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Your Writing Year Begins Here:

A Cozy Virtual Retreat for Sustainable Success with Julie Artz and Emily Colin

January 23-25, 2026 via Zoom

 

A Cozy Virtual Weekend Writing Retreat

(via Zoom!)

Draft half-finished? Deep in revision? Not sure what to do next? Afraid to even open the document? We welcome you exactly where you are. Join authors and book coaches Julie Artz & Emily Colin for a warm virtual retreat with writing sprints, bite-sized lessons, and a sustainable 2026 plan to finish your book.

Join the waitlist!

Start Your Writing Year with Intention 

 

You don’t need another resolution—you need a gentle, realistic way to keep showing up for your story. Over three cozy winter days, you’ll gather online with a group of writers who are just like you: some stalled, some drafting steadily, some knee-deep in revision, all determined not to give up this year. You’ll be encouraged in a judgment-free zone and leave feeling clear, energized, and supported.

Whether your goal is to finally finish a messy first draft, revise with purpose, or simply reconnect with your story, this retreat gives you the structure and community to begin 2026 on the page instead of just in your head.

Meet your retreat facultyđź‘‹

Emily Colin and Julie Artz will be there every day of the retreat, to answer your questions, give you personal feedback on your work, help you overcome roadblocks, and much more.

 

They have extensive experience helping authors find the publishing path that’s right for them. Keep reading to learn more about what they've accomplished.

Emily Colin

Author, Editor, and Book Coach

 

Emily Colin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author known for her romantic fiction with supernatural twists. Her debut, The Memory Thief, was a Target Emerging Authors Pick, her romantasy Fate and Fury earned a Foreword Silver INDIES Award, and her YA Seven Sins series has received Gold Moonbeam, Silver IPPY, and North Carolina Indie Author Project Awards. She’s also the editor of two young adult anthologies: Unbound: Stories of Transformation, Love, and Monsters, and Wicked South: Secrets and Lies. 

As an Author Accelerator-certified book coach and Authors Publish instructor, Emily helps authors build sustainable writing practices and bring the books of their dreams to life. She is a former Pitch Wars and Kiss Pitch mentor, and a current Duke Arts Studio mentor. As the former associate director of DREAMS Center for Arts Education and a volunteer organizer for the Cape Fear Book Festival, she believes deeply in the power of the arts to transform lives.

Emily holds a BA from Duke University and an MS from Kansas State. In a previous life, she ran a Coney Island tattoo and piercing contest, worked with dolphins in the Florida Keys, and roamed New York City as a teenage violinist for hire. Emily lives in coastal North Carolina with her family and, when not writing, enjoys chasing her chaotic pets or sipping mochas by the sea.

Julie Artz

Author, Editor, and Book Coach

 

Julie Artz is an author, editor and book coach who empowers writers to slay their doubt demons and get their stories reader-ready.

Over the past decade, Julie has worked with both award-winning and newer authors across the publishing spectrum from Big Five to small and university presses to indie and hybrid. Julie is an Author Accelerator-certified Founding Book Coach and a sought-after speaker and writing instructor. She is a regular contributor to Jane Friedman and Writers Helping Writers, and a regular instructor for AuthorsPublish, IWWG, and more.

She has kept her industry knowledge sharp through her work as a Pitch Wars and Teen Pit mentor and a former SCBWI Regional Advisor (WWA), and through her memberships in The EFA, the WFWA, AWP, and the Authors Guild.

A consummate social and environmental justice minded story geek, Julie lives on an enchanted stream in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband, two strong-willed teenagers (when they’re not off at university!), and two naughty furry familiars.

She’s built a thriving book coaching business based on her values, her editing chops, and her knowledge of story.

 

 

đź’¬ What authors are saying...

 

 

 "Julie helped me take the first draft of my manuscript to a polished, well executed novel that got me an agent and my first book deal.”

Author María José Fitzgerald (Turtles of the Midnight Moon, Knopf, 2023)

 

 

“Julie has an unusual ability to see story from a big-picture perspective that connects the external aspects of setting and plot with the internal ones of character and emotional arc.  That connection strengthens authenticity and helps to make the work more compelling. Her guidance on the intricacies of building a world (and the characters and emotions inhabiting it) is sure to be useful for writers of all genres.”

Author Joni Sensel (A Curse on the Wind and Feeling Fate)

 

 

“I found both teachers [Emily Colin & Julie Artz] so generous with their time, information and feedback. Having carefully completed the assignments, I feel much more grounded in the plot and the characters of this novel I have my heart set on writing. Thank you for making this class available to us. Rated 5 out of 5”

Student Gail S, AuthorsPublish

”Emily’s editorial guidance is remarkable and any writer's work is sure to benefit from her insights.”

Author Margarita Montimore (Oona Out of Order, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, Flatiron Books, 2023) 

 

 

"Emily picked me out of the slush pile of an author mentorship program that she was a mentor in, and immediately had incredible enthusiasm and vision for my book. Not only could she see the changes that would make my characters shine, but she pitched the idea of altering the setting of my story from post-apocalyptic to a fantasy dystopian world.

Ultimately, this insight was the change I needed to get noticed in traditional publishing, and now The Enemy’s Daughter is being published by multiple imprints of Harper Collins (Quill Tree and Harper Fire).”

 

Author Melissa Poett (The Enemy’s Daughter, Harper Collins, summer 2025

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