What inspired you to write your memoir?
A life changing walk across Spain. How leaving everything behind, choosing to walk alone carrying everything I needed in a small backpack meant my life was instantly pared down to the barest of essentials. It was the simplicity of this along with time and seven hundred and fifty kilometers under my feet that allowed a natural unfolding of reflections about life: what it means to love and to trust.
About your Book:
In a memoir of saints, sages, and swollen ankles, Helen walks across the Catholic heartland of Northern Spain. Her chosen route is the picturesque Camino Way, a Christian pilgrimage revered since medieval times. Ancient towns and villages, each with a distinct culture and cuisine, mark the way.
Memories and miles intertwine, spanning not only the countryside but also her Christian upbringing and later life as a Buddhist. What is it that compels her into the cathedrals and rustic churches she finds during her month-long journey?
‘Just as I walked from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela – a different woman now to the one who began – I also travelled from one religion to another. Perhaps I put on pilgrim boots to better understand the message of each – the verbs of their prayers – what it means to engage with life, the joys of aloneness and the delights of company.’
Through recollections of meditation retreats, monasteries in Burma and encounters with the gilded Saints and Madonnas of Spanish cathedrals, Helen contemplates the heart of two religions, in her quest for deeper meanings that can unite us all.
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
My book is self-published through Sentient Books, a local publisher. They were recommended to me by a friend who was correct when she said their attention to detail is outstanding. I will definitely use them again. My book was awarded a residential mentorship with two leading Writers’ centers in Australia: Varuna, Australia’s National Writers’ House and The Northern Rivers Writers’ Center. It was subsequently shortlisted for the Varuna Harper Collins Award.
Why did I choose to self-publish? The publishing industry in Australia is becoming more and more difficult to enter and after several close calls, through to acquisition departments, I decided to self-publish. I have no regrets. Self-publishing is incredibly empowering and the potentials therefore are limitless.
How do you see writing a Memoir as different from writing other genres of books?
Memoirs require a level of honesty that is not necessarily expected in fiction. This was the greatest challenge for me and ultimately, the most rewarding. It is a fine balance between simply recording a journey and exploring the personal. My aim was to not only bring the pilgrimage to life but also, through honest and uncensored investigation, show through the experience of one truths and lessons to be learned that are universal.
Author Bio:
Helen Burns is an Australian writer and serial traveler. Her adventures have been published in National papers and journals. She has had poems and haiku published in The Famous Reporter, Free Xpressions and several Dangerously Poetic Anthologies. An encounter in Iran inspired her prize winning poem at the2007 Byron Bay Writers’ Festival. The following year she was guest poet at Southern Cross University’s International Human Rights and Peace Conference.
The Way is a River of Stars, Helen’s first travel memoir, was awarded a LongLines residency in 2007 then shortlisted for the Varuna Harper Collins award in 2009.
Her second work in progress is another travel narrative this time set in India. Research into the life of an eighth century Tamil poet is in many ways a homecoming four decades after majoring in Hindi and Asian Studies at the Australian National University.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/20241112-helen-burns
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Way-is-a-River-of-Stars-A-Camino-Pilgrimage/391989520917898
http://pinterest.com/burns0753/el-camino-the-way-is-a-river-of-stars/
