Happy Birthday Book Baby!
Recently a Facebook memory reminded me that my first book, Seven Sacred Sites: Magical Journeys That Will Change Your Life, is TEN YEARS OLD! Happy Birthday book baby! I’d posted that I saw it in a shop – still an exciting moment! – but unfortunately I didn’t take a photo (no smartphones back then), so I can’t remember if it was in Dymocks, Kinokuniya or Better Read Than Dead)… I’m still so proud of this book – it will always have a special place in my heart, for so many reasons… It was an incredible moment to sign the book contract for it. And I love the other eleven books too, but this one was the manifestation of years and years of work and travelling and learning and growing and magic and ritual and life! And it celebrates another proud moment too, after I cancelled my publishing contract and paid back the advance so I could do it all myself…
Here are some of the reviews it got in its first few months out in the world…
“Seven Sacred Sites is by far the best travel book I’ve read this year. Serene Conneeley’s style evokes the great travel writers like Michener, who weave cultural anthropology seamlessly into an entertaining traveller’s tale. To me, that’s a recipe for pure reading pleasure. I’d recommend Seven Sacred Sites to any armchair traveller – and it is absolute gold for those interested in the spiritual traditions that continue to shape our world.”
Joanne Lock, travel editor, Spheres magazine
“Seven Sacred Sites is a rich and lovely, very wise and tender friend and companion, with good advice and lovely insights and lots to share and inspire you in your travels, be they physical or of the imaginary kind. Serene is a beautiful writer, and she’s captured the mythos and history of each place in bright, delicious, interesting ways.”
Lucy Cavendish, author and oracle card creator
“This is a book that is a sacred journey in itself. Walk through its pages, and you may be drawn to one of the magical places on your life path. But the spirit of them lives within the book, so they can speak to you as you travel in your mind inspired by the words.”
Cassandra Eason, British author
“Seven Sacred Sites: Magical Journeys That Will Change Your Life is a must-read. This spiritual, historical and geographical journey will help you discover not only about our wondrous surroundings but, perhaps more importantly, yourself as well.”
Andrea Black, travel editor, New Idea magazine
“Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, you will come across a book that has an energy so great it moves beyond its pages. Seven Sacred Sites is such a book. Brilliantly written and stunningly produced, the magical journeys within this book will inspire you to dream, to travel and to ponder your own place here on our wonderful planet.”
Kylie Matthews, Manly Daily
“Seven Sacred Sites is essential reading for all those contemplating attending or preparing for a spiritual journey… or simply trying to understand the effect these sacred power sites have on us all.”
Elisabeth Jensen, founder of Isis Mystery School and Sacred Journeys
“Serene’s journey to these seven sacred sites has ignited a spiritual, emotional and physiological urge to immerse myself in the mysteries and gifts that each place has to offer. No book has ever enticed me to travel, in so many ways, as this one has.”
Anita Revel, author
“I LOVE IT!!!!!! I love the whole book! I am going to add it to my Amazon site and send a note in my next newsletter. Congratulations, you should be SO proud honey, it’s WONDERFUL xooxox”
Colette Baron-Reid, international author/spiritual teacher
I probably needed Serene Conneeley’s book most about twenty years ago, when I first started to seriously travel to places my heart was called to. Having it with me would have illuminated all sorts of mysteries and jewels that I know I missed: but now that I do have it, I will take it with me wherever I go, and everywhere I go will be made more magickal for having this companion travel with me.
Serene is also a lovely writer: she’s managed to write about her own travels in such a way that you feel like you’re voyaging with a lovely friend (which she is), and she has written about the mythos and history of each place in bright, delicious, interesting ways – and then she’s done the mystical work and really understood and described the heart and soul of each sacred place, in ways that remind us why travelling to sacred sites is one of the best things you can do with the time you have here on this planet, this lifetime.
Please buy this book: and then take your time reading it. Let Seven Sacred Sites’s magic do its work: and before too many pages you will be gazing into the well of Glastonbury; standing in sun-drenched fields along the Camino, or feeling Pele breathe beneath your feet as you climb the crest of a volcano in Hawaii. And if you do go to these places, or plan to go, or dream of going, you really do need to take this book: it will add richness, depth, mystery and fascinating facts to what will be the journey of a lifetime.
Lucy Cavendish, author
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