KATHERINE NEVILLE’S
“Time Out” Newsletter
October 30, 2020
Three Days Out of Time
As I mentioned long ago, in my 2009 Hallowe’en Newsletter: tomorrow–beginning at Sunset on October 31–we enter a period of Time that resembles pushing the “pause” button on a video or musical recording:
“In the ancient Celtic calendar, so it is said, All Hallows Eve (which begins at sunset on October 31) marks the end of the old year, and the new year doesn’t begin until dawn on November 3. The intervening days (All Souls and All Saints days in the Christian calendar) are days outside of Time, days when we can celebrate what happened in the past and discover what is about to happen in the future.”
In every culture in history, these three “absent” days are much like the Australian aboriginal Dream Time–days Out of Time, when we can sow the seeds of a new and different world that we envision.
In my books, I try to emphasize our unique human ability to remove ourselves from the day-to-day “fray” that surrounds and buffets us with a so-called “reality.” In contrast, my stories show us how the world around us is another “Reality”–the real story of our mutual history, of what we all have in common. I hope to encourage readers to dive into that alchemical pool, the place that permits us to swim together, with the real Reality: Our Lives.
So let’s all take these three days, Out of Time, to evaluate how much of our lives we are really living by our own choice, rather than reacting to the Frenzied Fray around us. When we emerge from that alchemical pool (at dawn on November 3) let’s each catch the wave of change, let’s stay flexible on our surfboard, and ride it into the headlands of our own future…
Message Found in a Box
Recently–while we were redesigning my “Katherine Neville Official Website”–I discovered, in a box of clippings, the gorgeous original promotional foldout brochure, which was designed in 1988 for the launch of The Eight in hardback! Here it is, accompanied by the music I listened to while writing about the nuns at Montglane Abbey!
The Eight Brochure Video: New York, 1988
And here’s a fun movie of my book tour in Spain for the sequel to The Eight, The Fire:
The Fire Book Tour Video: Madrid, 2008
Original Foldout Brochure for “The Eight”
Happy Hallows’ Eve!
