Happy New Year!
I’m pleased to announce that WRW’s 2009 “In the Company of Writers” retreat will be held April 17-19, 2009, at the Carradoc Hall Holiday Inn in Leesburg, Virginia.
In preparation for the 2009 retreat, we read through all the feedback after the Bolger Center retreat and decided to investigate other possibilities. In May, we sent out a formal Request for Proposals to a list of venues, and received several replies. We traveled to many of those locations, and the Board decided that the best location for our 2009 retreat is the Carradoc Hall Holiday Inn in Leesburg, a 1747 Mansion House adjacent to a modern Holiday Inn. The Hotel was fully renovated a couple years ago and is large enough to accommodate any member who wishes to attend, with space to spare for other guests (so, yes, we will be sharing the hotel with a few other guests). We believe that you’ll find this hotel more accommodating to our retreat feel – a place where we can go and spend time with our fellow writing friends.
Carradoc Hall is set up in such a way that we’ll all be in one building and you won’t have to go outside unless you want to hang out on covered balcony where we’ll have our opening reception or watch the sun set from the Cracker Barrel rockers on the porch. All the sleeping rooms are in the modern hotel, but we will have some of our events in the connected historic manor house. The old house is charming and adds some nice historic character to our retreat.
Registration will open in mid-January and close in February. Exact dates will be published on the website in early January, but tentatively you should expect registration to start on or around January 15 and close sometime between February 19 and 29. Since we have enough space for everyone, exact dates should be less important than in prior years, but you should plan to submit your application and fee during that registration time period. I’ll send out an announcement on the announce loop when the registration information and form are published on our website, so watch for that announcement in a week or so!
The registration fee will be $435. I know that fee may sound like a lot, but most other events of this caliber charge a large registration fee on top of which you must pay for your room and many of your meals yourself. Our registration fee is all-inclusive. For that one fee, you get all of our fantastic programs and events, all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast, and your room on Friday and Saturday nights. Each room features two double beds and will accommodate two people. Pease plan your roommate choice now so you are ready when you complete your registration form.
The retreat committee is already hard at work to make this the fantastic retreat you’ve enjoyed through the years. We’ll have a great group of guest speakers, editors and agents, plus all the informative and fun activities you’ve come to expect from a WRW retreat, including the Friday night editor and agent panel, American Author, and the fabulous, not-to-be-missed Romance Jeopardy!
This year the WRW Board decided to enable our members to donate to a scholarship fund to assist those members who may have trouble paying full cost for the retreat. Details on how you can donate to the scholarship are on this page. Someone from the Board should announce more information about how to apply for a scholarship later in January.
Additionally, as you plan your retreat and conference budget for 2009, please keep in mind that RWA will be in Washington, DC, this year, so you won’t have huge travel costs to attend RWA if that is part of your regular writing conference schedule.
For those who are curious, Hilltop House remains closed as its new owners work on restoring the old hotel. Their plans at this time are to reopen as a first class destination hotel and spa in 2011. We have no way of knowing if the renovated Hilltop will meet our needs or price range, but we will continue to monitor the situation.
We look forward to seeing you in Leesburg for our 2009 “In the Company of Writers” Retreat.
Kathryn B. Anderson
2009 Retreat Chair
