Eyes on Perugia

by Debbie Guyol
We’ll devote the second day of our Perugia workshop to sight. Or sights. The visual glories of Italy do not need us to sing their praises, but we can’t resist. So here’s a taste of the Perugian sights that will inspire you – and your writing.

Colors: the ochre, umber, rust, terra cotta and faded rose of house fronts, plus unexpectedly deep green shutters; stone walls in taupe and ivory and ash – how many shades of gray can you name? The countryside with its swaths of green and gold, and of course the sky has its own colors, at sunrise, mid-day, sunset and twilight.

Shapes: in the city, arches and gates, towers and walls, the stones under your feet, the grotesques and gargoyles on church and other building façades, fountains and statues. In the countryside, the rows of stately cypress trees, ancient gnarled olive trees, hillsides and ravines and waterways.

Art: on the streets and in churches and museums – modern, whimsical, medieval, religious, uncategorizable – is everywhere. Perhaps a piece of art will spark a piece of writing?

Light and shadow: natural or artificial or a combination of the two – it’s all around you. It influences the way you see everything!

We expect our Perugian *sight* day to be, at a minimum, intoxicating. How will you work it into your writing? Can’t wait to *see*!

Learn more here.

The Soundscape of Perugia

by Debbie Guyol

Our 2024 Italy workshop is called A Feast for the Senses, and we’ll focus on one sense per day.

On the first day of our workshop in Perugia we’ll focus on sounds. We’ve never been to Perugia ourselves, so we can only imagine the sounds it will surround us with. Well, we can also consult the almighty internet. Where people who’ve been there can tell us about the sounds that impressed them. And where youtube can give us sound samples. We’re pretty sure that when we’re all gathered there, we’ll come up with many more.

Of course we can (but don’t have to) imagine the birds.

We’ve all heard the bells in other cities, in Europe and at home. Here are some from Perugia.

Italians are famous, justly or not, for vocal exuberance, and Kia Dunn, a student at the Umbra Institute, wrote vividly about these sounds: “Perugia sounds like footsteps and Italian banter at 3 in the morning. . . . Drunk college students singing and Italian couples yelling directly below my window are sounds that are a part of my new Italian life.” (Our lodging is on the outskirts of the city so hopefully our writers will not be awakened at 3 AM!)

For more soothing sounds, think of water flowing – or trickling, as in this sample from Perugia’s Etruscan well. For a more robust water sound, check out the Fontana Maggior (This video has more than just water sounds!)

Let’s not forget the quintessential Italian mode of transport, the Vespa, but we’ll let you find its sounds on your own.

Finally, here’s a clip of street sounds in an unidentified Italian city, just to get you in the mood: 

We’re eager to hear all these sounds – and more – in person, in Perugia. Perhaps while eating chocolate, drinking wine, or both.

And okay the video below is a compilation. But hey, who can’t use a little Italian restaurant music to listen to while you write?

Interview With Angela Sanders, Our Guest Instructor in Céret This Year!

by Shari Lane

We at Let’s Go Write are counting our lucky stars that Angela Sanders has agreed to join us this year in Céret, France, as a guest instructor, so we asked Shari Lane (whose book Two Over Easy All Day Long comes out May 1,, and who will be with us in Céret in September) to interview Angela, to give our writers a taste of what’s in store. Here’s what Angela and Shari shared with us.

Shari: Thank you for making time to chat!  I'm hoping you will share a little of your writing history with the readers of the Let's Go Write newsletter? Have you always written stories?

Angela: I’ve always been a storyteller and have always seen the story in the life around me. This is something we as writers share. As for actual writing, I’ve written off and on for most of my life, starting with winning second prize in a AAUW-sponsored short story contest in high school.

Shari: Can you describe one or two of the key concepts you will be exploring with the writers in Céret?

I definitely want to talk about voice—every writer’s superpower. Voice is what makes you special and what can make writing joyful and fulfilling.

