M and I communicate at either ends of the day, when I am lying in the bed I’ve borrowed. My days have been filled with workshops and words, talking to people about their writing and encouraging them to do it in new ways, then listening to the wonders that can be cooked up in 10 minutes. There is scant time to talk to anyone outside of the retreat, and it makes it feel more otherworldly.

A few nights ago he told me he’d read four books in the four days since I’d left him, and I replied that I had managed as many pages of the fat biography I’d brought with me. The reading I have done this week has been the pages printed out, which I scrawl on, and then delve into with those who have made them.

All of which means I don’t have many links to share with you this week. What I do have to share with you are some of the many things I’ve learned, recommended, and discussed during A Haven for Stories, our Umbrian writing retreat. Tasty morsels from a delicious week. ...