finding a voice
July 30, 2009
I find it interesting that three of the people who have read my book have spontaneously shared their stories of being sexual abused with me. It reminded me of what triggered me to write my book, which was my experiences working with sexually abused children and their families. Often, in an open forum where sexual abuse was being discussed people would stand up and voluntarily talk about an incident of abuse which they had never confided to anyone before. Which makes me wonder why victims of abuse are compelled to maintain the secret.
It seems to me the abused person (and this applies to any form of abuse) feels somehow that they were to blame for the abuse and were in some way complicit in the act. You would never feel you were to blame if you were run over by a car and then recovered. Your sympathisers would empathise with you and as you healed, forget about the incident. You would not be judged for your injury. If the abused person were able to treat the sexual abuse in the same way, talk about it, be angry about it, and know that they were not to blame for it, others would not see them as a victim and would accept it as part of their life, allowing them to heal, and therefore not leave them a victim forever. This is always going to be a difficult journey.
I am really glad my book has helped some people begin their own journeys towards healing.
The traveller – trialling my first short story online
July 22, 2009
I have just posted a pdf copy of The Traveller, my very first short story I wrote for my fellow travellers on my African Cape to Khartoum journey. You can download this file - download pdf file
Kids chase our Landrover at the base of the gorrilla walk in Ruhengeri, Rwanda
One of the most noticeable things as we left the borders of South Africa, was how the relationships between people changed in terms of colour, wealth, language and their common sense of humanity. This story, The Traveller, captures, in a whimsical way, one of the cultural differences we experienced along the way.
I will try and post an audio file of it up for you to listen to shortly.
Refugio Casa Banderas on Camino Trail
July 22, 2009
Casa Banderas on el Camino trail
I am constantly asked how much of the novel is based on reality. The idea of renovating an old house into a refugio for pilgrims to overnight in is very loosely based on a real person who runs a refugio on the Camino de Santiago. He is an old friend of mine. For more information on his refugio which has a red door, like the one Ana and Richard renovate, see http://www.casabanderas.com He will sell you a copy of my book should you walk past his refugio along the trail. He should have copies in a couple of months.
Why I Changed the title of my book
July 18, 2009
Buen Camino was originally published in America under the title The Red Door. It is now in the process of being published under a new title Buen Camino – beyond the journey for sale in New Zealand, Australia, The UK and Spain.
My first choice of title was Buen Camino, because this is how all the pilgrims walking el Camino trail greet one another. It literally means good walking and is the one Spanish word every pilgrim knows and understands. Buen Camino epitomises the goodwill and friendliness between people on the trail so it seemed the natural choice for me. However, I was advised against calling it that for the American public as it was felt they might think the book was written in Spanish and not even look at it.
As I have made a few changes in the text in this new soft covered edition about to be published, I decided to change the name to Buen Camino – beyond the journey, to differentiate between the two editions.
Inspiration for my book cover
July 17, 2009
When Ryz, my cover designer, asked me to give him some ideas for my cover a couple of months ago, I had a very clear idea of the kind of woman’s face I wanted on the cover but had nothing to show him. On a whim, I searched an old, discarded art file filled with paintings and sketches I had done and forgotten about over the years and discovered, to my joy, the exact picture I wanted. She looks lost, abandoned and alone. Here she is; Ana of the novel. As you will notice, my art style is rather distorted and spatially divergent. It seemed to fit.
Cry for the Moon – re-edit
July 17, 2009
I haven’t looked at the manuscript of this novel for 18 months so I’m anticipating it might be too wordy and I am going to have to do some brutal editing. When I first wrote this book I had the images of my characters bouncing around in my head as if I were watching a movie. It will be interesting to see if they will still seem as alive to me with the passage of time.
Hello world!
July 17, 2009
This is my first blog and I want to share the process of my writing with you.
