PHOTOS

Creme de la Crime Retreat 2007

Much is often said about critique groups, their value or their lack thereof. I happen to believe in them and I think the group I belong to is one of the best around. We started the group after some of us met in a writing class at The Loft in Minneapolis.

That was about fifteen years ago and we've been meeting weekly (mostly) ever since. Shortly after we formed the group we instituted semi-annual retreats. Each year, one of them involves getting out of town for an intensive weekend of reading and critiquing our work. Three members are published authors and one more will join the published ranks in 2008.

This year we returned to a delightful small town in southeastern Minnesota called Lanesboro, to a very nice residence called The Cottage Inn. Small, homey, accommodating. They serve good breakfasts. There are a number of very nice restaurants in town along with other facilities even though Lanesboro has a population of less than 1,000. It lies astraddle the Root River with many associated biking and hiking trails. This part of Minnesota is called the Driftless Area because it is unglaciated.

That weekend was the annual Rhubarb Festival with its attendant Rhubarb Olympics. "The Prairie Home Companion" was also in town. Here are a bunch of pictures of us at work, and the town itself. Note the Commonweal Theater, a professional acting company which gave us a rollicking staging of an off-Broadway play, "The Murder of Irma Vep."

Our restaurant choice is the tall stone building at the left
Busy Sunday morning
Busy Saturday
Main street, Lanesboro
The Cottage Inn
Sunday: the head table
A side street in Lanesboro
Garrison Keillor is down there somewhere
Nitelife in Lanesboro
Night falls on the city
Commonweal theater at intermission
Authors at work
I did what?
She's not crying
Michael
Jean
Tim

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