Sherry Christie is a writer from Jonesport, Maine. She has been writing professionally all her life, first at a New York magazine, then at an Ohio advertising agency. Currently, as the owner of a financial copywriting firm, her objective is to help people make smarter financial decisions. In partnership with “money therapist” Olivia Mellan, she has written over 200 magazine articles for financial advisors, as well as Money Harmony, Overcoming Overspending, and three other books on money psychology.
However, writing fiction about first-century Rome is her first love. Over the course of seven retreats at La Muse she completed, revised, and polished her debut novel about Caligula’s Rome, Roma Amor, to be published in January 2016. She recently spent her eighth La Muse retreat working on a sequel.
1. How did you know you needed to come on a retreat?
‘Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul’ – then it’s time to get away from it all and go on retreat to work on something that’s purely joyful.
2. What is the difference between La Muse and a writing course to you?
A writing course can be a great way to learn mastery of craft from a practitioner. At La Muse, you have an opportunity to learn from yourself. The extended period of time—a week or more—allows you to play with ideas, structures, and formats without interference from your internal critic. You can use everything you know to create and inhabit a different world. I think a course can educate the left brain. But La Muse invigorates the right brain.
3. Can you give us one word to describe your retreat?
‘Away.’ Away from the restraints of everyday; away to a place of freedom.
4. What’s been your eureka/transformative Muse moment?
Toward the end of my very first retreat I looked up through the open French windows to the hills and sky, knowing I had done good work and would soon be returning to the guy I love, and I thought, ‘I am so happy.’
5. What was the one thing you didn’t pack that you wish you had?
Scratch paper to make notes.
6. How do you know you are a writer?
If you’re a writer, you can’t NOT write. Someone who says, ‘If I had time, I’d write a book,’ isn’t a writer. If they were, they’d have written one, no matter how long it took.
7. How does one write while holding a full-time job?
That’s tough. I tried earmarking every Friday for my own writing. Then I tried earmarking every forenoon. But being a freelancer, I’m somewhat at my clients’ mercy when it comes to deadlines. The only thing that works for me consistently is setting aside three weeks, telling my clients I’ll be out of the country, and coming to La Muse.
8. What is creativity to you? What is your creative process?
Creativity is loving to do what you do so much that you blow it up now and then, to make sure you never get tired of it.
9. What is inspiration or inspirational to you? How do you live an inspired life?
Harry Fish, the man with whom I’ve shared a life for 35 years, is my inspiration. He’s wise, sensible, fair, honest, kind, trustworthy, and loving. I want to be like him when I grow up.
10. What advice would you give to a young writer?
Join a critique group. You can learn a lot from having your work reviewed by other writers you admire. It can be even more valuable, though, to review and critique others who are on your own level. Flaws in their writing that jump out at you may be similar to what you yourself are doing without realizing it. By the same token, you’ll see what works well.
11. What advice would you give a creative person thinking of coming to La Muse?
Whatever kind of everyday work obligations you want to get away from, don’t bring any of them with you. Trust me, they’ll spoil the sense of freedom you need in order to focus on your own creative project.
12. As a returnee, what do you like best about La Muse?
My answer has to be John and Kerry, because they make everything else possible. Specifically, I love how they’ve revived the old manor house with its valley view; I love the bedrooms with their tall windows, and the communal kitchen where someone’s always making something; I love Labastide’s winding roads and forest trails; I love being able to speak French when I go to town and not having a telephone and feeling very much away from it all; I love getting to know the invariably terrific fellow Musers. Oh, and I love John’s knowhow about social media, and I love Kerry’s knits, and . . .
