Seven Days on Skokholm, a five-part series of my self-made writing retreat on Skokholm Island, was published on the blog of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
You can read the series on their website:
Seven Days on Skokholm: Part One
If I had a week with nothing to do, I would write amazing words. I would write a book. I would write a million words and then dream the story while I slept under the stars and then I would write another million words and the faeries would come out and dance around me and I would make novels like the miller’s daughter spinning gold out of straw.
Seven Days on Skokholm: Part Two
Skokholm, Richard tells us, is a honeycomb of burrows. The rabbits, the puffins, the storm petrels and the manx shearwaters all make their own burrows and to be honest, it’s a bit of a nightmare, the island riddled with holes.
Seven Days on Skokholm: Part Three
“Also, just keep writing, even when it seems stupid. You’ll need to use up a whole lot of words to get to the good ones.”
Seven Days on Skokholm: Part Four
The ground in front of me slopes down. There is a red painted stone marking the end of the path, which makes me laugh, because of course I’m not going to stumble down to the cliff edge, the sea crashing against the rocks a hundred feet below.
Seven Days on Skokholm: Part Five
I need to know if a Greater Black-Backed Gull could and would eat a Welsh faerie if the opportunity presented itself.