Shari: We often hear the mantra: "If you want to be a writer, write." In other words, we are often told to spend less time preparing to write (i.e. agonizing over whether what you plan to write conforms to the prevailing wisdom, obsessing about how to write a best seller, etc.) and more time writing. Do you have an opinion on that?

Angela: I think it follows that if you write and long to improve, you’ll chase your writing with reading and craft. That said, I often see fear keeping writers from finishing projects and/or putting them out into the world. Writing has a certain mystique about it that leads some people to embrace the idea of being a writer rather than the writing practice.

Shari: And as a follow up, what works for you? Are you a throw-something-on-the-page-and-see-if-it-sticks writer? Or do you start with an outline and carefully flesh it out? (That is -- are you a Plotter or a Pantser?)

Angela: I have contracted deadlines, so I don’t have the luxury of making it up as I go. I start each book with a cast of characters, a locale, and the spine of a plot, then I let the magic of the writer’s brain fill in the blanks as I go. Maybe I’m a plotter with pantser tendencies?

Shari: And one more follow-up: have you challenged yourself to write differently? And if you have, how did it go?

Angela: I like to switch styles—go from first person to multiple POV, for instance—to learn and stave off boredom. One of the beauties of writing is that you can constantly learn and improve.

Shari: I imagine you have many thoughts about publication as a goal, self-publishing versus traditional publishing, and marketing one's work. Would you be willing to share one or two bits of advice in this interview?

Angela: Spend time at least a few times a year thinking about what you want from writing. Is it to be famous? Build your skills? Enjoy the process? Learn? What you want will drive how (or even if) you choose to publish.

Shari: Classic question, but I expect your readers will want to know: what are one or two of your favorite novels? (I know, I know, who could name just one? Or even just two?)

Angela: The answer to this changes all the time. Right now I’ll go with the “lady’s name as title” and say Laura by Vera Caspary and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

Shari: What has been (so far) your favorite book to write? And where can readers purchase your books?

Angela: I’ve loved writing the capers The Booster Club and Cat in a Bag for the hilarity and challenge of concocting a three-POV, three-subplot caper with a bang-up climax. Find my books “wherever fine books are sold,” as they say.

Angela’s website introduces her thus: INTRIGUE AND WIT, SERVED DRY WITH A TWIST. A deeper look reveals more marvelous detail about Angela.

After 11 years as a congressional investigator, Angela realized she was more fascinated by the stories at the edges of her investigations—the decrepit exercise equipment in the ladies room of a Czech oil company; the curious number of framed photographs of women on a nuclear weapons official’s desk; the stupendous speed by which a particular Agriculture undersecretary inhaled chili dogs—than by the policies she evaluated. She returned to the west coast to explore the world and her imagination through magazine stories and fiction.

Angela is the author of multiple fiction series, including The Vintage Clothing mysteries, the Booster Club Capers, Witch Librarian mysteries, Kite Shop mysteries, and articles about food, perfume and other topics. She is also a writing coach and editor.

As you might suspect, she is a colorful character too, with wild curly red hair and an all-vintage wardrobe. Join us – and her – in Céret and meet her in person!

Shari Lane’s novel, Two Over Easy All Day Long, releases May 1. Read more about her (and her enviable island life) on her website. We’re big fans of Shari, and we can’t wait to spend time with her in Céret.

Art and Artists in Céret

by Debbie Guyol

For a few of the writing workshops we’ve held in Céret we stayed in the apartment of a wonderful British artist, Susanne du Toit – an ideal setting for drinking in the town’s creative spirit. (Bonus: Susanne recently completed a series of portraits of women writers!) The apartment (no longer available, alas) looks out on the magnificent plane trees that have inspired dozens of artists from the early 20th century through the present. Here’s an example, by Chaim Soutine, who lived and painted there for two years.

Wonky and wonderful plane trees by Soutine.

We’ve rented other excellent accommodations for our workshop – and we still love the plane trees. And all the art.

