My First Writers Retreat At The Stanley Hotel

Elizabeth Black writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica, erotic romance, and dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, and three cats. Visit her web site, her Facebook page, and her Amazon Author Page.

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When this post goes live, my husband and I will be driving through Hays, Kansas on our way to Denver, Colorado. Two days later, we will drive to Estes Park, Colorado to stay at the haunted Stanley Hotel for the Stanley Hotel Writers Retreat, sponsored by Dark Regions Press. This is a horror retreat, and it's the first retreat I've ever been to. We were supposed to go last year but had to bow out at the last minute. Nothing will stop us from going this year. Stephen King stayed in the Stanley Hotel years ago, and his stay influenced his novel The Shining.

All kinds of things are planned – a stop at a marijuana dispensary in Denver since pot is legal in Colorado (we're buying edibles); a Murder Mystery Dinner; spooky ghost story telling in a very scary part of the hotel, time in room 217 which is the room Stephen King stayed in and it's haunted; drinking a glass of bourbon in the hotel bar since Jack Torrance's drink of choice was bourbon. I plan to ask the bartender what is a good bourbon for people who don't like bourbon. LOL

There is also the Shining Ball Saturday night which we won't attend. We could couldn't do both the Ball and the Murder Mystery Dinner. The dinner sounded like more fun, plus we don't have to dress up for it. There will be talk of writing at a lake.  Bowling and more book talk. Meeting some special writer guests like Jack Ketchum, Josh Malerman, and Trent Zelazny – all horror writers of note. A stop at the Estes Park Brewery to talk writing again over Redrum Ale. The night before we leave, there is a ghost hunt ending with two hours of writing in the haunted concert hall.

There will be time to write during all this, I assume. :)

Here are pictures of my new Stanley Hotel Writers Retreat t-shirt and coffee mug. The mug will get plenty of use, and I plan on wearing that t-shirt to show off.

I'm going to take plenty of pictures and report back next month on my first writers retreat, what it was like meeting writers I've long admired, meeting Facebook writer friends in person, meeting new friends, and enjoying my first ever cross country road trip. I'm very psyched for this. Redrum!