A writing retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains will offer time to write and mentoring by the retreat faculty to help writers become successfully published.

Writers often lament not having enough quiet time to write. The first Women Writing in the Redwoods retreat will take place at the Pema Osel Ling Tibetan Buddhist Retreat Center nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains outside of Watsonville, California, Thursday to Sunday, April 3-6, 2014. The retreat will certainly provide time to write in a beautiful, peaceful setting...and it will also offer mentoring by the faculty to help attendees reach their personal writing goals.

Registration includes three nights shared lodging and three breakfasts, lunches and dinners, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, including wine. The fee is $495 until March 15; $525 until the April 1 deadline. Attendance limited to 40 writers. For more information and registration, visit www.sfwriters.org or call Elizabeth Pomada at 415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939415-673-0939.

Attendees at the Women Writing in the Redwoods retreat will hear talks about the craft of writing; getting their books published and making them succeed; and building a career in the new world of writing, marketing and publishing, online and off. They will be part of a community of writers that share their goals.

Writers will receive feedback on their work from other attendees and mentoring from faculty members: former Crown/Random House editor and independent editor Heather Lazare; novelist Donna Levin, author of Get That Novel Finished, who teaches fiction at UC Berkeley Extension; Elizabeth Pomada, Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents; and her partner Michael Larsen, author of How to Get a Literary Agent.

"Now is the best time ever to be a writer," Pomada says. "Writers can reach more readers more easily and make more money from their books than ever." Elizabeth is also the co-director of the San Francisco Writers Conference, the sponsor of this retreat. The SFWC motto is 'A Celebration of Craft, Commerce and Community.' "The retreat will give the writers they chance they need to explore all three and to develop their skills as writers and authors."