Did we mention that Céret also has an excellent art museum? The Musée d’art moderne de Céret is the perfect size for a museum – not overwhelmingly huge but large enough to house a satisfying permanent collection that includes many paintings of the town itself. It also happens to be France’s national museum of modern art and houses the world’s second largest collection of modern and contemporary art, with 99,000 works by 6,300 artists. Picasso contributed to the founding of the museum and is remembered in various ways around town – a fountain, the Place Pablo Picasso (obviously) and this whimsical plaque stating that Picasso did not live here, in this house.

Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, via Wikimedia Commons

The museum also mounts shows of works by renowned artists of our own era. On a visit in 2018 we were dazzled by the supersized paintings of French Moroccan artist Najia Mehadji.

Here’s a handy on-line summary of the town’s artistic heritage.
    

Street art photo, just for fun. Céret is full of images like this!

We may not be gifted visual artists ourselves, but we are writers, and we’ve shown our love for the town and its art by incorporating them in our writing – as have some of our workshop students. We are excited to return to Céret and its inspirations for our September writing workshop.

La Ronde Céretane

Hard, hard….hill ahead, runners!

Céret loves to celebrate, and one of the town’s best celebrations takes place the day of the foot race known as La Ronde Céretane. Our Let’s Go Write creative writing workshop has overlapped with the ronde more than once. There are in fact (at least) three versions of this race: “La Mystique,” for serious runners (22k), “La Festive,” for those who prefer to run in costume (5.5k), and “L’endiablée,” which translates as wild or furious (10k). We cannot explain this designation.

Serious runners come from far away for the serious run, fun-runners go all in with silly attire. L’endiablée is new in 2024, so we shall see what it holds. And yes, there’s also (evidemment) a kids’ run and one designated esmorzar, a Catalan word meaning (depending on who you ask) snack or breakfast or lunch. We can’t explain this one either.

Funny costumes are common!

What we can say is that race day is a great festival of raucous fun. Music and feasting and dance take over. Crowds gather in the Place de la Liberté to sway to the sounds of brass bands and later to partake of paella prepared in six-foot wide pans. [photo] At other spots around town, dancers form spontaneous circles to perform the slow and stately sardane (a Catalan specialty whose appeal we don’t quite understand). Videos on the Ronde website give a sense of the exuberant energy that takes over the town. https://rondeceretane.com/    

 We’ve been in town for “La course la plus festive du Sud de la France” (the most festive race in the South of France) more than once. We haven’t run or dance or feasted, but we’ve been carried away by the party spirit nevertheless, and we’re beyond thrilled that we’ll be there for this year’s big event.

Which will take place September 15, the Sunday following the Saturday when our 2024 creative writing workshop ends. We strongly advise staying the extra day (or two, why not?) to experience this truly remarkable event. That’s what we’ll be doing.

The Best Bakery in Céret

By Jenni Gainsborough

Editor’s note: Jenni is a loyal Let’s Go Write regular workshop attendee and also one of our favorite people! Read on for her thoughts on bakeries in Céret.

It’s a cliché of course – walking around a French town with a baguette under one arm or poking out of a shopping bag.  But that is absolutely me when I am in Céret. My favorite bread baker is in a small side street just off Boulevard Arago, where our favorite apartment is located. Le Boulanger Artisan opens at 6am but the baker has been up for hours before to prepare freshly baked bread in all shapes and sizes and flours. My favorite is the céréale but I will happily eat any of them. An early visit there and my breakfast is taken care of – warm from the oven bread to go with the delicious cheese (purchased from the amazing Saturday market).  My second visit of the day is to provide the writing group with a nutritious mid-morning snack. I’m not sure of its official name but it is a delicious flaky croissant-like pastry filled with Swiss cream. No one can resist it.

