Duckdog Retreat - Rodanthe, North Carolina

I am at my annual one-week writer’s retreat on North Carolina’s Outer Bank. I have brought a weighted-down suitcase of books by or about Katherine Mansfield. After my decision to recreate her story, I read several of her biographies, her collection of short stories, a chapter in Hermione Lee’s Virginia Woolf biography about Virginia and Katherine's volatile relationship, and the equally fascinating book by her life-long caregiver, Ida Baker, The Memories of LM.

On the first morning, taking a shower, I imagine scenes with Katherine and Virginia, Katherine and LM, Katherine and Jack, Katherine alone. I quickly dress, excited to put these scenes down on paper.

There are four other writers at the Duckdog retreat who I know well. In our shared living room, I am encouraged by their tapping keyboards. We are all determined to produce as much writing as possible in one blissful, uninterrupted week. I too start to tap my fingers across the keys and Katherine and Ida Baker and Jack Muray come alive.

By the end of the week, I had a satisfactory first chapter having decided to frame Katherine’s story into the 21st century. Tuberculosis became lung cancer. The Bloomsbury Group became the New York literary scene. Menton was transferred to Miami. The Alps to Teyssières, France. But even more surprising, I'd written it in Ida’s voice, not Katherine’s. It was the voice of the caregiver, not the one being cared for.