I am thrilled to announce the multi-award-winning author Sundee Frazier as our guest faculty for our 11th Annual* Full-Bodied Writing Retreat in June.

​Sundee T. Frazier is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent award-winning author of six novels including Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It, The Other Half of My Heart and Cleo Edison Oliver: Playground Millionaire, which has been used around the country for several all-school reads. Her most recent book, Mighty Inside, published by LevineQuerido, was an SCBWI Golden Kite finalist and won the 2022 Washington State Book Award. Reviewers have called Sundee’s characters appealing, authentic, complex, and utterly unforgettable. One of her best-ever compliments came from master character creator, Christopher Paul Curtis, who wrote about Mighty Inside: “I dare the reader not to fall in love with Melvin . . . [This] was one of those rare books I found myself reading more slowly as I got to the final pages. I didn’t want it to end.”

Sundee is a writer with so much heart and is an engaging presenter as well (not only has she done a gajillion school visits, she has also taught middle school and survived.)

We had this great brainstorm session about character development--a theme requested by our alums--which is Sundee's absolute favorite thing to teach. Later, she sent me an email after having a flash of inspiration--that is to say the perfect topic for this year:

CHARACTERS YOU’D FOLLOW ANYWHERE

What causes us to want to go on a journey with a character, to follow their story wherever it might lead . . . even if they aren’t 100% likable? What are the inner and outer conflicts—the mixed motives, earnest desires, lacks and griefs—that make us care and root for, relate to, and most of all, feel compelled to stick with a character through all their travails, triumphs, and transformations?

We’ll map our characters’ interior landscapes and let them guide us to where they want to go. Using curiosity, collaging, maps, grounding exercises, and the wisdom of the Enneagram (an ancient personality schema that illuminates human motivations, fears, and desires), we will dig into the process of unearthing and developing fascinating characters we (and our readers) would follow anywhere.

I'm excited about the Enneagram. A friend gave me a packet on it several years ago, but I've never had the chance to really study it. Applying it to characters sounds intriguing.

And all the "Full-Bodied" stuff we can do with this! Sundee has named some of them above: collaging, maps, grounding exercises, interior landscapes. My brain is already going in about seventeen directions.

This is going to be an awesome weekend!

Want to come? (Of course you do!)

Use the code FBW27EARLY to save $125 until 12/31/26

Love,

Katherine

*It is the 11th annual. I've been counting wrong for at least two years. We lost 2020 to the pandemic, so 2026 was the 10th. I wish I'd realized; I'd have made a big deal out of it. Oh well, 11 is special, too. It's a prime number, and I understand that the "master numbers" have higher vibrations (found that online.)