Wrapping up day 4 in Oistins, Barbados, at a Wayward Wormhole writing retreat, offered by Cat Rambo’s Academy for Wayward Writers. Today was spent on workshop sessions that explored story core as well as writerly chats over lunch.
Theme for the Day: Scattered
I misunderstood the schedule for the day and was piddling around the guest house in the morning, making omelets and drinking coffee. I’d planned to show up at the venue around 10:30 am. Good thing someone else asked a question on WhatsApp, which clued me into the fact that things were set to start at 9:00! I threw on some clothes, grabbed my hat and notes, and flew out the door. And arrived only five minutes late.
Theme for the Story: Tension
First, my pod of four meet with Cat Rambo to discuss the mind mapping exercise based on Monday’s workshop. Karen Lord is teaching us to use mind maps in a specific way, aimed at understanding the main, underlying theme of the story—“the core of the story” that “contains the tension.” Particularly in novella (and short story), all parts of the story need to connect back to that core.
I got an açai bowls for lunch from Epic Surf Café, which is right next to the workshop venue, as well as did a little gift shopping. In the afternoon, Karen further discussed working with story core as well as answering many questions about the life of a professional writer.
Meanwhile, enjoy yourself with my latest novel, The Talking Cure.
“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.”—Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker
Find The Talking Cure at these fine locations:
Left Bank Books in St. Louis
Do you think of a story more in terms of plot or the emotions it evoked in you? Comment on the blog.
If you enjoyed this blog about my travels, you might like to read about imaginary travels.
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Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.
Earlier this year, St. Louis Writers Guild published Weird STL, an anthology celebrate the strange, spooky, and just plain wonderful stories of our hometown. This volume of short stories, poems, a play, and essays includes a Sean Joye universe short story, “Big Magick.” Joseph Arwald, one of the baddies from The Big Cinch, tells us what really happened to the Ferris Wheel from the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
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The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here, and Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.
This blog was updated with corrected information on February 19, 2026.