the retreats

The Shadows and Secrets Retreats are 5-day writing retreats for mystery, thriller, suspense, and horror authors who are serious about their work and looking for transformation on their work-in-progress.

Application for the retreats are now
open for 2025.

the Details for Salem, September 2025

  • When: September 17-21, 2025 in Salem, Massachusetts.

  • Arrival (at the hotel) by 4pm on Wednesday, September 17, 2025.

  • Depart (the hotel) anytime after 1pm on Sunday, September 21, 2025. 

  • Where: The Hawthorne Hotel: 18 Washington Square W, Salem, MA 01970. Rumored to be one of the most haunted hotels in America.

  • What/Who: A 5-day writing retreat (including departure and arrival days) for serious mystery, thriller, and suspense authors who:

    • Are not new to writing. You have a solid grasp of scene and story structure.

    • May or may not have a full manuscript completed, but you know you have a plot or pacing or suspense or twist/reveal problem.  You have a strong vision but also some critical story questions to be answered. You also want some focused time to plan out your novel.

    • Adult and YA welcome. As we’ll be focused on adult fiction, if you’re writing a kid-lit or MG novel, this may not be the best fit.

    • Sub-and cross-genres welcome (i.e. historial, Sci-Fi, fantasy, romance, etc.) As long as your story has strong mystery, thriller, or suspense elements, this will be a useful retreat.

  • Retreat Goal: 

    • With a focus on brainstorming solutions instead of rewriting from the ground up, the goal is for you to walk away from this retreat with a completed, revised or planned-from-scratch outline - with three twists.

    • We'll be working on deep-dives into your characters, twist brainstorming, and many other exercises designed to help you get unblocked and on your way as you write forward. You’ll also make a few new writer friends!

  • Limit: 12 writers. Applications opened in February 2025 (apply here) and include a writing sample. We’ll be reviewing and accepting wonderful humans on a rolling basis. The application period will close on July 15 or when we fill up, whatever happens first.

  • Good to Knows:

    • No jerks :-) 

    • If you don’t drink, that’s AOK. Just know there will be alcohol at meals and cocktail hours.

    • Serious writers only. This means you’re willing to put in the work. There will be built-in down time, but we’re aiming to get through A LOT in the three full days we have together. This will suck if you’re not all that into writing and craft. 

    • It’s a haunted hotel. If this freaks you out, this might not be the best retreat. 

  • What to Expect / Agenda:

    • 1 Month Before: Each attendee has a 1 hour private coaching session with review of their Story Workbook to establish writer’s vision and goals for the retreat.

    • Day 1 - September 17: Arrive; welcome dinner

    • Days 2-4 - September 18-20: Deep dive sessions into craft; mini-group coaching sessions; group dinners, spooky local walking tour, and ample free time for writing

      • Breakfast 7:30-8:30 AM (included)

      • Mornings: whole group deep-dive coaching, including different craft-focused topics, such as ideating twists, pacing, suspense, voice, character development, plotting

      • Lunch 12-1 PM (included)

      • Early afternoon 1-2:30: writing/alone time

      • Late afternoon 3-5: mini-group coaching and pre-assigned 1:1 time with the coaches

      • 5:30-6:30: Happy Hour

      • Dinner 7 PM (Friday dinner is included, other nights not included, group dining encouraged but not required.)

    • Day 5 - September 21: Farewell group brunch, departure (*lunch to-go will be provided as well!)

    • 1 Month After: Each attendee has a 1 hour private coaching session to follow up on retreat goals and progress

    • Lodging: Each retreat participant will have their own room with en suite bathroom. The Hawthorne is a historic hotel. Shadows & Secrets reserves a room block and will share room type requests with the hotel (two queens vs. king, etc.) but cannot guarantee final type.

  • Investment: $4,500 USD

    • What’s included: Hotel room rate + taxes. All breakfast/lunches/brunches. Dinners on nights 1 and 3. This is a coaching-intensive, masterclass structured retreat. All pre-, during, and post-retreat coaching is included in this investment, as described above.

    • What’s not included: Your travel costs to/from the retreat. Dinners on nights 2 and 4. Any extra costs you might incur from the hotel, such as mini-bar, extra beverages, etc.

Don’t take our word for it….

Retreat Attendees say:

It was great to interact with both the coaches and the other attendees. Great insight and ideas with a hefty dose of positivity. Expect to come away from the retreat with new twists and a leveled-up manuscript.

I also wasn’t surprised, knowing Sam and Kerry, but I appreciated the level of organization and communication.

—Julie Hastrup
@_juliehastrup

Hard to put my finger on the most valuable thing: I loved the pre-planning workbook, the hot-seat coaching, the dinners, and reading from our work. It's a great place to get some 2:1 coaching by people who really know the industry and MTS.

I also learned not to laugh at how helpful planning can be! I'm still shocked at helpful it is to go back to my outline for guidance & support. I've changed a thing or two, which demonstrates that I still have flexibility in my approach, but knowing where I am going is really wonderful.

—Linda Krug
@lkrug

Save the date! shadows 2025 is happening september 17-21, 2025!

Applications are now open for 2025!

Get on the list!

Join our exclusive Shadows and Secrets email list to be the first to learn about free related writing webinars and deconstruction of a few of our favorite well-known thrillers to understand how they tick.