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

The bakery is closed for a few hours in the afternoon, presumably so that Monsieur le Boulanger can eat lunch but more importantly so he can bake more bread. When he reopens around 5pm I am there again, first in line to pick up several freshly baked baguettes for dinner. By the time of my third visit I have accumulated a pocket full of change and I will try to be a helpful customer and give monsieur the right amount of money (and lessen the weight of coins I am carrying). This can take a while as I try to make sense of the value of each coin and add them up correctly. Monsieur is endlessly patient and helps me when the task becomes too much. He is smiles sweetly too at my attempts to make conversation with him in French – a smile of encouragement not disdain. Don’t believe the old gripe about the French sneering at foreigners attempts to speak their language. It doesn’t happen – certainly not in small French towns. The locals always appreciate our attempts.

Bread and cheese! One of our favorite meals in France.

Of course there is a patisserie in Céret too. Maison Duclos is where we go to buy fancy desserts when the need arises. It is a lovely place with delicious cakes and pastries and helpful counter staff. There are also small tables outside where you can sit and eat and people watch – always a source of entertainment. But in Maison Duclos I feel like a visitor while at Le Boulanger Artisan I can convince myself that I am part of the Céret community, a sense of belonging which is, for me, a vital piece of the Céret experience and keeps me coming back whenever I can.

A selection of pastries at Maison Duclos

7 Reasons to Visit Céret

7. Plane trees. They’re all over France and other parts of Europe, but the

ones in Céret feel especially spectacular. Maybe because they’ve been

painted by famous artists. Or it could be the other way around – famous

artists want to paint them because they’re so spectacular. Just looking at

them will lift your spirits. This view of Céret’s plane trees is by a lesser known

artist, Jean Marchand:

6. The Pyrenees. Céret sits on the northern flank of this great mountain

range. In fact it’s possible to hike over the mountains into Spain – which

people escaping the Nazis did during World War II. The Pic du Canigou

(9000+ feet) is a prominent landmark to the west. Is it magic – or sacred?

5. Historic stuff surrounds you. The Pont du Diable, for one example. Built in

1321, it is a single arch bridge 150 feet long that soars some 73 feet above

the Tech River. For hundreds of years, until the early 20th century, it was the

main route between the two shores. It was the longest (known) arched

bridge when it was built and – not surprisingly – the devil was said to have

had a hand in its construction.

4. But there’s much more. There’s the Eglise St. Pierre, also from the 14th

century, and did we mention the beautiful medieval stone walls?

3. The art: Artists came here and still come, and the town reflects the

creative spirit. Picasso left his mark – he was a founder of the Musée d’Art

Moderne de Céret. This photo from the museum does not contain an image

of Picasso!

2. Food and drink. Okay, it’s France, after all. Cheese, wine, bread, fruit

(Céret is famous for its cherries) and other produce, seafood and more.

Fabulous desserts, perhaps? This from L’Atelier de Fred, a justly famous

Céret restaurant:

2. The sea. The magnificent Mediterranean is a short drive away. But there’s

a downside to staying right there – hordes of tourists! From Céret you can

pop over to visit, hike, swim, see the sights, and then retreat to the town’s

friendly embrace.

1. The soul, spirit of the place, genius loci. Well, or the je ne sais quoi, the

indescribable something that makes it special. Céret feels warm, welcoming,

enlivening, inspiring. Come see for yourself. And find more information on our France page, here.

Lopez Island Recap

Full moon setting over the Salish Sea, image by Debbie Guyol

Eleven writers, three spouses, one adult daughter and two teachers convened on Lopez Island the first week in March for a writing workshop.

It was an eventful week full of unexpected drama but we survived and wow, did we have fun.

All but one student and husband (and they are the lucky ones who live on the island) drove north from the Portland, Oregon area. Most of us ran into inclement weather in the form of a drenching rain that made the road hard to see.

But once we reached Anacortes, a town on Puget Sound that is the gateway to the San Juans, the weather cleared and we enjoyed trips to the local market for food for our opening night party and take-out pizza at the Ship Harbor Inn.

Great spot—mere feet from the ferry terminal, with great views, spacious rooms, and a decent breakfast.

