Revise & Rise:
Retreat for Novelists
with Julie Artz and Emily Colin
June 6-10, 2025 | The Hightlights Foundation | Milanville, PA
Regain your writer mojo and find the confidence you need to take your novel to the next level! ⚡
In all, this opportunity features:
✦ Pre-retreat sessions where you can meet your fellow writers and begin to develop a revision roadmap
✦ Detailed written feedback on your roadmap and first 10 pages from your instructor to help you prioritize your revision goals
✦ At least two private consultations–one in person at the retreat and one via Zoom afterward–with your instructor to discuss feedback, revisions, and next steps
✦ Nine mini-sessions on crucial elements of the revision process
✦ Plenty of quiet working time during the retreat
✦ Opportunities to share your work with others at Fireside Chats
✦ Connection opportunities with fellow writers
You’ll leave the retreat with a completed, actionable roadmap to guide you through your revision and tools to use when revising future novels.
Why this retreat? 📚
Revision can be so overwhelming, especially if you’ve received different feedback from readers or even agents and editors.
How do you know what to incorporate and what to let go, which voices to trust and which to disregard?
When you are so close to your story, it can be difficult to figure out what it truly needs to become its best self. Expert guidance can make the difference between pulling your hair out and revising with joy, confidence, and support.
Together, we'll make revision the most rewarding part of your writing process.
Here's how we'll do it:
1
To make the most of your experience, you’ll get feedback on your opening pages and revision plans before the retreat begins, so you can hit the ground running when you arrive!
2
Through workshops, personalized feedback sessions, and collaborative discussions, you'll gain fresh perspectives and actionable insights to enhance your narrative structure, character development, and thematic depth.
3
You will connect with fellow writers, share your journey, and emerge with renewed inspiration and a solid revision plan for a book that will captivate readers.
✍ Pencil in these dates!
✦ April 30: Registration closes
✦ May (2 evenings, dates/times TBD): Online Reverse Outlining Lecture and pre-retreat Q&A (via Zoom)
✦ May 15: Revision plan and first ten pages due
✦ June 5: Feedback letters delivered to writers
✦ June 6 at 5:30 pm ET: Revise & Rise Retreat begins with dinner
✦ June 10 at 11 am ET: Revise & Rise Retreat ends
Daily Schedule
✦ 8 am Breakfast
✦ 9-10 am - Session One
✦ 10-12 working time (First Day 1:1s, Third day 1:1s)
✦ 12 noon lunch
✦ 1-2 Session Two
✦ 2-4 working time (Third day 1:1s)
✦ 4-5 - Session Three
✦ 5pm appetizers
✦ 6pm dinner
✦ 7pm - 9pm working time
✦ 9 - 10pm Fireside Chats
Meet your retreat faculty👋
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 the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of swoony supernatural books for adults and teens. Her first novel, The Memory Thief, was a Target Emerging Authors Pick. She’s also the author of The Dream Keeper’s Daughter, and her short fiction appeared in the USA Today bestselling romance anthology Dissent.
The Seven Sins, Emily’s young adult dystopian romantasy series, won the YA Gold Moonbeam Award, Silver IPPY Award, and North Carolina Indie Author Project Award, and is a two-time INDIES Award Finalist. She’s also the editor of two young adult anthologies: Unbound: Stories of Transformation, Love, and Monsters, and Wicked South: Secrets and Lies.
Emily is the former associate director of DREAMS of Wilmington, a nonprofit dedicated to providing youth in need with top-notch arts education. 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.
Today, she works as a freelance developmental editor, instructor for The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish, and Author Accelerator certified book coach…when she's not writing and drinking 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.
💬 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
Is the Revise & Rise Retreat right for you?
It's a GREAT fit if…
✦ You have a complete or near-complete draft of a novel. You’ll get the most out of this retreat if you’re at this stage.
✦ You’re willing to work! This retreat is best for those who will dedicate time and attention to prework before the retreat, as well as processing feedback, revising, writing exercises, and group sessions during the retreat.
✦ You’d appreciate some retreat time. This retreat has plenty of built-in time to write, draw, hike, revise, and/or rest: whatever you need.
✦ You’re hungry for guidance, support, and community as you revise your novel.
✦ You’re published, pre-published, or self-published! Whether this is your first novel or your fifth, there’s something here for you.
Register now!
Register by April 30 to reserve your spot! ✅
Step 1
Reserve your spot here (only 10 available).
Step 2
📎 Resources
Check out these free resources to learn more about Julie and Emily's approach to writing and revising:
Using a Long-Form Synopsis to Plan Your Novel
on the Jane Friedman blog
Raising Your Voice, Claiming Your Story
on the #AmWritingPodcast
Is Your Manuscript Reader-Ready? Your Query Can Tell You.
on AuthorsPublish
Tips and Tricks for Revising Your Manuscript to Make It Shine
on AuthorsPublish
Cancellation Policy
We use the same cancellation policy as The Highlights Foundation:
Individual guest cancellations are allowed up to 30 days before a retreat starts, and the entire individual cost to attend will be deducted from your total balance due. Individual cancellations between 30-days and 1-week of a retreat start will incur a cancellation fee of 15% of individual cost to attend. Cancellations made within 1-week of retreat start will incur a cancellation fee of 30% of individual cost to attend.
