People To Everyone Else: Going through a rough patch? Finding it difficult to focus? Give yourself a break…it’s a pandemic out there. We’re all having a hard time in this new upside-down topsy-turvy world reality. There’d be something wrong with us if we weren’t.
People To Writers & Creatives: William Shakespeare wrote a little piece of work called King Lear during his lock-down in the time of the plague. You have no excuse. You have all the time in the world to write.
Anyone else getting really tired with this double standard?
Maybe worrying about catching a virus that has already taken the lives of over 207,000 puts a little stress on creativity. Maybe worrying about the compromised and/or elderly people in your life catching the same virus narrows your predisposition to creativity even a little more than does worrying about catching said virus yourself.
Maybe non-creatives (and even other creatives) need to stay in their own yards and mind their own business. We are in no great race to hand in the next KING LEARat the end of this lock-down. We are under no obligation to create. And a lot of us also know that there are quiet times in the lives of creative types…and that we are always creating, even when it appears we are not.
Write the next Great American Novel if your heart is in it. Sure! Go ahead. Knock yourself out. But if your heart isn’t in it…just breathe. Breathe until this crisis is over. Hurray for Shakespeare! But we all live by our own rules. We all know there is a time to write and a time to not write. Check in with yourself and ask yourself if you want to put the added pressure of forced creativity into the mix of things you’re currently dealing with.
The cover of THE CAMINO CLUB was revealed earlier this week and I am 100% in love with it. Not only did CB Messer capture the beauty of the Milky Way in this cover, but they also nailed the Camino vibe with stamps, arrows, shells, backpacks, and footprints. This cover IS the Camino de Santiago! I could not possibly be happier!
You can head over to CB MESSER to see other gorgeous CB Messer covers and illustrations.
Before I drop all the purchase links for places you can go to pre-order The Camino Club, I just wanted to add that the stamps in the background of this cover are the actual stamps Michael and I collected on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain last September when we walked the route to Santiago de Compostela. One of the things pilgrims do is carry a stamp book with them on their journey. They get stamps at churches, restaurants, hotels, hostels, albergues, etc…to prove that they have made the journey. Once they get to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, their stamp books are verified prior to them receiving the compostela (certificate) which states that they have walked the pilgrim’s path. MY STAMPS ARE LITERALLY ON THE COVER!!
Here’s where you can pick up your pre-ordered copy of THE CAMINO CLUB:
THE CAMINO CLUB – After getting in trouble with the law, six wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes, or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselor guides. When it becomes clear the long walk isn’t really all that much of an option, they set out on a journey that will either make or break who they are and who they are to become.
Someone asked me recently if I did research, and if so…how much and in what way. Like a lying liar I said, “Nah…I just make shit up.”
It was only after I gave that off the cuff reply that I realized I do research every single time I go away. I research places…I find new settings. Travel is my research.
I first met Paris in the Springtime. Oh, what a beautiful time of the year to see such a gorgeous city come alive.
There’s something about beginning a slow wander from the courtyard of the Louvre, taking the Tuileries through to the base of Champs-Élysées, and wandering all the way up the boulevard to the Arc de Triomphe. And climbing that spiral staircase and stepping outside at the top of the Arc. (YES…the last time I climbed this staircase, it was a mere couple weeks after my first Camino pilgrimage and I did see a seashell formation when I looked down the staircase from above! It all relates…)
Oh, to see the streets breaking away in an almost wheel from the spoke of the Arc. The lush spring greenery! The buzz of the traffic and the crowds below marching up and down the Champs. It’s just…it’s a place in my heart, that wander.
And it’s such a small portion of the city, really. A couple kilometres at most. And so lovely that one can see the Eiffel Tower in the near distance, like a gift ready to be opened, like a sentinel watching over the city…and the trees crowding the thoroughfares, nesting it all in a quaint little aura of hushed tones.
The Eiffel Tower, as seen from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (May 2014)
We’re returning to the city of lights and love. Paris in September, I am sure, will have such a different but equally magical vibe. I tend to think of it as a city of wandering. What city is better to walk in, explore, get lost in? It’s like it was made for lazy afternoon strolls and meanderings.
There is the slightly crippled cathedral, and the pretty walkabouts of the Seine. Shakespeare and Company in the shadow of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris…just waiting to be explored…the smell of old books and older legends wafting through the air like a literary elixir summoning all those wanderers who love the written word.
And I can’t forget Montmartre, the village in the heart of the city. A day trip for sure! For the views of the city from Sacré-Cœur alone, it is worth the trip!
Also, I have such fond memories of writing with my fellow LEFT BANK WRITERS RETREAT participants in Luxembourg Gardens in the shadow of the Luxembourg Palace! I will have to revisit!
We’ll be heading to some of the sights I didn’t quite make it to on my first visit. Like Père Lachaise Cemetery and the Catacombes de Paris. And hopefully Monet’s Garden and even Palace of Versailles for a day trip. We shall see. This will be a walking holiday…a wandering meandering outdoor adventure. THIS WILL ALSO VERY MUCH BE A RESEARCH TRIP. I plan on keeping a journal. I have set so many short stories in Paris, but never a novel. It is something I wish to do…though I don’t feel quite familiar enough with the landscape to tackle it as of yet. After this trip, I hope to attempt it. I already feel like Paris is MY city. I imagine most who visit Paris have that feeling of belonging that I experienced the moment I first set foot in Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île. I knew right away it had my heart.
Do I research? Nah. I just make shit up. But in the near future, I hope to have a novel where all the made up shit takes place in Paris.
