Memorial Day - in memory of my father

This is part of a chapter from my father's memoirs. It's from 1944, he was 18 years old and in France.

In WWII, I was working with an infantry outfit in a little village outside of Orleans and the Germans were acting up a little bit. We were walking down a narrow street and the Germans opened up with machine guns. Most of the section ducked into a doorway on the opposite side of the street and I ducked into one on the other side. The door was locked and I couldn’t get in and all I was doing was standing pressed up against the door and the bullets were nicking pretty close. I decided that maybe I could get across the street to where the other guys were hiding. The street wasn’t that wide, probably no more than an alley, but it was still open. I got jammed up against the door as hard as I could; took my helmet off so it wouldn’t fall off; got my rifle clutched tight, put my head down and took off across the street. I wasn’t planning to stand there and open the door, I was planning on going right through the door. Just as I got to the door, it opened and I through the room and into the wall on the other side of the room. Here my buddies had seen me through the window and knew what I was doing. They stood there looking at me on the floor and laughing and asked me “What’s the matter? Didn’t you think we’d open the door?”

Close to the end of the war, we were staying in an old chateau. Rumor had it that it had belonged to Napoleon’s daughter at one time. The Germans had been in there and when they got kicked out, we moved in. Written on the one wall was something in German that took my eye. I couldn’t read German so I wrote it down and got someone to translate it later. It was from a German soldier and said: “To the American soldier who reads this:  May we never meet on the battlefield and may you return to your home victorious and I to mine alive." 

Writing Retreat

I am going on a writer's retreat and I can't wait. Five days of nothing but writing, mingling with other writers, writing, eating, writing, relaxing, and, oh, did I say writing?

It's a retreat my local RWA group takes every year - this is our tenth year. About fifteen of us go and we have a blast. Yes, it is a long weekend of intensive work, but we also find time to socialize, party, have fun, and generally enjoy ourselves while putting out amazing amounts of productivity.

We stay at a campground that has a "hotel" on the grounds so we have all the comforts of home - and don't have to cook! They do all the meals for us. One thing we don't have in our rooms is TV - which is just as well since many of us would probably tend to use it to catch up on our favorite shows (though we can do that with our computers). We also do not have WiFi (or any other kind) of connectivity in our rooms - only in the lobby of the hotel. So no email, no surfing the web, no nothing.

Just days of writing. Brainstorming with other writers. Having immediate support when we're stuck with a word or scene. It is nirvana.

This year, I have two manuscripts I'm working on - an epic fantasy and an urban fantasy - my goal is to have them both plotted out and scenes ready to go by the time I'm done. I also plan to edit a third ms I've finished but needs work. Lofty goals, but I'm hopeful. :)

Can you tell I'm excited about this? We all are. My little crit group, all five of whom are also going, has been preparing for this for weeks. We have everything we're going to work on ready to go and we're packing up our pages and red pens and plotting sheets.

So my suggestion is to you... plan your own writing retreat. It doesn't have to be four or five days like we do - it can be just a day, or even a few hours. Get together with other writer friends and start writing. Or editing. Or brainstorming. Anything to get the writing juices flowing and have fun!

See you all next week! Oh, and keep an eye on my Victoria site - I've got a new "Chosen" story coming out on May 25th that I know you'll love!