About the Getaway
Success Stories

Dec. 2011 Update
Novelist Michelle Cameron, our first featured Success Story, recently told her fans the Getaway has changed her life again. She wrote,

I facilitated 'Beginning Your Novel' [at the 2011 Winter Getaway] and was blessed with an amazing group of aspiring novelists. And, in the way it always has, the Getaway appears to have changed my life - again. I was so euphoric by the time I traveled home that I decided that I needed to find a way to teach writing.

She hasn't wasted any time--last spring Michelle was hired as the first Associate Teacher for The Writers Circle and has since been promoted to become their first Associate Director. She truly has centered he life around writing, working on her own and teaching. Congrats, Michelle!

Michelle is leading the Beginning Your Novel workshop.
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Michelle Cameron, a long-time Getaway participant, talks about the book deal she got after attending our "Finishing Your Novel" workshop.

Cameron shares experience with book publishing

BY LISA KINTISH
Reprinted from Parsippany Life, August 06, 2008

Michelle Cameron (pictured right)) has accomplished what some can only dream of doing; she has published a book with a major publishing house, Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Slated for release next fall, The Fruit of Her Hands: the story of Shira of Ashkenaz is set in Europe during the Middle Ages and tells of the lives of a Jewish family through the eyes of Shira, the wife of one of Europe's most prestigious rabbis. Even more interesting, it is based on Cameron's ancestor from the 13th-century, Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg.

This not the first foray into the publishing world for Cameron, an employee with the Parsippany-based Interactive Media Associates. Her previous book, "In the Shadow of the Globe," is set during the time of William Shakespeare. Parsippany Life interviewed Cameron to learn more about her experiences writing and publishing.

PL: What is your writing process like and how do you manage to do it along with family and work?
MC: I'm fortunate that I'm able to tune out so much of the world around me when I write. I remember the days when I used to take a laptop along while my son took karate lessons. But it's difficult to find time when you're raising a family and working 40-plus hours a week.

Then, as I was struggling to find time to complete the first draft of this novel, something amazing happened. I attended the 2006 Poetry & Prose Getaway in Cape May, taking a workshop called "Finishing Your Novel." The workshop leader, young adult novelist Carol Plum-Ucci, challenged all of us: "what's stopping you?" My answer was time, and I enumerated everything I was juggling - two sons in high school, one about to embark on his college search, a full-time job, a part-time teaching position… by the time I was finished, my fellow writers agreed that there was no solution.

But Carol refused to accept that. She looked at me and asked: "How early can you get up?"
I went home and set my alarm clock for 4:30 AM. It was hard at first - but got easier as I discovered this spectacular little slice of silent time. No phones ringing, no one yelling or asking me to find something. It was heaven - and my novel just flew.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

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