I have two pieces of exciting news! My book, A Journey of Days, will soon be available from ShortCovers, the new Indigo/Chapters option for eBooks. The other news is that we have just completed a video of me reading excerpts from the book. The first draft cut is 33:10 minutes, too long for YouTube but just right for a link from my website, www.guythatcher.com. A shorter version is being finalized now and will be up on YouTube as soon as it is finished. I am very excited about these new developments, since it will give a lot of people worldwide an opportunity to read the book in an online format or to hear me reading excerpts from the book. I will let you know as each of these options becomes available.

I have been absent from the blog since the beginning of August. I thought it had been six weeks or so, but time apparently DOES fly. Anyway, since mid-September my life has been a blur of activity, wonderful but blurry. I will fill you in on a little of what has been going on. During the period 23-26 September I was at the Kingston WritersFest in Kingston, Ontario, where I was to deliver a presentation on Thursday afternoon about my journey on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. I stayed at a friend’s home (Judi Cova, a friend since the early 70’s at Queens). I went with Judi to the Wednesday evening reception for Margaret Atwood, to whom I gave a copy of my book and spoke for a few minutes, although I suspect that she would likely not recognize me in a crowd – it was very busy and noisy.

The next morning I went to the hospitality suite at the Holiday Inn Waterfront – the venue for all events except for the Atwood reception – where I met and was entranced by Howard Engel, who writes all the Benny Cooperman novels. Howard also wrote The Man Who Forgot How to Read about his own stroke 7 or 8 years ago and the immediate loss or reading ability, while retaining his ability to write. Through sheer effort, he has regained his ability to read, although his reading is much slower than it used to be. Howard and I chatted for several hours, during which we discovered that we had both served in Cyprus, he as a journalist in the early 60’s for a year, me as a military officer with an armoured reconnaissance squadron for six months in 1968. We had lots of places, but almost no people, in common. We exchanged books, so I was able to read his book that night.

Then he went off to an interview with Eric Friesen (to whom I also gave a copy of A Journey of Days), which I attended, after which I did my presentation about my journey on the Camino de Santiago, which he attended.  I am delighted to report that the bookstore sold out of copies of A Journey of Days, but I had extra copies with me (of course) and was able to replenish their supply. After the presentation, there was a book signing table where I met lots of interesting people and signed their copy of the book. It was like being a rock star! Very seductive, being recognized and honoured by a group of people over several days. I also met, listened to, and provided a copy of the book to Susan Olding and to Lorna Crozier, who discussed their memoirs. I had a wonderful time there in Kingston. The organization was very well handled and the event, at least to an outside observer, went off flawlessly.

I was very honoured by the WritersFest’s words about A Journey of Days: “With the wisdom and humour that come from a full life well lived, he sets out to discover the reason for the compulsion that drives him to make this incredible journey. His funny, intelligent and moving account has been called the best book yet written about walking the Camino.”  Those words are sheer delight to any author!

Next up: The presentation in Orlando!

I have just finished reading another Camino book, “What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim”, by Jane Christmas. She tells the story of setting out on the Camino in a pack of 14 squabbling women and, based on that alone, I was prepared to not like it. I was in for a surprise. It was well-written, funny and, once she has gotten free of the burden of the covey of women, was quite philosophical. Her experiences, though, were very different from mine. At one point, she writes “You constantly think about quitting and going home. That single issue gets debated and rehashed by every pilgrim.” And the back cover says that “… she battles loneliness, hunger and exhaustion”. I didn’t have the same experiences at all, although I am not disputing hers. I intended to walk alone and did so for a large portion of my journey. I never thought about quitting and going home and I never heard any discussion about that topic in the many albergues where I overnighted. I was never lonely or hungry. I was by times exhausted, but that passed after a short rest. I think that each of us views the camino through our own emotional filters and I think that the differences in the experiences that Christmas had to those that I had are attributable at least partially to those filters. She is twice-divorced and a single woman. I have never divorced and have been happily married for over 50 years, just to mention one of the more potent filters. Reading her book reminds me, once again, not to make judgments based on incomplete knowledge or other’s hearsay. Another of life’s lessons relearned.

Yesterday I told you about the trip to New Zealand and Australia. The second trip is for April and May of 2011. It will be almost exactly the opposite of the trip to down under. Alone, on foot, carrying a backpack, very modest accommodation. Those of you who have read my book, A Journey of Days, will recall that in 2007 I walked from Pamplona to Santiago in northwestern Spain, a journey of just over 700 kilometres. This time I plan to walk the “prequel” of my walk on the Camino in 2007. I will walk alone from Le Puy-en-Velay (southwest of Lyon in France) to Pamplona and I will stay mostly in pilgrim hostels (gite d’etapes in France and albergues in Spain). This route is one of the four major medieval pilgrim routes through France which connect to the better-known Camino de Santiago. I found a great web site about this French route, http://www.godesalco.com/plan/podense, which includes a trip planner. I have already been able to make a preliminary plan of how far to walk each day and in which village to stay. The trip of about 850 kilometres should take about 40 days, not including rest days. I will be 74 when I make this walk, so I will have to be physically very well prepared. More later.

I had the most amazing experience yesterday late in the day. In Ottawa I attended and participated in an informal discussion with a small group of “caminoholics”, a group of pilgrims and people interested in the camino de Santiago. It was organized by Dr. Lesley Harman, a professor at King’s College, London and featured a reunion of several of the people with whom she walked the camino two years ago. Her fellow pilgrims included a woman from Toronto (not so far), a woman from Sweden and another from Germany (quite a bit farther) and a man from Brisbane, Australia (about as far away as you can get). Other pilgrims there were from Ottawa (four or five of us).

What was amazing were the stories of transformation that each had to tell, based on their experiences of trial and generosity while on the camino. One person spoke of a very difficult and bitter divorce, which was changed into a relationship of mutual respect after completing the camino. Two women spoke of their deep, deep fears about walking alone and how they overcame them when they realized that “we are never alone”, as they put it. Remarkably, only one, as far as I could tell, of the pilgrims was religious, and several made the clear point that they were not religious, but were transformed spiritually as a result of their camino experience.

It was almost cultish, the depth of openness and feeling of shared humanity that was clear as some of us talked about specific experiences on the camino. The sense of emotional bonding was quite remarkable. It seems as if the camino changes all of us in ways that we did not expect.

I gave a copy of my book, A Journey of Days, to Lesley Harman, who is completing and self-publishing her own book We Are Never Alone, this fall. She says that she won’t read it until she has completed her own manuscript. I also offered any help that I can give her with the final stages of her book. I also gave a copy to the Australian, Simon from near Brisbane, because I want him to seek out the Aussies from Brisbane who celebrated arriving in Santiago with me in late May of 2007. Their names and a group photo are in the book, so he may be able to track them down. I have had no success yet but am hopeful that he may be able to succeed where I did not.