by Kim Davis (Madville’s director)

You may recall, we briefly tried to schedule a writing retreat in Uncertain, Texas, but cancelled due to uncertainty about travel. Well, guys, I went on Madville’s proposed writing retreat to Caddo Lake and Uncertain, Texas, by myself, and it was wonderful. Sorry y’all missed it. You would have loved Spatterdock Guesthouses and Caddo Lake generally. I ate a lot of amazing fish, and even enjoyed an art opening in Marshall, Texas, with work by famous local artists and capped the experience off with a kayaking adventure among the towering cypress trees.

It was hot, but that did NOT affect my writing time, which was largely spent indoors with air conditioning.

Of course, I’m a native Texan and I’m used to it. We originally chose this time of year because two of our instructors are professors, and we were working around their schedules. Also, it’s the off-season at Caddo Lake, and we could book ALL the cabins at Spatterdock guest houses. And what a magical spot! Getting there is a bit challenging, however, and that was part of the reason we chose not to do the workshop. We were afraid we would not have much attendance specifically because Uncertain, Texas, is off the beaten track. The cell service was nearly nonexistent, and the wifi connection was poor.

I had two small panic attacks while I was there. The first occurred on Thursday evening, when I opened my computer to begin work on the novel I had gone there to finish. The wifi was so poor, I was afraid I couldn’t open my cloud documents. It took about forty-five minutes to get to the three word documents I needed. But I got there in the end, and work commenced with the most wonderful chorus of creatures singing in the background.

The second panic attack came on the final evening after dinner when my friends had gone and I was alone in the parking lot of the restaurant where we ate after our kayaking adventure. My phone wouldn’t connect to the internet and I wasn’t sure I could find my way back to my cabin… I wandered around lost for a little while, but eventually found it!

It is amazing what you can accomplish without distractions

My goal was to dust off a novel I started in November 2020, for NaNoWriMo. I didn’t write much new material, though I did write four new chapters before going on this trip. The first draft of the novel was fifty thousand words. I wrote that in 2020, then stuck it in a drawer. I tinkered with it a bit in the intervening years, so I had a second and third draft as well as lots of notes. Then in about April this year, I wrote four new chapters and a revised outline. So, my intention on this trip was to organize all those disparate pieces into a coherent draft.

I read and wrote all except mealtimes for two and-a-half days, and I nearly finished. I have a couple of chapters to add at the end, to make the current draft into a coherent whole novel. I feel really good about my progress. (More details to come as I start looking for an agent and/or publisher!)

But I didn’t go to Caddo Lake to sit inside and write for the entire time

It’s really important for me to point out that I have a good friend from Karnack, Texas, (very near Uncertain), or I would never have known about Caddo Lake or Spatterdock Guesthouses. His name is John Fortune, and he made sure I was well fed while I was there. John is a photographer and a walking encyclopedia, so I saw so much natural beauty and had glimpses of the history of the place I would never have had if John hadn’t driven me around and invited me into his world. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here is a gallery with captions to give some idea of the rich history of Northeast Harrison County, Texas. (John contributed to a book on the subject, The Northeast Corner of Harrison County, Texas. It is out of stock on Amazon, but I know John has copies if you want one… It really is an enclycopedia, 435 pages on 8 1/2″ X 11″ stock.)