christine roi.

After quitting my job in 2023, I used a small nest egg I’d saved up to get by. I paid my developmental editor, format designer, and cover designer out of that saved sum. After publishing Sworn in Blood in January of this year, I had almost nothing left and found a part-time job to ease my financial woes. Don’t get me wrong- it’s not exactly paying the bills, but it’s the best I can do for now.

Working part-time for someone else and writing, and marketing myself full-time has been my life for almost a year. It’s safe to say that I’m spread pretty thin mentally and financially. And since I don’t have a lot of time or money, vacations aren’t really a luxury I can usually afford.

“I don’t have time.”

“I can’t afford to.”

“I need to get this done.”

Those words just fall out of my mouth. My mental health was hanging on by its last thread this fall when my husband suggested a getaway for our anniversary. “Just for the weekend,” he said. Our Colorado home is centrally located, near enough to anywhere we want to go in the state. As a former Californian with one major book-related landmark I hadn’t yet seen, I knew where I wanted to go: Estes Park.

Estes Park is basically the main hub for the Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s surrounded by mountains, trees, and wildlife. It’s beautiful. My husband and I got to enjoy some of that natural beauty in this tiny house we rented for the weekend.

It was a small house placed carefully by a rushing river. Peaceful and quiet. For being called a “tiny house,” it felt quite large. The phrase “I could live here” came out of my mouth several times. I thought very seriously about selling our house and moving into a tiny house. Hell, I’m still thinking about it. It would be nice not to have to worry about a mortgage. Or property taxes. But I’m pretty sure my dogs wouldn’t enjoy the lack of space. They’re spoiled.

Upon checking into our tiny accommodations, we headed into town. While walking around the main drag of Estes Park, I noticed something I hadn’t expected: this is a town for book nerds. Sure, there is one major locale to check out if you’re into a certain prolific author’s most famous work (I’ll get to that in a second), but there are other things to check out.

First, I hit Inkwell & Brew. It’s a local coffee shop with well-pulled espresso. While waiting for my Provencal latte (a honey and lavender latte that was pretty delicious), I browsed their selection of stationery. That’s right. It was a coffee shop and a stationery store.

And what was right NEXT to this coffee shop and stationery store? A bookshop. A bookshop with rooms and rooms of books. Every twist and turn in Macdonald Bookshop (the sister business to Inkwell) takes you to a different section. It wasn’t hard to find the romance section. It was even easier to spot Lyla Sage’s latest release. And leave with a copy.

Since we were only in town for one night, we booked dinner at a local bistro. Before going to our reservation, we opted for cocktails at the best-known tourist stop for book nerds in the area: The Stanley.

You might know about this hotel’s reputation as one of “the most haunted in America,” but I promise you this – it’s not the least bit creepy. As a former San Diegan, it felt a lot like the Hotel Del Coronado in that it is just an old hotel. That’s the conclusion I arrived at while enjoying a martini in the hotel’s whiskey bar. There were so many options to choose from, but I ordered a whiskey they’d run out of and ended up with a Vesper instead. And a cheese plate, because why not?

After drinks, we wandered around the hotel. Unless you’re a guest, you’re not allowed upstairs. But the gift shop was cute. They really steer into their pedigree as the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining. Room 217 and Redrum merch were everywhere. It was actually entertaining to see how much of an impact an author can have on tourism. Alright, there are lots of tourist spots around the world associated with famous authors, but how many are still alive? How many are still publishing work?

Sure, I may never be as well-known as Stephen King, but it still gave me hope. Sitting in that whiskey bar, I understood where the inspiration had come from. A ghostly bartender. A child running through abandoned halls. A writer who feels trapped by their ambition and writer’s block (relatable).

Once upon a time, The Shining was just an idea. An idea that Stephen King had while on a little getaway with his wife. And maybe finding a way to take more weekend getaways with my partner isn’t such a bad idea.