One lucky author

I wrote this article specifically for a new group called Minnesota Readers but am posting it to everyone at Gather as I'm currently engaged in a publicity tour for my new book, The Scent of God. As my publicist at Counterpoint says "Now is not the time to be humble."  So for those of you who already know me well, I extend a feeble apology  and to those who know me not at all I say "welcome and thanks for dropping by."

I am one of those extremely lucky "elders" who spends years writing a memoir and finds an agent who loves the book who then sells it to a publisher who likes that book so much they pay a substantial advance and send me off on a publication book tour. I am in the midst of that book tour right now. The name of the book is The Scent of God , a memoir about the search for God that led me into a monastery at the age of 18 and the events that led me out of the monastery fifteen years later. Publishers Weekly calls it "a deeply moving tale of a woman torn between her love for God and her love for one of his emissaries,"  but it is so much more than that. It is a journey of self-discovery, the spiritual journey one undertakes in probing the truth of one's life. Writing The Scent of God was like undertaking a prolonged examination of conscience that took close to 20 years. I've been told over and over again, that people laugh and sob their way through the book, finding in my story their story as they grapple with affairs of the heart: love, longing, confusion, guilt, loss, healing, redemption.

I am also a columnist. Eight years ago, a move to the North Shore of Lake Superior from the Twin Cities, launched me from publishing others books (eight years with Milkweed Editions wearing many different hats) to becoming a published author. A query written soon after we moved to the publisher of The Cook County News Herald became a column called "Newcomer Notes," which has since been renamed "Putting Down Roots." I am also a frequent contributor to Lake Superior Magazine and have been published in The Sun, Minnesota Monthly, The Trenton Times, and the anthology Surviving Ophelia.

I joined the Gather.com online writing community in November of 2005 – one of the most rewarding publishing outreach efforts I have undertaken. There I encountered thoughtful, witty, and wise individuals, many of whom I now consider friends. My writing on Gather.com is an eclectic mix of travel stories , a series titled "A mature author finds an agent, gets a publisher and goes on tour" adapted from my "getting published" blog , a sampling of columns , random musings on everything from spirituality  to grief  to pets . There is even a Gather group called beryl's readers (or Scent of God groupies).

P.S. The links will connect with different articles I've selected as samples of my work. Thanks for being here.