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SEE THE WORLD. BUILD ONE, TOO.

"Winter is coming, and when the Long Night falls, only the Night's Watch will stand between the realm and the darkness that sweeps from the North." - Ned Stark, Game of Thrones

Burning of the Clavie, a New Year fire festival in Burghead, a few miles from Findhorn.

Fire festivals, G.O.T. waterfalls, volcanic beaches, glacial caves, serpent holes, ruined castles, haunted pubs, and the ancient wonders of the world, WINTER IS HERE! is an annual writing workshop/adventure retreat founded in 2018 when Lev Grossman (The Magicians, Bright Sword) and I took a dozen students to Findhorn, a fishing village on the North Sea of Scotland, for two weeks of writing and adventuring and fire festivaling. We stayed in an 1850 seaman's mansion with window seats overlooking the water and drank seaweed ale and read work to a hundred locals in a 250-year-old bay side tavern called The Crown & Anchor. 

Reading at The Crown & Anchor (aka The Crank).

Dave Rudden (Knights of the Borrowed Dark, Sister Wake) joined the retreat on our second foray to Findhorn, which also featured World Fantasy Award winner Michael Swanwick (The Iron Dragon's Daughter). The retreat is now helmed by me and Dave and has additionally included an expedition (2020) to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, a pandemic excursion (2022) to Iceland, a Tolkien pilgrimage (2023) to Oxford & Bath, and, most recently, Gruyeres, Switzerland, a small medieval town at the foot of the French Alps, featuring a museum dedicated to H.R. Giger (the Swiss surrealist who devised/built the Xenomorph) and a bar designed by him.

Drinks in Giger's biomechanical bar in Gruyeres.

Upcoming Winter is Here! Workshops include a Krampus Lauf in Salzburg (Austria) and Huacachina (desert oasis, Peru), Plus Prague, Santorini, and Marburg, Germany.

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Next up: SOME LIKE IT SCOT! Cliffside Castles! Haunted Cemeteries! Ancient Pagan Fire Festivals! Write Fantasy in the Land of the Brave!

Edinburgh (Old City) at night.

Descend into the dimly lit Vaults, a series of haunted chambers formed in the nineteen arches of South Bridge, where cadavers were stored and crime ran rampant. Explore the Greyfriars Kirkyard, dating to the 1500s, rumored to be the most haunted graveyard in the world, and pity poor innocent Tom Riddell (when he passed away in 1806, it’s unlikely he had any notion he'd inspire one of the most famous villains in modern children’s literature.) Hike the Royal Mile, from the fort to the palace. Climb Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano on the outside of town, at sunrise. Visit the clifftop ruin of Dunnottar Castle, a film location for Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Victor Frankenstein, and the inspiration for the family castle in Brave. Then it's North to Macbeth county, where we'll stay in a four-hundred-year-old fishing village known as Findhorn and attend an ancient Pictish fire festival called The Burnie of the Clavie. 

COST: 2,500 (includes all accommodations, ground transportation, admission fees, and many meals).

WHAT: Intimate, daily workshops, topical talks, nightly readings of participant work, and group excursions to evocative points of interest. Plus plenty of time to socialize, write, and wander haunted streets.

WITH: Rutgers University creative writing professor (and certified international tour guide) Alex Dawson. Plus retreat/workshop deputies Julian Lance & Nikki Weaver.

READ: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (R.L. Stevenson, set in London, but written in and clearly based on Edinburgh), The Hunting Party (Lucy Foley), Luckenbooth (Jenni Fagan), The Library of the Dead (T.L. Huchu), The Wages of Sin (Kaite Welsh), Hear No Evil (Sara Smith), Hazardous Spirits (Anbara Salam), The Wasp Factory (Ian Banks), The Strings of Murder (Oscar de Muriel), Outlander, Anne Cleeves, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid

WATCH: Outlander, Burke & Hare (1972 & 2010), One Day, Brave, Rebus, Department Q, Rob Roy, Skyfall, Highlander, Wicker Man, Restless Natives, Shallow Grave, Local Hero, Gregory's Girl, Loch Ness, Braveheart, Brigadoon, Rebus.

Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven.