Join us for our Fall Colours Writing Retreat in Muskoka

Fall Colours Writing Retreat in Muskoka

Tuesday, Oct 21 – Friday, Oct 24, 2025
Register now to be sure of a spot!
Sherwood Inn on Lake Joseph
1090 Sherwood Road, Port Carling, Ontario, Canada (Map here)

Give yourself four days of writing time – a long weekend of instruction, inspiration and creativity. Award yourself with time away from distractions, with no dishes to do, delicious food at every meal, and with the leisure you need to sit with your feet up and write.

The retreat will feature both instruction and guided writing exercises, plus one-on-one critiquing and coaching from Brian.  You’ll also have lots of time to relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with your creativity. All writing levels welcome. Whether you’re just beginning or have a novel in progress, please join us. 

The setting: Sherwood is an elegant resort started some eighty years ago by Harry Draper, a Toronto lawyer who fell in love with the Muskoka’s. He envisioned Sherwood as a charming estate rather than as a sprawling hotel and wanted guests to feel as if they were staying at a friend’s cottage.  Sherwood Inn, especially the Inn building itself, still maintains that warm, old-Muskoka charm.  

Thomas B. Costain, author of numerous best-selling historical novels, including The Chalice and The Black Rose, was a regular guest, so the Inn has a track record as a good spot for writing. Lawren Harris and George Thomson (brother of Tom Thomson) both painted here, though the century-old pines surrounding the Inn would have been a bit younger then.

Read about a visit it Sherwood Inn, in 1943 and then again in 2023 here.

Rates include accommodation. Rooms are located in the main Inn. Each room includes a queen bed, an en-suite three-piece bathroom, and a desk (for writing).

All meals – Tuesday dinner, Wednesday and Thursday breakfast, lunch and dinner, Friday breakfast and lunch – are provided, as are coffee & snack breaks on Saturday and Sunday. Alcoholic beverages are extra, as are golf and Spa treatments.

Activities included: We’re between seasons – too late for swimming, too early for cross-country skiing – but if we have a warm fall so that the water is not yet too cold, canoes and kayaks will still be available. There are also hiking trails, fat bikes, tennis courts and shuffleboard, and a regular bonfire. Unlike our Algonquin retreats, there is also Internet (alas), so if you must know what’s going on in the world, you can keep up.  We recommend, though, that you relax in one of the many strategically placed Muskoka chairs throughout the property, enjoy the soothing wilderness sounds and let your creative juices flow.

Additional activities: The Inn also features a comfortable licensed lounge and a spa. “True North MVMNT is dedicated to getting you moving towards your happiest and healthiest self! We provide professional Massage Therapy and Esthetic services for all ages and backgrounds.” Spa treatments are not included in the package, but if you're interested, you should certainly book an appointment (here).  

There are various attractions in the area, including the Muskoka Lakes (Cranberry) Farm and Winery, just 8 minutes down the road, cruises out of Port Carling, weather permitting, plus an outstanding golf course that will still be open, depending on the weather. (Something of a theme here.)  

Check-in on Tuesday is 4 p.m. Our first writing get-together will be at 5 p.m. Check-out on Friday is at 11:30 a.m. Followed by lunch. Feel free to arrive early – your room may well be ready – and in any case, before 4 p.m. on Tuesday and after lunch on Friday, you're welcome to use the resort's facilities. 

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Saskatoon, to Toronto, to Saint John. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.

Read more about Sherwood Inn and about previous retreats at Sherwood, Arowhon, and The Briars here {and scroll down}.

Fees: 

Including both the writing retreat and accommodation, meals, coffee & snack service, and all resort amenities: $1513.27, plus 13% hst for the three nights.

All fees include tips.

Not included in any quoted prices: alcoholic drinks, spa services, golf, or other extras (tipping for these is also extra).

Bring a (non-participating) significant other along for the weekend to share your Inn room for an additional $152.21 plus hst per night ($172 per night) (includes accommodation, meals and all resort amenities, but not the writing part of the retreat or our coffee breaks). 

Book early – space is limited! 

For more information or to register, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Note: Bookings for accommodations for this retreat must be done through Brian (unlike our retreats in Algonquin, where you book your accommodations through the resort). Participants may be able to tack on additional nights at the resort before or after the retreat; these are offered at a special discounted rate. Additional nights need to be booked directly with the resort, after booking your space in the workshop.

Who can attend the retreat?

Everyone interested in developing their writing skills is welcome to attend, whether you're aspiring writer or an accomplished author or simply enjoy writing as a hobby. There is no requirement for you to have been previously published or even to have an intention to publish.

Should I bring my work in progress?

Yes! If you have an on-going writing project, bring it with you. Bring more than you expect to get to; you'll have lots of time for writing. Besides, you may want to switch projects or share a project that’s just started or one that’s all done, except for reading it to a small, appreciative audience. If you’re not currently working on anything, don’t worry, we’ll get you writing.

Should I bring my laptop?

Yes! Unless you only work on paper. Even better, bring both – your laptop and your writing pad. No sense being short of essential supplies.

I'm a poet / playwright / other writer. Is this retreat for me?

The retreat is open to anyone who enjoys writing. Instruction will focus on narrative writing; i.e., stories, whether fiction or memoir. But if you’re an essayist or poet or whatever, you’re entirely welcome.

Can you cater to specific dietary requirements?

Yes! But please let me know ASAP. The resort would like those sorts of details a month in advance. 

I want to stay longer or arrive early. Is that possible?

If you want to arrive early or stay longer, that’s fine. You’ll book the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night with Brian, and arrange any additional nights with the resort; just make sure they know you’re with Brian Henry’s writing group – they’ve got a good rate for you.

Is there cell phone reception and WIFI?

Yes.

How about alcohol?

The resort serves alcohol with meals and has a licensed lounge. Guests are also welcome to bring their own wine, beer or whatever for consumption in their room. (Though do note that Hemingway’s advice to write drunk, mostly produces drivel.)

Can I use the spa at the resort or play a round of golf?

Yes, you can certainly book a spa treatment, though that’s extra, and you book these directly with the resort {not through Brian}. And just before you go up, you can check with the resort whether golf courses in the area will be open, but even though we’re headed for an early spring, I doubt it.

Can I bring my spouse (or partner or friend)?

If you want to share your room with a partner, they’re very welcome. Just let your partner know you’ll be spending most of your time writing, (though you will have some free time every day). Inn rooms each have one queen bed. If you want a king bed, upgrade to a room in the Maplewood, a separate building a short walk from the inn. If you’re interested in this upgrade, email me.

For more information or to register, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca  

***

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.

You're invited to a a book launch for Kristy's new novel: Touching Grass

Hi, Brian.

I'm excited to announce the launch of my second book for kids ages 8–12! You might remember this one – I came up with the concept at one of your writing retreats and our Friday Intensive class reviewed parts of it.

My book launch will be held in Saskatoon on Tuesday, September 9 at 7pm at the Indigo 8^th street location. I'm looking at ways to livestream it and will post those details on my socials once they are available. 

The book will be released on the same date wherever books are sold. Anyone interested can preorder a copy here. 

All the best,

Kristy

Note: If you’re interested in joining us for a writers’ retreat, we have one coming up in Muskoka in time to enjoy the fall colours. Details here.  

For details of upcoming Intensive writing classes see here.

Touching Grass by Kristy Jackson
  illustrated by Rhael Mcgregor

From the author of Mortified (shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and a finalist for the Silver Birch Award!), Touching Grass is a funny, heartfelt middle-grade novel about a young gamer who is sent to “touch grass” at a Dene First Nation culture camp

Tristen would do anything to avoid going outside. The bugs sting, the snakes are poisonous, the heat will kill you if the cold doesn’t, and bodies of water? Forget it. Tristen likes it best indoors, deep in his online world where it’s safe, with his online friends. Something he has a hard time with IRL.

But Tristen is in trouble at school again, and the principal is threatening to kick him out of this third school in two years. His mom believes the answer is to get Tristen off the games and in touch with nature and his Dene roots. This means Tristen has to spend a week to a culture camp in the wilderness. It’s his worst nightmare!

And at first it is a nightmare – no internet, no phone reception, no Bepsi! – and Tristen has no idea how to do any of the skills the other kids seem to do easily. But soon, with some surprising new friends and a few patient teachers, and a little help from technology, Tristen begins to think he might be able to hack this nature stuff after all.

