a week away...

I really did mean to warn you that I was about to disappear for a week, but I was extra, extra busy with my deadline right up to the moment I jumped on the plane.

Story is, this past week I’ve been retreating with several of my wonderful author mates in beautiful Coogee Bay, which is – believe it or not – a suburb of Sydney (only a short bus ride from the city centre.)

I admit I’m biased (I was born in Sydney and lived there for the first five years of my life) but Sydney has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Where else can you find that gorgeous harbour – and then, close by, such amazing surfing beaches as Bondi or Coogee?

Then there are the amazing restaurants… the walks along the cliffs…

But I have to tell you, this was a working retreat.

We’ve been doing this now for three years and the pattern is always the same. We retire to our rooms to write every day, sometimes starting before breakfast. The only times we get together are for meals/ talks after meals – oh, and pre-dinner drinks – and well, after dinner chats (on that gorgeous balcony) that might go long into the night. At the beginning of the week we draw up a list of topics we’d like to discuss – all related to our work – and we approach the whole thing very professionally. you'd be proud of us. Truly.

Writing ( as has often been said) is a very lonely job and for us this retreat also serves as the staffroom, the water cooler, coffee club – it represents all those places where colleagues usually congregate to exchange information, or ideas and give each other support. This is especially fabulous for me because I live in such a remote part of the world. The nearest published author to me is as far away as the distance between London and Moscow.

But the biggest bonus of all is that we’ve become very good friends along the way…