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Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage, Book One (of four in the series), is lyrical travel writing from a widely traveled author and tour guide, who has walked over much of Spain and France, particularly the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage path. Available at under US$2 from most distributors. Also found at Smashwords, https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
The Peter Cowan Short Story Prize judge said of one 'Pilgrimage' story- 'Beating Time' as 'an epic evocation of place. Yes, this story proves that you can produce an epic in a mere 488 words! Like all good fiction, perhaps, this piece is ultimately an investigation into how time passes and works. Energetic, almost punch-drunk writing (I mean that as a complement!): "Let the stray dogs and big ideas fight over the bones behind the Calle mayor. Fabulous!''
The Peter Cowan Short Story Prize judge said of one 'Pilgrimage' story- 'Beating Time' as 'an epic evocation of place. Yes, this story proves that you can produce an epic in a mere 488 words! Like all good fiction, perhaps, this piece is ultimately an investigation into how time passes and works. Energetic, almost punch-drunk writing (I mean that as a complement!): "Let the stray dogs and big ideas fight over the bones behind the Calle mayor. Fabulous!''
45 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2013
2 people want to read
About the author
Garry Robert McDougall
16 books6 followersTrouble! From a sports-crazed childhood, and his first scribblings incinerated by a irate headmaster. High school success meant they couldn't refuse his university entry, where he soon led the Anti-War movement, initiated sit-ins and subsequent arrests. By burning his 'draft-card' and opposing military conscription, he soon landed in gaol.
Finding travel more fun, on his overland trip from Singapore to Amsterdam, he met Yasser Arafat, lived with gypsies, trekked Nepal, took a life-changing trip in Pakistan, and fell in love with France.
After two years pretending to be a Maths teacher, he studied the Art and co-created the Official Bicentennial Great North Walk, a long-distance walking track to Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. They refused him an Honour and threw him off the Board when he objected to a cigarette company sponsorship.
After publication of Great North Walk and NSW Heritage Walks, he started a successful business, Great Australian Walks. This fifteen-year stint involved numerous media events, interviews, and TV Travel shows. Exhausted by 2000, he returned to art, and began writing poetry, short stories and novels.
After a stint of Adult Ed, Artist-in-Residence and lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, he completed his first novel, 'Belonging'. A second novel, 'Starts With C,' was followed up with a third, 'Knowing Simone', and a fourth, 'Blacksmith and Canon'. The fifth,' A Blacksmith’s Life' has been followed by 'Sea Voices', with a seventh, 'Renaissance', in the making.
Two inspired travel books Damn! and Border and Soul, plus ten other books on the Spanish, French and Portuguese Caminos de Santiago, make him the pilgrimage path’s most prolific author.
Garry co-initiated the Official Bicentennial Great North Walk, was President of Balmain Institute for seven years, and on the executive of the South Coast Writers Centre. A member of DiVerse (ekphrasis poets) and the Write-On novelist's group, he won the Peter Cowan Short Story Prize with Patting the Dog, exhibits paintings and photographs, was Feature Poet at the Sydney Writers Festival, and won the Art-In-Unusual-Place Grant in 2022.
Practising “Anarchic Rhyme” is all art forms, he masquerades as Hugo Hugo, a 510 yr. old who bemoans his birth as too late for the best of the Renaissance, though passionate for every age of human folly.
Every so often, he wonders his own follies.
Finding travel more fun, on his overland trip from Singapore to Amsterdam, he met Yasser Arafat, lived with gypsies, trekked Nepal, took a life-changing trip in Pakistan, and fell in love with France.
After two years pretending to be a Maths teacher, he studied the Art and co-created the Official Bicentennial Great North Walk, a long-distance walking track to Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. They refused him an Honour and threw him off the Board when he objected to a cigarette company sponsorship.
After publication of Great North Walk and NSW Heritage Walks, he started a successful business, Great Australian Walks. This fifteen-year stint involved numerous media events, interviews, and TV Travel shows. Exhausted by 2000, he returned to art, and began writing poetry, short stories and novels.
After a stint of Adult Ed, Artist-in-Residence and lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, he completed his first novel, 'Belonging'. A second novel, 'Starts With C,' was followed up with a third, 'Knowing Simone', and a fourth, 'Blacksmith and Canon'. The fifth,' A Blacksmith’s Life' has been followed by 'Sea Voices', with a seventh, 'Renaissance', in the making.
Two inspired travel books Damn! and Border and Soul, plus ten other books on the Spanish, French and Portuguese Caminos de Santiago, make him the pilgrimage path’s most prolific author.
Garry co-initiated the Official Bicentennial Great North Walk, was President of Balmain Institute for seven years, and on the executive of the South Coast Writers Centre. A member of DiVerse (ekphrasis poets) and the Write-On novelist's group, he won the Peter Cowan Short Story Prize with Patting the Dog, exhibits paintings and photographs, was Feature Poet at the Sydney Writers Festival, and won the Art-In-Unusual-Place Grant in 2022.
Practising “Anarchic Rhyme” is all art forms, he masquerades as Hugo Hugo, a 510 yr. old who bemoans his birth as too late for the best of the Renaissance, though passionate for every age of human folly.
Every so often, he wonders his own follies.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 10, 2023
This book started during a tour of the Camino de Santiago in 2007. Driving a bus to Belorado, I and my passengers were almost wiped out by an oncoming truck. It was traveling too fast, came around an outswinging curve and was thrown onto our side of the road. We could have been killed!
Later, the shock of it hit me, and I put pen to paper to capture the intense sensations. As my second visit to Belorado was as eventful as the first, I found myself exploring these towns with the same intesified language.
As it happened, I read out my first writing efforts to Paul, the alberges owner. He was impressed (or at least gave the appearance!) So, weeks later, I set to work improving it, later appearing in Pilgrimage as 'Beating Time', an award-winner in the 2012 Peter Cowan Short Story prize.
Later, the shock of it hit me, and I put pen to paper to capture the intense sensations. As my second visit to Belorado was as eventful as the first, I found myself exploring these towns with the same intesified language.
As it happened, I read out my first writing efforts to Paul, the alberges owner. He was impressed (or at least gave the appearance!) So, weeks later, I set to work improving it, later appearing in Pilgrimage as 'Beating Time', an award-winner in the 2012 Peter Cowan Short Story prize.
Displaying 1 of 1 review