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How I came to write Consolations.

As is often the case with fiction, my story is not Fiona’s story; and yet it is.

I wanted to be a cloistered nun when I was fifteen. I formally applied after high school and received a letter from the Mother General saying that I needed to experience the world for at least a year, go to college, get a job, and make my request again.

Not surprisingly, I never did. (It was the sixties.)

Thirty years later, inspired by Thomas Merton’s writings, the old longing awakened. I left the hi-tech world of Silicon Valley where I was enjoying “success” and a promise of more, and entered a Cistercian monastery at age 46.   MORE