Last weekend, my book was blessed and launched.
By our priest, Rev. Canon Claire Wade at St. Thomas’ Anglican in the village of Brooklin, Ontario
And our church community, family and friends
At 9.a.m in the morning of a long weekend, no less!
It was a full house. The food was great, the speeches were short, and I didn’t stutter or cry while reading.
Thanks to Hamlin for the photos and to publisher Don Bastian for his beautiful speech below:
“I’ve attended many book launches, but this is the first book blessing I’ve ever heard of. I think there should be more of them!
In my experience as an editor and reader, memoir writers fall into one of two camps.
In one camp are those who create a book. Their book falls somewhere on the spectrum from boring waste of space to keen insight into a life well spent. But in the end, all they have created is a book.
In the other camp, and this camp is less populous, are those who create a book, of course, but who also create a world. In some mysterious way, in telling the story of their own life, they tell the story of their readers’ lives, as well.
I think you know into which camp Cynthia Reyes has pitched her tent.
Opening the pages of AN HONEST HOUSE is like opening a colourful gift. Yes, we do grapple with the pain we are subject to, having messed things up in the Garden of Eden. But we do get closer to the border of that wonderful garden. We are drawn into Cynthia and Hamlin’s literal garden and into their big-hearted marriage and church relationships and extensive set of friendships. And we are so much the better for it.
And so I am honoured to congratulate Cynthia on her new book. To congratulate her for displaying:
- great skill as the writer of a book;
- supreme artistry as the creator of a world;
- and amazing grace to confer on us, her readers, honorary citizenship in that world.”
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Thank you, Don, Hamlin, Rev. Canon Claire, Sharon and everyone who took part.
Cynthia Reyes 