“Reminiscent of Ruby Slipperjack's Little Voice and Lee Maracle's Will's Garden, Touching Grass is a story readers are going to love. If you're a fan of the Joey Pigza series, you'll feel right at home with Tristen with his innocent heart and sizzling energy. I loved every part of his journey. Wow. What a fun read.” –Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed and Beast.

Rhael and Kristy

Kristy Jackson is the author of the Governor General's Award-shortlisted middle-grade novel Mortified. Though Quick Brown Fox reads may know her best from our Friday morning classes. Kristy’s work draws inspiration from her Cree and German background and her long list of embarrassing moments. 

Kristy is the mother of two boys and a communications professional who has spent many years working for Dene communities. Kristy runs a program that delivers books to children in seven remote Indigenous communities in Canada and volunteers for a non-profit dedicated to improving literacy in her community.

Rhael McGregor is a Métis and two-spirit/queer comic artist based in Winnipeg. Since 2018, Rhael has been passionately telling stories in which they hope all readers can see themselves. Their work includes illustrations and stories published by Iron Circus Comics, Quindrie Press, and HighWater Press, along with several self-published works. Rhael McGregor loves winter, sweet treats, and doing beadwork for family and friends.

***

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

See more books by your fellow authors here (and scroll down).

And remember, you can pre-order Touching Grass here.

Pre-orders are important! They…

Tell publishers people are excited about this book

Build buzz among booksellers

Push the book higher in retailer algorithms, making the book more likely to get stocked in stores

Set the book up for post-publication, with strong initial sales drawing attention from readers, reviewers, booksellers, and publishers.

Help the authors you love – order their books even before they come out!  

Join us for “How to Get Published” with Marie Lamba of the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency

Werewolf Hamlet by Kerry Madden-Lunsford
represented by Marie Lamba

“How to Get Published”

With literary agent Marie Lamba of the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency 

Sunday, September 7, 2025
1:15 – 5:00 p.m. Toronto time
Offered online and accessible wherever there's Internet

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this workshop is for you. We’ll focus on the process of submitting to an agent or publisher, and show you exactly how to write a query letter that will get a “yes.” Bring all your questions. Come and get ready to be published!

Special Option: Participants are invited to prepare a draft of a query letter you might use to interest an agent or publisher in your book. You don't need to prepare anything, but if you like, email me a draft of your query prior to our workshop. Marie and I will critique several queries, perhaps half a dozen, so everyone can see what works, what doesn’t and how to improve your query. Do remember that agents come to these events wanting to hear what you’ve got. ~Brian

Guest speaker Marie Lamba is a senior literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency (JDLA), a New York City–based full-service literary agency founded in 2001 and named one of the top 25 literary agencies in the country by Writer's Digest.

The seven agents at JDLA represent children’s literature for all ages – picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels – and also represent high-quality adult fiction and nonfiction in a wide range of genres. JDLA is also proud to represent illustrators, as well as screenwriters for both television and film. For more on the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, see here.  

Besides being a literary agent who represents both fiction and nonfiction for adults and for children, Marie is herself an author. To date, she’s published five books: the young adult novels What I Meant...  (Random House), Over My Head, and Drawn, and the picture books A Day So Gray  (Clarion) and Green, Green  (Farrar Straus Giroux). 

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, taught creative writing at Ryerson University, and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Saskatoon to Toronto to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.  

See reviews of and works inspired by Brian's classes, workshops, and retreats here.

Fee: $45.13 + 13% hst = $51 paid in advance by mail or Interac

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here. 

Note: To get new posting delivered to your Inbox as they go up, go to the Quick Brown Fox Substack and subscribe: https://brian999.substack.com/

“The last time I saw my mother” by Nadja Halilbegovich

The last time I saw my mother, she flew thousands of miles to visit me. We had been living on separate continents for half of my life — ever since I escaped the war in my native Bosnia at 16. We loved each other fiercely, but our short visits could not make up for the time and distance always tugging at our relationship. She died a few months later, from complications of heart surgery.

In the decade since her passing, I have held onto the good memories. I have fantasized about what could have been had she lived and had we made more memories. I have also replayed our hurts and misunderstandings, changing my behaviour and softening her reactions to reclaim the points of connection we had missed — if only in my imaginings.

