Rustic Writing Retreat Diary: Day 1

lesliestarrohara (64)in #life • 7 years ago (edited)

This week I'll be staying at Firefly Farms (near Knoxville Tennessee) for a rustic writing retreat, thanks to Sundress Academy for the Arts.

I've got a particular project in mind that I'm going to work on while I'm here. It's a fantasy novella set in 1930s Appalachia, and it's going to be badass. What's really awesome is that all week, I'll be living very similarly to the characters in my story, who had no electricity or running water.

My accommodations are in the "dry cabin". (That's a tiny cabin with no plumbing.) I do have an outhouse for my own personal use, as well as access to refrigeration, wifi, showers, and all of modern life's luxuries, a short walk away at the main house, where two other writers are staying for the week.

Here are some pictures of my cabin and outhouse:

I love this cabin. It's the perfect size and in the perfect location for a week of devoted solitude and furious writing.

The entryway is very narrow, but then, so am I.

Inside, I have a small writing desk, a bed, and that's about it. Everything smells like fresh hewn pine lumber.

There are lots of screened windows so I can get a nice cross-breeze going. It's surprisingly cool in the cabin.

There's also this great, tiny back porch where I can sit and listen to the birds.

Here's a view of the cabin from a different angle. The back half is on stilts!

There's a woodstove with no stovepipe...Good thing it's not going to be cold this week!

Here's a view from further down the path... It doesn't look like a horror movie murder cabin at all!

And here's my lovely outhouse!

Clean and spacious on the inside, and just like the cabin, it smells like fresh pine wood.

This is my new porch buddy, Irving!

That's about all the photos I got today. I'll post more tomorrow night, along with a full account of how my writing adventure is going.

Good night, Steemit!

Hi! I'm Leslie Starr O'Hara, but my friends call me Starr. I live in the mountains of North Carolina and I write fiction, satire, essays, and musings here on Steemit.