When I was planning this little book tour, intending to hop and skip west from Saskatoon, there were some people who thought I was a bit silly to organize myself simply by convincing a few people in each city to invite me into their space (bookstores and churches mostly). All I really planned to do was show up with my letters and read. And guess what? A whole pile of other people - sometimes the most surprising people - showed up too.
Julie, I was at your reading on Sat night in Oak Bay and regretted that I slipped away without telling you how moved I was by your experience and your letters.
ReplyDeleteYour honesty was palpable and you write like a child leaping lightly from stone to stone across an immense river...some rocks feeling sharp and painful, some warm and smooth, but the spaces and silences between them also resonate with meaning. When I get the book from the library, I am sure I will be hard-pressed not to underline as I go!
Thank you for sharing your story...and for writing this blog so we can watch how your universe unfolds for you. It's wondrous, isn't it?
PS. I'm curious to know if you edited/polished the letters on your return. I imagine you must have?
Jill: Thanks so much for your post! And thanks for coming to Oak Bay - I had such a great time there. The letters are almost exactly as they were on the Camino - a very few things too nasty to publish were edited out and Herb's name was edited into chapter 7 by request! A copy editor tidied punctuation and grammar .... Some of the actual letters are shown in the montages on the website....
ReplyDeleteJ.
Thanks, old friend. There's always a room here....
ReplyDeleteTake care. And, thanks for the book - I can't wait!