In the past five years, I have discovered a real love for cooking. And yet, with it came the disappointment that it had not happened sooner, while she was still here.

Over time, my grief has morphed into brief moments of fantasy where I taste the soup I have just finished seasoning and imagine passing a spoonful to my mother who nods and licks her lips. Or when I make the cherry cobbler — the one it took a dozen tries to get as close to hers as I could without a recipe — and take it out of the oven while it is still bubbling. I conjure her next to me, proud as anything.

In my do-over fantasies, I am more patient and present than I was in reality. On her last visit, we went to an international foods store with a long list of groceries to make a Bosnian feast. I darted to the Balkan section, but my mother paused in front of a display of tropical fruit. Fixated on our mile-long list, I ignored her childlike wonder as she took in the unfamiliar shapes and textures and told her to hurry. She looked so wounded and gave me the silent treatment for the rest of the shopping trip.

Now every time I pass by exotic fruit, I feel a stab of regret for missing out on what could have been a lovely memory of picking fruit together and tasting it for the first time.

I have this framed picture of her holding me as a baby. She is so young and glowing. I am barely a few weeks old. I have not yet done or accomplished anything, but she is looking at me with such pride as if I am already everything I need to be. 

I have rarely seen that look in my adulthood and it stings a little knowing that I might have caused her some hurt or disappointment simply by choosing the life I am living.

After she died, my father brought me a suitcase of her belongings. Although most of her clothes fit me, they somehow feel wrong on my body. When I look in the mirror, I keep seeing my mother wearing them at various occasions in my childhood and the memories make me teary. 

And yet, I feel a certain paralysis at the mere thought of donating. 

So they wait. They wait for my sorrow to feel less heavy. They wait for something.

The same goes for her jewelry which I keep in small containers. Every once in a while, I choose one box to crack open just long enough to get a whiff of her scent.

Strangely, the possession that connects me to her the most is a pink shirt she mended on her last visit. Part of the hem had fallen and although I knew how to fix it, I asked her to sew it by hand, like she did when I was a child. I have not worn it since fearing the stitches would come out from wearing and washing.

Every few months, I run my fingers across the hem she fixed. I caress each stitch starting with the small knots on either end. The loops of pink thread, loose and fragile, are the undoubtable proof of her love and care for me. No matter any hurt or disappointment we had over the years, her love feels unbreakable.

In an effort to leave something for the future, I stop myself from counting the stitches, even though I really want to. I do this so I always have something of my mother to look forward to. It may seem silly, but in this way, I feel I can stave off the finality of her death a little longer.

In the ocean of lasts — the last hug, the last kiss, the last email, the last visit — I cling to anything I can to keep her here with me, whether through a memory, a fantasy, or some uncounted stitches of pale pink. 

Nadja Halilbegovich is the author of My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary (from Kids Can Press here). She is a writer and public speaker and lives in Toronto.

This essay was originally published in the Toronto Star for Mother’s Day.

***

See Brian Henry's upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

Read more short stories, essays, and poems by your fellow writers here (and scroll down).

 

 

You're invited to “Intensive Creative Writing”

Offered online at 3 different times:

Tuesday evenings online 6:30 – 9:00
First readings emailed Sept 9.
Classes: Sept 16 – Dec 16. No class Sept 23 Or Oct 21.

Wednesday afternoons online 12:30 – 3:00
First readings emailed Sept 10
Classes: Sept 17 – Dec 17. No class Sept 24, Oct 1, or Oct 22.

Friday mornings online 10:00 – 12:30
First readings emailed Sept 11
Classes: Sept 19 – Dec 5 (or to Dec 12 if the course fills up). No class Sept 26 or Oct 24.

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who are working on their own writing projects. You’ll be asked to bring in several pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand-alone pieces, such as short stories or essays. You bring whatever you want to work on. 

Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Fee: $292.04 + hst = $330

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University (now called Toronto Metropolitan University) and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read pieces about ~ or inspired by ~ Brian's retreats, courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

Note: To get new posting delivered to your Inbox as they go up, go to the Quick Brown Fox Substack and subscribe: https://brian999.substack.com/