The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (55 page)

Unlike other similar events, Pennwriters doesn’t limit its focus to one type of writing. You’ll find more than 30 workshops, covering everything from memoirs to science fiction, poetry to thrillers. “Every genre can learn from another,” Kastner says. “Although someone might not be a fantasy writer, they’ll find value in attending a worldbuilding course because all fiction writers are creating imaginary worlds.” In a typical year, sessions may cover writing a memoir, graphic novels, or horror. Others will be devoted to topics that often bedevil writers, such as crafting dialogue, creating characters, and working with conflict.

FIND A WORKSHOP

You’ll find writing events across the country. One of the best sources is ShawGuides (www.shawguides.com), which lists nearly a thousand writing conferences and workshops. Here are three that are both low cost and novice-writer friendly:

 
Grub Street’s Muse and the Marketplace.
This Boston-based conference helps writers understand the publishing world, and offers plenty of opportunities for networking with editors and agents. The weekend gathering includes six workshops covering writing topics like how to use images in writing and crafting characters from real people, plus two seminars and a luncheon. Cost: $345 for nonmembers, or $235 for one day.
Grub Street’s Muse and the Marketplace, 160 Boylston St., 4th Fl., Boston, MA 02116, 617-695-0075,
www.museandthemarketplace.com
.

 
Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
More than 1,500 people attend this festival every June and July. You need only be older than 21 and have a desire to write. The weekend and weeklong sessions cover 130 different workshop options across all writing genres. The price is $560 per week and $280 per weekend. Nearby accommodations begin at $74 per night.
Iowa Summer Writing Festival, University of Iowa, C215 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242, 319-335-4160,
www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/iswfest/
.

 
Split Rock Art Program.
This program offers three-and five-day workshops at the University of Minnesota’s 3,400-acre Cloquet Forestry Center in northern Minnesota. Topics range from screenwriting and memoirs to writing about grief. Cost: $370–$555, plus $55 registration. Housing runs $485 for six nights.
Split Rock Arts Program, University of Minnesota, 360 Coffey Hall, 1420 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, 612-625-1976,
www.cce.umn.edu/Split-Rock-Arts-Program
.

The conference runs Friday morning through lunch on Sunday. The group does its best to keep costs low—another way to attract and support beginners. Pricing options allow you to attend for one day ($114) or for the full three days ($225). The registration includes several meals, including a lunch with a keynote speaker. An evening banquet (in 2010 it was with best-selling thriller writer James Rollins) carries an extra charge. The group also keeps expenses down by holding the conference in locations like an airport hotel instead of a fancy resort.

The conference usually attracts around 250 registrants, plus a few dozen instructors and special guests. Former participants say they find talking to other attendees is as valuable as the workshops. “Experienced writers are willing to reach down the ladder to help those just on the first step,” said Annette Dashofy, a published nonfiction and short-story writer, who is trying to become a mystery novelist. She offers a simple tip to meet anyone at the conference. “Ask someone what they’re writing. You’ll always get an answer and you’ll have a conversation.”

She warns against overscheduling yourself, though: Your brain will be fried. “Spend some time in the hospitality suite and at the bar.” That’s where many Pennwriters have struck up conversations with agents and editors, who eventually ended up publishing their work.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

Pennwriters,
823 Oregon Ave., Erie, PA 16505, 814-838-6870,
www.pennwriters.org
.

get your hands dirty at a farm stay

NATIONWIDE

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.

—
PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, SPEECH IN PEORIA, ILLINOIS (1956)

69 |
For urbanites, agriculture can be a conceptual art. Farm stays let you see where your veggies and sheep’s wool really come from—and what “organic” really means.

“Nobody has any grandparents to go to a family farm at Thanksgiving or in the summer anymore,” says Scottie Jones, who started offering farm stays at her
Leaping Lamb Farm
(877-820-6132,
www.leapinglambfarm.com
) near Portland, Oregon, about five years ago. Many of her guests are families who come to get into nature, reconnect—her farm’s rental cottage doesn’t have a television—and teach their children that “eggs don’t just come from a carton in Safeway.”

“People may understand their food comes out of the ground, but they haven’t understood what work is involved in doing it,” Jones says. At Leaping Lamb, guests pay $125 for two people ($25 per person more up to six people total) for lodging in a cabin and the fixings to make their own breakfast. They can collect their own eggs in the morning, pet the donkey, and forage in the farm’s gardens for apples, raspberries, blueberries, potatoes, corn, and lettuce.

Jones and her husband, Greg, started offering farm stays to supplement her family’s income and she is trying to help other small farmers do the same through
Farm Stay U.S.
(www.farmstayus.com).
Sleep in the Hay
(www.sleepinthehay.com) has a similar mission. Founder Kari Brayman teaches elementary and middle school students in the North Carolina mountains about growing food. “So many times kids ask, ‘Where does milk come from?’ They think it comes from the store, not a cow,” she says.

Both websites will lead you to a variety of working farms, comfy bed-and-breakfasts, hostels, and camps that offer a visitor-friendly experience with a cabin or room for lodging. Here are a few of the options available:

 
Casa de la Pradera.
At this bed-and-breakfast near Sacramento, California, guests pay $80 per night to stay on an organic farm, where they stroll among the gardens and learn about organic practices before heading off to visit gold rush towns and the nearby wineries of Amador County.
Casa de la Pradera, 209-245-6042,
www.fiddletownfarms.com
.

 
Farm Sanctuary.
This organization has two shelters that take in animals rescued from slaughterhouses and factory farms, one in northern California near Orland (530-865-4617) and the other in upstate New York near Watkins Glen (607-583-2225). Both offer tours for a minimal fee. Stay overnight at either farm for $95 double occupancy, breakfast and tour included. Out of respect for the animals, only vegan food is allowed on premises.
Farm Sanctuary,
www.farmsanctuary.org
.

 
Mango Sunset.
Located on Hawaii’s Big Island, this bed-and-breakfast with ocean views and four guest rooms is set on an 8-acre certified organic Kona coffee farm; rooms from $100. Guests who ask in advance can get an estate tour and learn how the organic beans are grown and roasted.
Mango Sunset, 808-325-0909,
www.mangosunset.com
.