We are hard at work here in Sahagún. Elyn is completing her latest book, which has a tentative title of Walking Through Cancer: A Pilgrimage of Gratitude on the Way of St. James. It is the account of our three-year pilgrimage on the Chemin de San Jacques in France in the years from 2002 to 2004. We plan to publish it in February in time for the March gathering of pilgrims sponsored by American Pilgrims on the Camino. This year the meetings will be held in Albuquerque. We are doing final editing on the first half of the book while waiting for the second half to be returned by our favorite editor, Karah Madrone. I am reading the ms., making corrections, and suggesting words to go into the glossary. I am also doing book design for the book. Elyn is pouring over details of what place names in France are hyphenated and what are not and the like.
The book will also contain wonderful watercolors of the places we visited on the Chemin in France created by our friend Kate Lopez from Santa Fe (see cover illustration). Her contribution will certainly make the book a rich read. As usual, Pilgrims Process, Inc. (our publishing company) will publish the book. I’ll be sure and announce its publication on this blog.
You may wonder about the title. Elyn had surgery for uterine cancer in 2002 and we started walking the Chemin three months later. It was our way of dealing with the emotional aftermath of that shock. It took years for Elyn to want to look at her notes and complete the book, but now it will come out.
We had intended to get all this work finished before coming to Spain but our schedule is not often under our control. So here we are in Spain, needing details of places and names in France, and wondering just what the Chicago Manual of Style has to say about French punctuation. Of course that weighty volume is safely on the shelf in our house in Santa Fe. Thank Al Gore for the internet!
Meanwhile, our local social life continues. We are invited to dinner this evening with Rebekah and Paddy, where we will meet some guitarist friends of theirs who are planning a series of concerts here in Sahagún. What an upscale little pueblo we live in—today the circus is in town and now the planning for a series of guitar concerts. We also hear that Sahagún is the home of the first and perhaps only clown school in Spain. The fun just goes on and on here! Stay tuned.
I like the title of Elyn's book (my own blog title bears a striking similarity: Pilgrimage of Gratitude - My Camino. My Mother brought me up on the idea of expressing gratitude so last year when I became commited to walking the Camino, I chose that name, to honor her.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the reasons I am so grateful to walk the Camino has to do with my own cancer experience (breast cancer in 2005 cut short my official Peace Corps experience.) as well as my gratitude for what I learned following the loss of our son, Caleb (1976-2002).
Keep on blogging...love to hear what you guys are up to!
"Ginn"
In Sunny Santa Fe
How exciting! A book is being born and it must make you and Elyn feel like proud parents.
ReplyDeleteI notice that you were a profession of music. Since my son is a professional musician I would be interested in learning more about that.
Oops! That should have been professor of music.
ReplyDeleteI'll get around to it one of these days. I retired as Distinguished Professor of Music from Iowa State University in 1994, when I was only a boy! (Just kidding!) The years since have been wonderful beyond my wildest dreams.
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