You can’t beat having good friends. Two of my reliables, Friend A and Friend B, invited me to Donegal for the weekend. They said I needed a wee break. Aw, they’re just lovely…so they are. When I told them I couldn’t afford to take the time off from my writing they were very understanding, and offered to spend the weekend helping me.

Friend A reads a lot so I thought maybe it was time to allow her to beta read some of my chapters. Friend B is good at conniving—all in the name of fiction of course— and figuring things out, so yes, all in all I thought it would be a great idea. 

I spent the week before our trip organising my work and planning out our schedule, so that we’d also have some fun time. Three days before departure, friend A text me and said she forgot that she was going to Portugal on that weekend. I was so stunned that I couldn’t breathe for at least thirty seconds. I replied ok. 

I woke up during the night and re-read her message. Yes….it did say that she couldn’t come to Donegal because she ‘forgot’ she was booked into Portugal! I didn’t sleep well that night. I had to go now and re-schedule everything. I couldn’t ask Friend B to beta read my chapters as well as plot and scheme for me. Gosh no, she wouldn’t be able for all that. (She naps a lot you see.) 

The next day I got everything re-organised, and I felt a lot more positive. Two of us will be much better than one anyway. Three’s a crowd.

Friend B text me. ‘Raincheck on the weekend away. I have to fly to London I’m afraid.’  I won’t tell you what I wrote because I deleted it and didn’t send it. Well…that’s that! A writing retreat it will be. Just me on my own with nobody to interrupt me with their babbling, or trying to ply me with alcohol or greasy fast food full of MSG…or whatever they call that stuff in the Chinese take-away. 

I told Friend A and Friend B that I was glad they weren’t coming because I’d have peace without them. It was gonna be brilliant. Sure they pretended they were all delighted for me. That’s the girl…Good on ya…More power to ya.

I ended up having a very productive weekend actually. No distractions what-so-ever during the day so my word count was twice as much as it usually is. All I had to do was eat and write for three days. 

But I was awfully lonely in the evenings. I was staying in a guest house in a very secluded area, and I think I was the only guest. If it had been a hotel, I could have sat in the lobby in the evenings people watching or something. 

So I came up with a great idea. I made dummies of Friend A and Friend B.

It was absolutely marvelous because I sat telling them everything about myself and my book…and all the things I could never tell them before. Like my skeletons in my closet, and my guilty pleasures, one or two teenage fantasies that I still cling to. And the best thing about it was, Friend A didn’t interrupt me like she always does, and Friend B didn’t fall asleep, like she always does. Wide awake! And sure who needs feedback anyway?

I’m dumping Friend A and Friend B—the real life ones—because I just found out that they went to Amsterdam without me. They didn’t even ask me if I had a passport!