Rainforest Writing Retreat

Escape to the Sunshine Coast to reignite your creativity at our Rainforest Writing Retreat! 

Save the date: February 10 – 14, 2025

Presenting: Linwood House, a magnificent retreat center nestled in the trees, close to the beach, walking trails, and the village of Roberts Creek. And it’s easily accessible from Vancouver (one short ferry from Horseshoe Bay). 

Join us for an immersive retreat featuring inspirational workshops, community building, and dedicated writing time. Whether you’re starting a new project or polishing your NaNoWriMo draft, this retreat promises to ignite your creativity and elevate your craft. The retreat includes an introductory dinner, three full days of activities, and a concluding breakfast.

What makes this retreat special? 

• Pitch Fest: “Speed dating” style workshopping
• Craft Discussions: Deep dives into your most pressing issues
• Readings: An opportunity to share your writing
• Dedicated Writing Time: Supportive space for you to make progress on your work
• Book Club for Authors: Collaborative dissection of an award-winning novel to uncover what works and why
• Intimate Cohort: No more than a dozen participants

What’s included?

• Gourmet Girl Catering: We’ll provide nine meals (breakfasts, lunches, and two dinners, which leaves you free to explore local options for two additional dinners).
• One-on-One Feedback: There’ll be a chance to discuss your work-in-progress with David & Michelle.
• Three Solid Workshop Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday—we will dive in after breakfast, with afternoons dedicated to one-on-ones and prompt activities designed to deepen your work-in-progress.
• Fireside Chats: We’ll get the fireplace roaring for an optional hangout space each evening.
• Story Skeleton—The Classics: All participants will receive a copy of our new book.

Why a Retreat?

Research has shown there are five key benefits to attending a writing retreat:

• Protected writing time and space
• A strong sense of community, which is essential to the largely solitary pursuit of writing
• Increased motivation to write
• Increased productivity—no distractions, no to-do lists, no excuses
• A new and valuable support network that can translate into critique partners and lifelong friendships

Why Linwood? Linwood House is an exquisite and peaceful place to work. It’s quiet, surrounded by nature, and has several rooms and hidden nooks to sit and work.

Why Us?

We were trained in the MFA program at UBC and are award-winning authors. All the ups and downs of novel-writing? We’ve been through them. We’ve also coached scores of authors through the process of writing and revising a book-length manuscript. Many of them have gone on to be published and even win awards.

What do you need to prepare?

• Meat and Potatoes: We will be talking shop and getting specific, so ideally you will come with a work-in-progress of some kind, whether a novel, a memoir, or a short story collection (if you only have an idea or an outline, that’s fine too).
• Pitch Fest: For our first workshop, you will need a short pitch of your project that you can read or recite within about a minute.
• Book Club: About a month before the retreat, we will announce which award-winning novel we’ll be dissecting. We ask that everyone read the book in advance.

What’s the Cost? 

We’re pleased to offer more affordable pricing this year, and on top of that, we’re catering most of the meals. Win-win! 

For one person: $2000 CAD

For two sharing a room: $3800 CAD 

Book Now

Hope to see you there! 

Questions? Want to get on the list? Send us a note: editors@darlingaxe.com.