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Retreat Schedule

GLEN EYRIE FICTION WRITER’S RETREAT SCHEDULE June 2-5, 2026

Tuesday, June 2

4:00 PM Registration starts

6:00 PM Dinner in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

7:00 PM Keynote: Tim Shoemaker  – “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” As kids, an opening line like that was enough to pull us right into a story. Today, we want to give our readers that same sense of wonder and excitement as they read our story. How do we do that?  And sometimes as writers, we’re the ones riding out a storm … on a very dark night. How do we write—even through those times? Could God be using those storms to help us relate better to our readers—and to help them in powerful ways?

8:00-9:30 PM Courtyard Time

  • Hanging out/social time around the firepit in the Carriage House Courtyard

Wednesday, June 3

7:30-8:45 AM Breakfast in the Castle Dining Room

9:00-10:15 AM Morning Workshop: Jesse Florea -“Courageous Fiction Writing” Writing can be scary, even dark and scary. But if God has called you to be a writer, He’ll give you the courage and perseverance to be obedient in using His gifts. This workshop will explore ways you can be courageous with your characters, your storylines and your self-editing.

10:15-10:45 AM Break

10:45-12:00 PM Breakout Sessions (Choose one):

  • Tara Johnson – Character Wounds: Why do people behave the way they do? Just as important as those character sheets are with external detail (eye color, hair color, family background, etc.), it’s even more important to ask “why” our characters make choices and how their fears control their behavior. This workshop will explore character wounds, the misbeliefs that can be formed, and the key to unlocking our characters’ internal and external goals, as well as their motivation and conflict to take our stories to the next level.
  • Tim Shoemaker – Building Tension: Some say we need conflict on every page of our novel. But if we want to hold our readers, we need more than conflict. We need tension. We’ll show you why tension is the key … and how to build it in your novel.
  • Loretta Oakes – The Matching Game: Every hero must have an anti-hero, someone who keeps them from completing their task. To that end, we will explore how to construct a villain that complicates, obfuscates, and sometimes denies the hero what they want. We want the tension to rise on each page and that can only happen when the author creates a “symbiotic” relationship between hero and villain that dark and stormy night. How do we create secondary villains that match our secondary characters? When the main hero and villain are taking a breather, it’s a perfect opportunity to get those side-kicks ramping up their game. This session looks at your heroes and villains and creates the perfect push-pull relationships that complete your symphony of tension.
  • Blythe Daniel – There’s a Secret Sauce that Agents Look for…Even Though They May Not Tell You: Agents are like talent scouts. They look for authors and book projects that they feel they can sell to a publisher. There are three key areas that agents focus on that you may not hear up front, but it’s typically in the minds of agents. It encompasses not just the author’s book idea but who the author is and how they present themselves and their content. In this workshop, we’ll look at how you can navigate approaching an agent with what will help you gain their attention and hopefully their partnership!
  • Jesse Florea – By Hook or By Crook: How to Engage Young Readers—Studies show you have less than 15 seconds to grab a young reader’s attention. A creative introduction could also be the difference between publication and rejection. This workshop will discuss different ways to begin a story . . . and then how to keep a reader’s attention, using key elements of good storytelling. Also, a quick look will be taken at the editorial needs and different types of stories that appear in Focus on the Family’s youth magazines: Clubhouse, Clubhouse Jr. and Brio.

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

1:00-2:00PM Q and A Panel with Faculty

2:00-6:00PM Free Time

  • Scheduled One-on-Ones with Faculty 2-5:00 PM:(Tara, Jesse, Blythe, Loretta)
  • Tim Available in Courtyard from 2:00-5:00 PM: I’m wide open for any conferees who have questions, need coaching, or just want to talk. No appointment needed!
  • Hike, rest, write, connect, recharge

6:00 PM Dinner in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

7:00 PM Keynote: Jesse Florea  “Darkness Before Light” How did the son of a drug dealer who helped bring up his siblings end up as the editor of the two largest Christian children’s magazines? Simple answer: God. God doesn’t bring difficulties into our lives, but He does use our trials to refine us. That refinement, if we let it, can make us more genuine and better writers. The reality is God orchestrates the experiences in our lives (including the difficult ones) to reach out to others through words.

8:00-9:30 Courtyard Time

  • Hanging out/social time around the fire in the Carriage House Courtyard

Thursday, June 4

7:30—8:45 AM Breakfast in the Castle Dining Room

9:00-10:15 AM Morning Workshop:  Tara Johnson -“Body Language and Characterization” Understanding body language, micro-expressions, and posture is the ultimate way to ‘show and not tell’. Body language adds tremendous depth to dialogue, sets tone, and shows readers how a character’s emotions reflect in their behavior. This workshop will teach writers how to use universal body language to give their characters rich emotion, as well as teach how to spot deception and bumps in verbal language that reveal inner motive. This class will also use examples from real life, including transcripts and videos from confessed serial killers and public figures.