It was a cold wait in the ferry line. You’re not supposed to idle at the terminal. Don’t tell anyone, but we did turn the car on to warm ourselves up a few times.

The boat ride was rainy and cold and windy but spectacular all the same.

And then we arrived on Lopez and the glorious Edenwild Inn. That night we had an opening get-together at our student’s house and excitement after we returned to our rooms.

One of the oldest houses on the island burned that night. It was a house built from a Sears kit.

The house was built from a Sears kit

Sunday morning our workshop began. We gathered every morning from 9:30 to 12:30 and worked hard, commenting on others’ work, talking about the books we’d assigned to read (Lucy By The Sea and Salt On Your Tongue) and doing in-class writing assignments.

In all that writing and reading and discussing we worked up an appetite and inn owner Anthony obliged us with wonderful lunches. (A note about Anthony: he and his wife Crystal have seven kids, run the inn and a farm on the island. Plus Crystal is the office manager for the island medical clinic. Awe-inspiring all around.)

When not writing, we shopped at the marvelous local shops: bookstore and gift store, and sampled island cuisine. And—walked and hiked and drove around the island. So many gorgeous places to see, and a view of the water is never far away.

On Thursday night we got drama but first we enjoyed a delicious lasagna dinner at our local student’s home. The drama came when one of our writers had a medical emergency.

Fun fact #1: six EMTs showed up.

Fun Fact #2: one-third of the island residents are trained as EMTs.

Fun Fact #3: Our student was fine, albeit a bit embarrassed.

Alas, our island sojourn came to an end on Friday but we are already planning to return next year.

Keep your eyes on this website to learn more—this year we sold out quickly.
More images for you:

Island Time in the Salish Sea: Dive Deep Into a Writing Adventure

We are so excited to announce the site of our latest workshop—lovely Lopez Island in the San Juans off Washington State. This has been one of our most requested locations and we are finally making it happen! Here are the details.

We’ll be staying at the gorgeous Edenwild Inn (see photo above and view more info here) from March 4-11, 2022.  A light breakfast and lunch will be offered each day. We’ll also cover dinner five nights, with dinners at local restaurants planned the other evenings.

And, of course, the writing workshop! As with all of our Let’s Go Write workshops, we’ll meet every morning (Sunday through Friday) from 9:30 until 12:30 for writing instruction and discussion plus fun prompts and exercises and yes, a spot of homework, too.

Interested? Contact us or email Debbie at dguyol@aol.com or Charlotte at chardixon@comcast.net.

Wells Recap

Wells, England – Mystery, Magic and Writing

Our May 2022 workshop in Wells was a smashing success! Wells is a lovely small city in southwest England with almost everything a large city can offer, minus the noise and traffic: a grand cathedral, and a Bishop’s Palace complete with gorgeous gardens and a moat. (Inhabited by a swan family – we were lucky to be there at cygnet time, and catching the whole crew out for a swim or meal was an extra treat.) Also an array of pubs and restaurants, e.g., Fosso Lounge, a terrific bookstore, a crystal shop, a Boots where you can buy just about anything, and on and on. You can read more about this lovely city here.

Our writers worked hard, between swan-watching outings and other diversions, and produced excellent work. Among other things they wrote about the world’s most evil cat (very funny), riffed on the recent news of the jailer who ran away with an inmate (super funny), and meditated on the poignancy of saying good-bye.

We had mostly fair weather, which we endured while hearing tales of wretched weather back home. We ate at pubs and on garden patios, and partook of a fabulous Indian feast our last night there. We are already at work on another magical Wells workshop in 2023, so stay tuned for more info soon!

Let’s Go

Welcome to Let’s Go, our new blog.

We are Debbie and Charlotte, writers, teachers, travelers, and lovers of adventure and we’ve wrapped it all up into our business, Let’s Go Write. We offer workshops in fun destinations ranging from Oregon to England to France—and maybe more to come, who knows?

Come here to stay up on our latest news, with writing tips, travel advice, and insider info about our chosen destinations.