memoir and life writing retreat

Are you yearning for some time out to nurture your writing dreams? Have you started a story from your life but don’t know how to finish it? Are the stories rolling round and round in your head starting to drive you bonkers? Is it your turn to be nurtured at last and spend some time playing with the stories of your life?

Come and join us on retreat in beautiful Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland, high in the hills surrounded by giant trees, rainforest and pure mountain streams. Write up a storm with the guidance of 4 craft workshops, relax with yoga and meditation, feast on delicious home cooked meals, connect with other writers in a beautiful location and have a whole weekend where all you do is write and dream and sleep and wander and perhaps have a swim or a massage. Sound like heaven? It is!

Come along and regain your love of writing and life at the next Relax and Write Retreat From midday FRIDAY 4 April – 3 pm SUNDAY 6 April 2025

Join like-minded writers in a fun and supportive environment discovering just how much some deep relaxation can ignite your imagination and get you writing again. Relax and unwind with gentle morning yoga sessions and be inspired by innovative workshops to help move those stories out of your head and onto the page.

“I feel transformed, as a writer and as a human being.” Bianca Millroy – writer and retreater.

The program includes two yoga sessions, four workshops to get you writing, plus advice on submitting your work. Included in the cost is two nights comfortable single accommodation with bathrooms shared between two, plus delicious vegetarian meals and snacks and a special readings night around the fire.

“The fully-catered retreat environment was comfortable and stress-free. An atmosphere that encourages, motivates and inspires.” Gay Liddington – writer and retreater

Connect with other creative people in a beautiful, peaceful location and remember your creative self. No more putting your dreams on hold. Treat yourself to this special weekend nurturing your writing spirit. You deserve it! The program includes two yoga sessions, readings night and four creative writing workshops.

RETREAT PROGRAM: All activities are optional

FRIDAY 4 April 2024

ARRIVAL from midday

4 pm – Meet and Greet

4:30 – 6:30 WORKSHOP 1– Your Stories – out of your head and onto the page

6:30 DINNER

SATURDAY 5 April

7:15 am – 8:30 – Gentle morning yoga and breathing

8:30 – BREAKFAST

10:00 am – 12:30 pm – WORKSHOP 2 – Character and Dialogue in memoir

12.30 pm – LUNCH

1 – 4:00 – FREETIME and FEEDBACK SESSIONS

4 – 6:00 pm – WORKSHOP 3 – Writing from start to finish – developing a plot and a plan

6:00 pm – DINNER

6:45 – 7:30 pm – Readings around the fire

SUNDAY 6 April

7:15 – 8:30 – Gentle morning yoga and breathing

8:30 – BREAKFAST

10:00 – 12:30 – WORKSHOP 4 – Where and how to submit work, goal setting, questions and collage

12:30 – LUNCH

3 pm DEPARTURES

Bodywork treatments are also available at extra cost with our wonderful, wise and gifted healer, Monique Do Goey.

Sound like the perfect way to get you writing again? Reboot that writing mojo and join us in April!

BOOK IN by PAYING YOUR DEPOSIT HERE.

Drop me a line first to make sure there are still places available. Prices start at only $600 (unwaged) for the fully inclusive weekend! $750 for those working or comfortably off. This includes your accommodation and all meals! Plus a weekend of memoir workshops tailored to suit your needs and yoga sessions to unwind and relax.

Any questions just drop me a line. I so hope you can come along and connect with our ever-growing supportive and loving gang of writing folk. Writing can be a lonely business, but it doesn’t have to be. Come along, write up a storm and find your tribe!

Hope you can come. We always have a wonderful time! Don’t wait too long, places are filling fast with repeat retreaters.

Lots of love

Ed 🙂 xx

Once again the sun shone for us in Springbrook as our group of wonderful women writers gathered to relax, write, feast and connect at the beautiful Theosophical Society Education and Retreat Centre high above the bustle in the Gold Coast hinterland.

We wrote up a storm and shared our stories, connecting heart to heart, writer to writer, learning from each other and growing in our skills and abilities to get those stories out of our heads and onto the page.

The weather was so beautiful we even had a session outside on a picnic blanket, listening deeply to the stories of the ancestors of this spectacular country, the Yugambeh people, and our own ancestors with their own stories to tell.

Chief cookie, the fabulous Gay Liddington, whose own memoir will be published in 2024 – WATCH THIS SPACE – tempted us all with delicious treats, and what a treat it is to walk into the kitchen at the end of a long day writing to smell a feast ready and waiting. THANK YOU GAY!

This retreat, we saw many repeat retreaters reconnecting and other new friends finding their writing gangs. Writers need other writers. When we are deeply immersed in our own stories, we can’t see our way through what can seem like a tangled forest of words, but other writers can look at our mess from a different angle and clearly see the path through the trees for us.

We laughed and we cried together, wrote, talked and even sang. We relaxed and stretched our bodies with yoga and indulged in healing bodywork treatments by the amazing Monique De Goey of Reconnect Holistic Bodywork.

Each one of us, yours truly included, came away feeling refreshed and renewed, with new ideas for our stories, a clear path ahead and writing companions to cheer us on and pick us back up again if we fall.

As Heidi would say, “I knew the mountains would make her well!”

Here’s what some retreaters had to say.

“A beautiful space of learning, reflection, sharing and mutual honouring of our stories.”

Retreat participant October 2023

“This had been such a wonderful experience for me. I love being in community and experienced wonderful community this weekend. The writing workshops were inspiring, exciting and ignited my creative side again.”

Retreat participant October 2023

“Thank you for all the inspiration, warmth, listening and LOVE.”

Retreat participant October 2023

As is traditional, we finished our retreat with collages – here are some of the beautiful results!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these retreats are only as special as the women who come along. I love how women come together and lift each other up. THANK YOU to all the wonderful women writers who made this retreat such a beautiful experience for us all, me included.

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world, getting to uplift and inspire others for my job!

Would you love to come along to the next memoir retreat? Dates are already set for next year’s Memoir and Life Writing Retreat – MAKE A NOTE – 18 – 20 OCTOBER 2024. You can book in HERE by paying your deposit. Hurry repeat retreaters are already signing up! Prices have gone up as retreat costs have risen along with everything else. I’ve created a tiered system for the waged and unwaged but if you’re still burning to come, but can’t see your way through to paying that much, DROP ME A LINE and I’ll see how we can help.

And, just quietly, a new JUST WRITE RETREAT of 4 or 5 nights is planned for early April, 2024. More on this soon!

Vietnam Relax and Write Your Journey Retreat is fully booked and we’re all getting super excited, but places are still available for Bali! I cannot wait to get back to the divine Bali EcoStay to swim in our own waterfall and fall asleep every night to the gentle lull of running water. Tempted? Check it all out here – you’ll have the time of your life!!