Writers Retreat

Six young adults are selected for a getaway in rural Ireland, where the focus is on their writing.

Six young adults find out just what it means to have a solid month to look in oneself and observe every flaw, every dark shadow, every cobweb and secret.

Among them is Elisa Cole, who leaves the hospital and goes to Ireland, and is swept away not as much by the countryside as by Kieran.

Kieran Callagher, a native of Ireland, who lost his mother and still doesn't know how to grieve, is forced to begin facing his own shadows when feelings for Elisa get in the way of his detachment.

Then there's Fiona Willoughby, an eccentric and outgoing American with a past steeped in pain; Lucy Dougherty, an Irish girl hiding from the one supposed to love her; Gaspard LeFavre, whose arrogance and wealth hide the bullying and judgment due to his race; and Luciel Kim, a Korean-Irish immigrant who can't take anything seriously, and thus can't win the heart of the girl he loves.

These six are brought together with uncertainty and hope, and over the course of a month long-hidden secrets are unburied, creativity is spurred into artwork, and feelings are jumbled together. At the heart of it all, Elisa and Kieran face down the worst of their internal struggles- only for everything to fall apart harder than before.

But such is the way when you lay your soul bare: it shatters. What happens from there can only be artwork.

~WARNING: This story deals with themes of suicide, sexual abuse, grief, racism, bullying, xenophobia, and more. Please consider this before reading.