‘And So I Walked’

When you find my book on Amazon, if you scroll down a bit, you may find where it says: “Customers who bought this item also bought And So I Walked: Reflections of Chance, Choice, and the Camino de Santiago.”

What on earth, you might wonder, does an Episcopal priest’s memoir of a pilgrimage through Spain have to do with a romance novel set in Los Angeles/Mexico City/Palermo?

The answer, dear readers, is proximity. (Is that irony? Inquiring minds want to know.)

My dear friend and neighbor, the Reverend Anne Gardner, had her first book published last spring.

The story she published is lovely and you should read it.

“At a book signing at the B&N on Ventura. Afterwards the salesperson tucked my book between Roxane Gay's Hunger and Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. Location, location, location.” —Rev. Anne Gardner

For me, it has been an honor and a privilege to witness Anne’s journey through editing (and editing and then proofreading and then some more editing), then publishing, and finally promoting her book. She’d already penned it when we met, and she did a beautiful job weaving her pilgrimage on the Camino with her bigger picture story (stories, really).

The parts I have been around for involve details like chapter starts and illustrations. I feel like I got to watch her wrap the gift she worked years to make.

When I saw Amazon had linked our books—or really, our patrons have linked us by buying both our books at the same time—I got so excited. So I asked her permission to tell y’all about her memoir and her recent book signing at the Studio City Barnes & Noble-Bookstar! If you find yourself in the Valley, please go buy this book. So they’ll order another (and another and another).

P.S. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Not so at B&N (yet).