Romance Writers Road Trip: 3 Zany Women on a Gray Day

This week was all about getting away from it all to get some writing done, and what better place to go than upstate New York? After some arm twisting, Jean agreed to host our mini retreat at her summer house in the Catskills. The summer season is over for most folks so for the last few days, Jean, myself and our good friend, Rose C. Carole pretty much had the small community all to ourselves--at least in regards to humans. We spent a lot of time out on the deck watching the birds stock up before winter sets in.

Those are yellow finches, which happen to be the state bird of New Jersey. Since Rose and I both live in New Jersey it was a rare treat to see the little guys since they seem to have all moved north!

Don't get me wrong, we did get some work done. We spent time talking about the publishing industry, shared marketing info and bounced ideas off each other when we weren't laughing our heads off. We might have had a drink or two and ate a few too many snacks, but what's a retreat if you can't break a few rules?

Speaking of...

There might or might not have been a tomato heist at the community garden. Just because these two were tiptoeing around after dark with their cell phone flashlights doesn't mean they're responsible for any missing tomatoes.

All work and no play leads to writer's block. To keep that from happening, we picked a dreary, dismal, dare I say, gray, day and took off in search of literary inspiration. Our first stop was the Zane Grey Museum.

To get there, we had to cross what is probably the most unique bridge I've ever seen. The Roebling Bridge was originally constructed as part of the Delaware and Hudson canal. Yes, it was a water passage that allowed ore boats being tugged along the canal to cross the Delaware River. It's now a one-lane auto bridge.

The Zane Grey Museum is housed in this lovely structure which was home to Zane and his family for many years and in which he wrote many of his most famous works. An avid fisherman and outdoorsman, he had only to walk out his front door to fish the Delaware river.

The museum, though small, proved fascinating. We spent a good deal of time there learning about Zane's life.

Did you know...?

1. Zane Grey played baseball. He went to the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship and later played minor league baseball on several teams, including the 1898 New Jersey Colts.

2. He was a dentist. He earned his degree at U. of Penn thanks to that baseball scholarship. He opened his practice in New York City in 1896. He wrote in the evenings and played baseball when he could.

3. His first name was Pearl. I couldn't find any information regarding where the name came from. If you know, I'd love to hear the story!

4. Television shows, The Lone Ranger and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon were adaptations of Zane Grey novels.

5. Though not critically acclaimed, his books sold an estimated 17 million copies during his lifetime and many remain in print to this day.

As romance writers, we loved seeing the recreation of the study in which Zane wrote many of his most famous works, including Riders of the Purple Sage.

We could have stayed at the museum all day, but we had another stop in mind, so off we went to Grey Towers (do you sense a theme here?) in Milford, PA.

Because we'd spent so much time at our first stop, we missed the 'on the hour' tour of the house but we took the time to see some of the spectacular grounds, vowing to come back again for a look inside the place!