10:15-10:45 Break

10:45-12 noon Breakout Sessions (Choose one):

  • Tara Johnson – Body Language in Romance, Mystery, and Cultures: This class will teach students how to be aware of body language differences in culture, age, special needs, and personal quirks to create rich, robust characters. It will also delve into body language techniques used in romance and mystery to take stories from average to unforgettable.
  • Tim Shoemaker – Descriptions, Show-Don’t Tell, and Deep Point of View: Descriptions … we’ll look at two techniques that may change how you approach descriptions from now on. And with Show-Don’t-Tell and Deep POV … we won’t just tell you how to strengthen your stories with these. We’ll show you. I love this workshop! Practical and clear … if you’ve struggled with any of these before, that’s all about to change.
  • Blythe Daniel – How to Know if You Should Traditionally Publish or Self Publish: Writers ask: “Should I go ahead and self-publish or wait to see if a traditional publisher is interested in my book?” The answer really depends on your goals. In this workshop, we’ll look at both publishing avenues and talk about the similarities and differences. We’ll also look at how to make the leap from self-publishing to traditional publishing. We’ll focus on what’s in an author’s best interest for each and show a cost and time analysis that may help you decide what’s best for you.
  • Loretta Oakes – Are the Stakes High Enough? This session allows the author to look at their weak spots, their holes in their story, the mediocre conflicts and consider how to raise the stakes to create the book that the reader just can’t put down. Raising the stakes eliminates muddy middles and dry chapters. We will look at how to up the tension on each page, without taking things too far, yet creating opportunities for heroes to up their game. “Conflict drives, mystery intensifies” is our theme in this session. It’s a surefire way to create the memorable book.

12:00-12:45 PM Lunch in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

1:00-2PM Specialty Groups (Tara, Blythe, Loretta, and Tim will each lead a discussion group and share insights on various writing topics to be announced)

2:00-6:00PM Free Time

  • Scheduled One-on-Ones with Faculty 2-5:00 PM:(Tara, Blythe, Loretta)
  • Tim Available in Courtyard from 2-5:00 PM: I’m wide open for any conferees who have questions, need coaching, or just want to talk. No appointment needed!
  • Hike, rest, write, connect, recharge.

6:00 PM Dinner in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

7:00 PM Keynote: Tara Johnson – “Writing Through the Storms of Life” Life hits hard sometimes … but how do you keep writing and moving forward in the midst of chaos?

8:00-9:30 Courtyard Time

  • Hanging out/social time around the fire in the Carriage House Courtyard

Friday, June 5

7:30—8:45 AM Breakfast in the Castle Dining Room

9:00-10:15 AM Morning Workshop: Tim Shoemaker – “Meet Me in the Middle” We all know the importance of your story start—and ending. But sometimes we forget how critical the middle is to our book. We’ll look at secrets to stronger starts and satisfying endings, for sure. Tim will also share some techniques to build a middle that pulls it all together. Put these into practice in your novel and you’ll likely have readers saying something like this: “There’s nothing halfway about that middle.”

10:15-10:30 Break (note . . . shorter break today!)

10:30-11:45 Breakout Sessions (Choose one) :

  • Tara Johnson – Crafting a Villian: Explore how to craft the perfect villain, including understanding suspicious body language, word choices, core wounds, and delve into the four dangerous personality types (narcissism, predators, emotionally unstable, and the paranoid).
  • Tim Shoemaker – The Christian Writers Walk—Especially During the Storms: Our Christian walk and our writing life are tied together—or should be. In this transparent 75 minutes, Tim will share some reminders and things he’s learned in his own life on the topic. Here’s some of the questions we’ll look at …
  1. What do you do when the storms of life beat against you—and writing seems impossible?
  2. What do you do when the creativity isn’t there?
  3. What do you do when you wonder if you need to quit?
  4. What do you do when things get so tough that you know you can’t simply put on a happy face and power through?
  5. How does all this help us write with God, instead of just for him?
  • Loretta Oakes Conferee’s Choice: Those who attend this workshop will vote to choose between two different topics below. Where do you need the most help? Here’s your chance to get it!  1. Escaping the Muddy Middle: You’ve got the amazing beginning and the beautiful ending to your novel, but as you’re writing, you end up in the swamp of the muddy middle. No worries! This workshop will help you attack those slumping characters, boring side trips, nagging loose ends, and the dreaded exposition blues, or 2. Conquering Developmental Edits: This session will dive into what developmental edits are and how to be successful with them. Now that you’ve finished your rough draft, it’s time to dig in and make sure your plot, pacing, proportion (subplots and side characters), and POV are all in order to produce a polished draft ready for submission.
  • Blythe Daniel – Ask an Agent: Any question is fair game. Queries. Proposals. Story pitch. Editing. And I’ll share some things I look for as an agent—and feedback I get from fiction editors looking at manuscripts. Often, we’re not seeing enough showing in the story, and sometimes the story start is backstory heavy. Let’s talk about all that in this session.

11:45-12 noon Closing Comments and Prayer as Conference Ends

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch in the Glen Eyrie Castle Dining Room

Retreat Concludes

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