Finding Gratitude – Celebrating the Birth of Finding Emmaus

I love talking about my book. Can’t help it — no point in dissembling or trying to deny it. Anyone who knows anything about me, or has spoken with me for even five minutes, will tell you that. I also love addressing a crowd — as long as I’m passionate about the subject matter. So, when October 8th rolled around, I was absolutely in all my glory. After all, what could I possibly be more passionate about than my new ‘baby’, my novel, Finding Emmaus?

It’s funny: I expected the day to be somehow different. Not sure how, just different. Perhaps everything outside would look clearer, more sharply defined. Perhaps the air would feel crisper or the sun would shine brighter or my bagel would taste better. I read once, a long time ago, that life-altering events “come in on cat’s paws” and I know that to be true. I don’t tend to walk around blinded by rose-colored glasses, but still … I couldn’t help but think, deep in that little girl’s heart of mine, that it might have been nice for the universe to stand up, even for a moment, and take just a little more notice … if only enough so that maybe walking the dog would take on some new, prophetic meaning.

But the universe did not cooperate … and, frankly, neither did the dog.

No matter. It was a lovely day and by the time the evening rolled around, I was excited but relaxed and confident and above all, deeply grateful for all I've been blessed with.

There’s no reason for any of this to have happened. Outside of my degree, which says I’m a high school English teacher, I've no formal training to be a writer. I had no résumé with which to wow a potential agent or publisher; I did not have an office wall papered with rejections or a bookshelf full of unwanted manuscripts and I certainly was not living the life of a starving artist. All I did was spend three days in a monastery at a silent retreat and, in the absence of external noise, I dug deep down inside myself and found the voice that’s apparently been clambering for my attention for nearly fifty-six years.

They say things come in threes and I think maybe that’s so, for I now celebrate three births: my new granddaughter, my new book, and this miraculous but strange new woman I have become. I love her, I’m just spending a little extra time in the “sizing her up” stage of our relationship.

Coincidentally (and I don’t believe it coincidences!) it looks as though The Lodestarre Series will be a trilogy.

The Book Launch Celebration was a great success. Friends I’d spoken with but had not actually seen in thirty-eight years drove in from New Jersey and Washington DC just to be with me. Beth Devlin, the events coordinator for the Wallingford Public Library, outdid herself. The publicity was excellent, the room was beautiful, and Beth herself was cool as a cucumber and the consummate professional. She managed everything so smoothly, the evening just couldn’t have been better.

I've a lot to be grateful for. And a lot to look forward to. And wonderful people in my life to depend on and celebrate with. And all I can think to say is “Thank God.”

You can read a preview of my book, the first three chapters, here.

Finding Emmaus is now available in the UK through Amazon, as well as in the US in these fine independent bookstores: Burgundy Books, Essex Books, Powell’s Books.


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