Books on the Nightstand Retreat: 100 Readers, 9 Authors, One Weekend

We are going to have a glorious weekend of talking about books, shopping for books, reading books, and general bookish merriment! We are eagerly looking forward to spending a weekend with Books on the Nightstand readers, listeners and friends. We haven’t finalized all of the plans yet, but we will be joined by 9 wonderful and interesting authors that we can’t wait for you to meet!

When:   April 8-10, 2011

Where: Manchester Center, Vermont, USA

Who: We’ve got 9 fabulous authors joining us, and they can’t wait to meet you!
Chris Bohjalian – Skeletons at the Feast, Secrets of Eden and many more
Jon Clinch – Finn, Kings of the Earth
Wendy Clinch – Double Black, Fade to White
Matthew Dicks – Unexpectedly, Milo, Something Missing
Susan Gregg Gilmore – Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove
Steve Himmer – The Bee-Loud Glade
Ellen Meeropol – House Arrest
Elizabeth Stuckey-French – Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, The First Paper Girl in Red Oak Iowa
John Milliken Thompson – The Reservoir (available in June, 2011)

The Details: This is not a formal, organized, all-inclusive conference. This is an individual, pay-as-you-go on your own hang-out-with-friends kind of weekend. There’s no registration fee, programming fee, etc. You pay for your own lodging and meals — so that you can stick to your own budget, and hopefully have a lot of money to spend on new BOOKS! Some people will likely want to have dinner in a nice restaurant, others will want to get a sandwich — whatever you choose to do is up to you, and you will surely have company in whatever you do. We really want to keep this fun and affordable for everyone.

Lodging: We have made arrangements for special Books on the Nightstand rates at three properties in Manchester.

The Inn at Manchester

The Inn at Manchester is the “official headquarters” of Books on the Nightstand. This lovely 18-room country inn is where we stay when we visit our friends at The Northshire Bookstore. It’s like a second home to us, and the innkeepers could not be more wonderful. There are many cozy common areas to gather and chat with friends. It’s a .9 mile drive to the bookstore from the Inn.

The Palmer House is a slightly less-expensive option that has more standard “motel-style” accommodation set on lovely grounds. There’s even a tennis court! The Palmer House is located 1/2 mile from the bookstore, and has easy access to restaurants and shops.

The Palmer House

The Reluctant Panther Inn
A small luxury hotel, this inn is walking distance to The Inn at Manchester, and approximately 1 mile from Northshire Bookstore.  We have sold out of the least-expensive rooms at this inn, but there are a few Deluxe rooms left, still offered at a special reduced rate. Breakfast is included.

The Reluctant Panther Inn

Bookish activities: We’re still planning our events, but some of them will surely involve visiting and shopping at the famous Northshire Bookstore, a wonderful, rambly store filled with great books and fantastic booksellers (who are also BOTNS fans).  Serious book lovers can (and do!) spend hours browsing and buying. We can’t wait to share this amazing bookstore with our Books on the Nightstand friends. We will have some small group author chats, a group book discussion, and assorted other informal gathering opportunities as well. We’ll top it all off with a Saturday night Author Celebration.

Learn more: We’ve set up a folder in our Goodreads group to discuss all of the details: lodging specifics and rates, transportation options, activities and plans.  Join us there to learn more, talk with others who are thinking of coming, and ask questions.