions. This year we ended early enough to enjoy watching a movie—research into a bit of espionage for one of the books we’d help plot. As you can see at left, we were getting prepared for the movie to begin.Each year we all gather in the kitchen to cook dinner together. Nancy always tries new recipes—this year it was Greek chicken and baklava for dessert! That's a picture of the baklava below left--didn't Nancy do a beautiful job? It tasted as good as it looks.
After dinner it’s more visiting, some speed Scrabble for the wordsmiths. We all depart for our various homes on Sunday morning. Each year we gather with unbridled enthusiasm, and unless Nancy screams “NO MORE,” we’ll look forward to descending upon her home once again next January.
I know I’ve said this before, but gathering with other Christian authors is a special gift. Writing is solitary work, so whether it’s for a mini-retreat, a brainstorming weekend, a huge conference or a research trip, I am truly blessed when I can come together with other Christian writers.May you find joy as you enjoy the fellowship of fellow Christians in your life. ~Judy
13 comments:
Hi Judy, your last sentence really hit home to me tonight, especially as we are so close to our friends.
I like nothing better than to be with them and completely enjoy their company and share our thoughts with each other. Friendship and Fellowship at it's very best!!
Thank you dear lady, for your very positive comment and your post tonight.:0)
@ a big hello to ALL my friends on "Writes." You truly don't know how much you ALL mean to me. Thank you so much for your friendship!
Hi Judy!
What a lovely post! I enjoyed seeing your retreat with the other authors. And happy to see you enjoying yourself. The food look scrumptious! Thanks for sharing.
Love,
Veronica
Good morning/evening, Rosie! It is so wonderful to get to know all of you ladies better each day. Thank you to all of our wonderful authors who have given us this blog to get together and fellowship each day!
It is great to get with our Christian friends when we can. Erik and I are giving up leading one of our church's small groups...long story, but sadly our group was a very draining experience :-( But this is allowing us to join another small group and we are SO excited about getting to fellowship with them each week as we study God's word. This is also allowing us to get together more with my siblings (who are all Christians, so a double dose of friendship/fellowship), and this weekend we're getting together with other friends in St. Augustine!
The St. Augustine trip is a huge blessing for us. One thing Erik and I have found is that we are very much in the minority of Christian married couples, our age, no kids, who are in healthy relationships. The get together in Florida are with friends from South Florida who are in the same situation. Can't wait to see them (for me, it's the first time I get to meet them, since Erik grew up with them), hang out, catch up, and just enjoy each other's company.
Forgive my babbling, Ladies. *sigh* I may not post every day...but you can almost always expect a novel! XD
@ Catherine, we love your posts and you don't babble at all. Love hearing about you and Erik and what's going on in your lives. Many years ago we were cell group leaders as well, but after a time had to let it go, because it can become draining. It was great for our season though.
For this season in my life I am loving fellowshipping with a few female christian friends. We get together about once a month. This month we met at the Outback restaurant and had the best time. As we have gotten to know each other, we have become more transparent with each other. So we laugh, we cry...you name it. And the most important thing is we always feel the presence of the Lord in out midst.
And Judy that is what I believe the importance and JOY of fellowshipping is all about "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20
So sweet!
Have a great day ladies! for Rosie, have a great evening!
Love, Veronica
Wow, what a great idea!!!! I've participated in online brainstorming but the real-life kind sounds so much more fun (and tastier too!) Love that you included the dog in the picture. Such a noble looking beast.
I have to say that I am still gobsmacked at the wonderful support Christian authors give to one another and to newbies and wannabes like me. That's such a ministry in itself. And then there's all the blogging buddies I've made as well. My cup runneth over with joy!
Happy Wednesday everybody!
Hi to you sweet ladies,
Rosie, I know you to be such a relationship person and also one who takes on the problems of your dear friends when they are in need. I keep thinking how wonderful it will be when we all get to heaven and can truly "be" with each other instead of communicating via email. :)
The food was, indeed, scrumptious, Veronica. But I agree with you that being with Christian friends and sharing your heart is so important. God created us for fellowship with Him and with each other, and that fellowship fills us up and keeps us running--just like fuel for our cars! LOL.
Catherine, I'm so glad that you share with us on Writes. Delighted you're going to St. Augustine to relax and fellowship with family and friends. Sounds delightful.
Veronica, I can say that I'm loving to get to know you and your sweet spirit here :-) Thank you for letting me know about your experience. It does become draining. And the sad thing is, for us, we were in a tough group (due to some health problems with one couple)...so much so that our Minister of Education came up to us on Wednesday and told us that if no one else joined, he WANTED us to stop for our own good. For us, that was confirmation we were needing because we had been struggling with the decision ourselves.
As sad as it sounds, Veronica, I am glad to hear of your experience because it helps us to realize that it isn't just us. Leading can be very rewarding, when the season is right :-) And when it's not, it's rewarding to be a participant.
Great post! Loved the pics! Deb Raney posted a few here too on her FB Page:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150588197973939&set=a.10150588195698939.441385.548613938&type=1&theater
Love that one of you on the sofa, Miss Judy! Lovely!
(See? I can be nice. It's just not near as fun...)
What a fun brain-storming group and group of friends! Thank you for sharing all the pictures, too. Since it's getting close to lunch, the food pictures are making my stomach growl.
And God did create us for fellowship. Sharing my heart with my special Christian friends is one of the greatest blessings in my life. :)
Hi Kav,
The online brainstorming is great, but there's nothing better than an "in person" get-together where you can fellowship and brainstorm and pray for each other. Such a blessing! Of course, if you live in a driveable proximity to each other, that's helpful too. :)
Miss Tammy,
I know you can be nice and you weren't snarky on the blog post, but I did see your comment to another group. Not to worry, I replied with equal fervor. LOL.
Hi Lori,
I think about writers years ago who didn't have the ability to share much with other writers and feel so blessed. Just being able to connect through email with all our friends here on Writes of Passage, is something I look forward to everyday. Well, except maybe for Tammy, but otherwise, I'm loving it.
LOVED this post, sweet Judy (yes, I truly do think you're sweet....no matter how much a certain red-haired author tries to convince us otherwise *wink*). What a wonderful tradition you all have to meet every year and brainstorm. Of course the food and fellowship would be wonderful too (enjoyed all the photos you shared, and tried not to drool over the baklava pic!). ~ I honestly think that's one reason I SOOOO enjoy the ACFW conferences--just being with other Christian writers is so wonderful and uplifting. Being a "people lover" (see...I do love someone besides CATS, LOL!) I've missed being around folks on a daily basis since I had to retire from teaching. Which is why I LOVE "visiting" with all YOU ladies on this blog! Hugs, Patti Jo ~ p.s. Enjoyed reading everyones' comments today, too! ;)
Hi Patti Jo,
Your love of people is obvious in your sweet posts each day! We never doubted for a minute that you loved us 'almost' as much as those kitties of yours. :) And I agree that when you retire from your day job, it does take some time to become accustomed to not having others around to interact with all the time. That's one good thing about email and blogs--you can at least get a 'people fix' via the internet. Not quite the same, but it helps. As for that red-headed Nashville gal, we need to keep her on a short leash before she convinces the world that she's the sweet one.
Judy! I so needed to hear your comments today.Thank you dear friend, for YOUR unfailing support!
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