Monday, July 29, 2013

..and it's summer and harvest, and ...

...various things come together.  At the weekend, I took my final exams after five years of study, with a sense of a project completed, an era coming to and end. It will feel strange not having a specific essay or piece of work always hovering somewhere in the mind. I have been studying on buses and on railway journeys, rarely going anywhere without a book and study guide and notes...

Then a great parcel arrived, and was opened with considerable excitement because it came from my publisher and marked the completion of another project, namely

AUNTIE'S NEW BOOKS


representing the past several months of work. Unusually, I have THREE books published this year. And here they all are, shiny and new and just arrived from Gracewing Publishing.

They are:

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROES FOR BOYS

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROIINES FOR GIRLS

and

COURAGE AND CONVICTION: The story of Brigettine nuns and Jews in wartime Rome.

An author, as part of a standard contract, receives six copies of each book on publication.  I sat holding my books for a satisfying few moments.  Then  I spent a happy half-an-hour wrapping and posting some copies to various people (godchildren, people who have helped w. the books, etc). And now I am on my way to visit an elderly relative, with a book for her tucked my luggage.


4 comments:

TL said...

Dear Joanna
The books look great. What is the recommended age range for the saints & heroes books for boys and girls?

Malcolm said...

You've done well to write three books at the same time as doing a theology degree. The book for girls might be a good present for my god-daughter.

What are you going to do next?

Joanna Bogle said...

I think any intelligent young person from, say 10 or 11 would enjoy the books on saints. But adults seem to be enjoying them too.

Next adventure, after a lecture tour in Australia in August, is a TV programme about soon-to-be-saint John Paul. Also a book about him. Then...we'll see what the Lord seems to suggest...

RobertJ said...

Joanna
Might I make the suggestion that you promote St Hilda of Whitby as the Mother of English Literature - perhaps you do. I quote:
St Hilda of Whitby (614 - 680), a Benedictine abbess, is the “mother of English literature”. St Hilda is mentioned in the twenty-fourth chapter of the fourth book of Venerable Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History”. An early pupil of St Hilda was Caedmon who became one of the first Anglo-Saxon poets. He is the earliest Anglo-Saxon poet whose poetry has come down to us.
Sister Madeleva, C.S.C., “Saints for Now” edited by Clare B Luce, (Sheed & Ward, London, 1952) p 79
Looking forward to seeing you in Australia. Are you coming to Melbourne?
Robert Mears