First, I like to apologise to all those who have visited this site and not had me respond to their posting. I have been travelling a great deal over the last six months, then teaching in St Louis for a month, and then trying to get my feet back on planet earth, and I stopped going on line for a while. When I did I found the site full of spam, which ( thank you so much,  Joseph!) has now been erased so the landscape is much clearer. Replies are now on line to most postings.

I am heading off to Australia and New Zealand this weekend for another three week tour. And hope to meet a few of you en route. All details on the site now.

For the rest, please keep on writing. I cannot tell you what a deep pleasure it is to hear your voices. Even the person who hated the end of the book! What can I say. For me it was the only end possible. And I do not say that lightly having lived with the story for the best part of three years. In passing, perhaps  I should add that I had no idea what the end would be until I was deep into writing the book.  This may be a reflection of not knowing what I am doing. Or it may be that sometimes the story only unfolds when you have got lost within it. All thoughts happily listened to on this and other things.

Best

Sarah

s

Having been on the road with Sacred Hearts and the Renaissance for almost four weeks (how rich and interesting to carry a convent of women around with you in your head) I am due a short break on a small gulf island off he coast of British Columbia and Vancouver island. I will read, eat, swim, talk to friends and watch seals – which when you think about it with their black sleek costumes and  white ringed white faces, might remind me of my nuns. I shall miss them – they have been deep in my head for over three years now  -but sometimes a writers mind had has to empty before it can fill again.

I have enjoyed the many powerful and varied conversations with everyone I have met as I have criss crossed Canada and America and look forward to many more via these pages.   Ann – thank you for the update on the Catholic church”s visitations of American convents. I feel very passionately that we are  watching a bit of history rerunning here and would love to keep talking about it.

I shall be back in October to give some talks in Seattle, Santa Barbara, Chicago and Stanford and then teach for a while at St Loius< but the great thing about the web is one can talk wherever one is. Good wishes to you all. And keep the thoughts coming.

So, someone sent this to me today and I was fascinated to read it. : http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/08/sarah-dunant-bares-all.html

It is quite close to my heart because ,of couse, while the renaissance is known for its beauty and wonder, it was also a time of huge violence and brutality.  That I certainly believe. And given the levels of pain and limits of medicine or even medical hygiene, and the religious emphasis on body versus soul, I thing the human body itself was a more potent , fragile yet powerful object then.  But I throw it open to others to comment. I”m not sure about the ptotocol of an author replying to someone’s review> It might seem a bit self reverential. And thank you for all your comments it feels like we are staring a dicussion now. Yeah!

in answer to your question Veronica , il libro uscira a Novembre., ma non so come se chimara. Forse sara diversa… ….

i think Lewis and Clark did it the other way around, yes but I finally arrive in the East.  First Washington and a great NPR interview with Lianne Hanson, then Miami – Book and Books and one hell of smart audience firing on al cylinders – thank you Miami Now New York City To all those of you have met en route during the nine city tour greetings. I have had some great conversations about history, women, religion, story teling, and just what a dark delicious but sometimes terrifying place the past can be – especially 500 years ago.

To those I didn’t get to meet this blog is there for your thoughts and comments. I am trying to get the set up of the site changed so we can all see each other comments together more easily and maybe start discussions. I would happily join in. So throw some ideas and questions out.

To all of you have have bought “Sacred hearts” a great thank you and i hope it does not disappoint, I have come to realise that the best publicity in the whole world is word of mouth and so if it enthralled you then please just pass the word. Eventually we will have a huge forum here talking  about women, the past, spirituality, sexuality, music, art, relglion . You name it. I look forward to it.

Sarah

Dear Anne Muirhead …… woke up to your comment in Kansas City.   The aim to somehow recreate the experiences of these women so many centuries ago, both psychological and religious,  made this the toughest book I had ever written, so if in some way it rang true to you then i am utterly delighted. And oh yes, I have been following the story of the Vatican’s move to curb the activities of American nuns with great interest and talk about it wherever I go. One does not write history in order to comment on the present ( it is hard enough to write to get the past right), but when it happens its as if a light bulb goes on…. please lets talk more about it.  I will be at the Adelaide festival in February and then on tour. It would  be great to meet,   but also to start a debate on line. Or perhaps there already is one. In which case please point me at it..

as to the postulate!  I will send my web master ( great terms isn”t it) a  message today.

a gerat blues track i seem to remember, but since i only get to stay a day it is more like Kansas city here I go. Two great gigs (Thank you Rainy Day books, you keep reading alive)  and a lot of big sky and flat land in between. If only one got to stay anywhere longer than 36 hours…Lindsey look forward to meeting you in Atlanta and thank you for your kind words about  SACRED HEARTS . Talking so much about something that took such a chunk out of one’s life and soul seems rather strange after a while, almost  like faking it, but I hope something remains of the struggle and the joy. This is modern life and while in the end I believe in word of mouth as the final arbiter of quality, maybe this does reach more people. Would value your thoughts on that, everyone out there.

All tours have low points and i am very much hoping 3 hours in cars in LA with a 6. am start the next morning marks the spot. i seem to remember a Jackson Brown lyric that fits here. “the only time that seems too short is the time that we get to play” by which, of course,  he meant music, and I would mean talking history, women, religion, art – all the stuff that makes life interesting, And yes, music though in this case polyphony and Palestrina.

thank you to all who have come to listen and join in the conversation.  When you come to read the book do let me know what you thought. I would love to hear it.  now I have an evening off in SF.  life is not all bad!

first thing to note. It’s hot. Seattle sings in the sushine.  i got here yestrday after a fantastic weekend at the Denman island Writers and Readers festival. If you don’t know about it and you live anywhere in British Columbia then check it out. The most beautiful place, the kindest most hospitable people and the most stimulating discussions – religion, spirituality ( not always the same thing) politics,  16th century nuns , writing you name it . And all around the  forests and the water – the most delicate delicious light  with a touch of melancholy.  i cannot wait to go back.

 

struggling with a lost voice ( if anyone finds it send it via my website) but looking forward to finding one when I need to. This morning a tv interview with Nancy Pearl the US’s great public ( in many senses) librarian, tonight an event with the university bookshop then on tomorrow to LA.  more planes than a human being ought to take – a carbon footprint  that will take years to recover from. i shall have to walk to Italy for the next decade, but the conversations that come at the end of the events are worth it.

otherwise  as long as i remember to eat it all goes well…..

I love this city so much.  There is such a deep sense of relaxation to it. Any place where you can see mountains and water at the same timne is good for the soul.   Not that I am seeing much of it.  Tv am studios, books shops and the odd glimpse of a view out of car window.  But I will be back for pleasure.

On Monday I did a great gig in Ben Mcnally’s books In Toronto, but in a huge itlaian restaurant, where of course people yelled and shouted, as italians love to do.  I had brought a cold stowed away in my luggage from London and I had a voice that sounded deep enough to be the only y magnificent. Musica Secreta recorded all the lovelist bits of music which are in the book and ther do indeed have the voices of angels. A real soundtrack of its own. There are samples of it on podcasts and the web site and you can buy the Cd on a link from my site to theirs.  Music Secreta are  women who have given their lives to delve deep into history and bring alive the sounds of women ’s voices as they were 500 yars ago.  They are also enormous fun to work with.

Me – I croak and swallow throat lozenges and with luck some kind of voice will return.,  Otherwise I’ll give the seagulls a run for their money when I hit the ferry out to Victoria island tomorrow. At Cadboro books for anyone local…..

Thanks to you all for your blogs. It makes a real difference to feel one is not alone, even when the hotel room is  empty.   Sarah

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