THE SAN GINESE RESIDENCY 2024

Spend a week in the beautiful Tuscan Countryside writing, painting, sharing meals with other artists, and wandering the byways of the Via Francigena ancient pilgrim’s road to Rome.

This is a self-directed residency, meaning you come with the creative project you wish to work on. If it involves plein air painting, the owners and I will help you figure out where you can work and how to set up. If you need to be driven closer to the spot you want to paint, we will arrange it. We will also plan painting excursions to places like the Lucca aqueduct weather permitting.

Early in the residency (Sunday or Monday), we will talk through everyone’s work plans and figure out how to organize and coordinate activities in support of the experience.

For artists and anyone interested drawing inspiration the landscape, we will take long daily walks in different directions weather permitting. There is a nearby variant of the Via Francigena (a pilgrim road to Rome that starts in Canterbury similar to the better-known Camino di Santiago in Spain.) that passes through the countryside nearby.

If folks want to get away once or twice, there are some possible outside excursions that the owners will take us on. These are not tourist excursions. There will be no guide. But a visit to nearby  Lucca, with it’s ancient wall that you can walk or bike all the way around, or Pietrasanta, an artisan town in Carrara, or San Andrea di Compito, called the Village of Camellias, might provide real inspiration for some. A public beach is a little over a half-hour a day, and so it could also be possible to go there for a visit. We would not be spending a whole day at the beach, as this is not really a tourism experience week, but I for one am a big fan of novel input for my imagination, and wanted that to be a part of this residency.

The residency fee of $780* includes:

• Seven days/6 nights accommodation at the Locanda San Ginese outside Lucca in Tuscany. The residency books the entire B&B.

• Continental breakfast

• Pick up and drop off to and from add the airport (Pisa) or train station (Viareggio or Lucca).

• Welcome pizza dinner Sunday

• Grocery shopping trips as needed

• Full use of the residency kitchen

• Local excursions depending on weather and participant interest could include visits to the walled city of Lucca, the artisan town of Pietrasanta, the Via Francigena, and other points of artistic interest.

• Multiple weeks can be strung together and include an extra night at no extra cost.

Email me for further details and with any questions you may have. If you have selected the dates you wish to attend, let me know and I will reserve them until you have enough information to make a decision and place a deposit.

*The months of July and August are high season here in Tuscany carry a surcharge of $65 per week of residency.

For more information email for details including available dates and fees contact me.

 Workshops offered in

•SCREENWRITING

The beauty of a screenplay is that you don't have to explain anything. You keep the rules of the game as back story in your head, and then you play with abandon. 

•PLAYWRITING

The playwright, unlike the screenwriter, controls time. And in comedy, timing is everything.

•FICTION

Plot is the means but character is the purpose. Don't get them reversed or nobody will care about your story, no matter how well-crafted.

NOTE: If you want to know my bona fides,  I teach classes for areas in which I have won awards. Not that being able to write is the same thing as to be able to teach. But I've also received multiple teaching awards. 

Past bookings include:

•     Olympic College, Bremerton, WA

•     City of Bremerton, WA

•     19 Tory Street, Wellington, NZ

•     Borrego Springs Film Festival, Borrego Springs, CA

•     Greater Los Angeles Association of Legal Administrators, Los Angeles, CA

•     Broad Humor Film Festival, Venice Beach, CA

•     WisCon, Madison, WI

•     George Washington University, Washington, DC

•     Kyobo Bookstores, Seoul, South Korea

•     Donna Discover, Lucca, Italy

Looking for someone to create a custom workshop? 

Laughter from Tears

I was 28 and heartbroken. I lamented to my friend, Roberta, that I would miss his sense of humor, how he made me laugh. I sighed over the sad reality that I was not funny at all. Roberta started crowing one of those high, giddy arpeggios you hear when someone is tickled to the bone. She turned to me and said, "Susan, you are the funniest people I know."  This surprised me no end. I thought I was intellectual, serious, and a bit on the drippy, sentimental side. Telling Roberta this only made her laugh louder. 

Until that day, it hadn't occurred to me that I might be funny, even though I had toured as a clown in a small circus. I had been a silent, sad clown, after all. And there I was, making those same sad clown eyes at Roberta while she laughed with glee. I have tried to live up to that day, to transform my ponderous writing into farce. It turns out they were not so far apart. I slowly found my voice, and it was cranky, contrarian, and unapologetic. However, the greatest benefit of this revelation has not been in my writing but in my life. I laugh a lot these days, regardless of relationship status.