ab initio

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Welcome to 'the Pilgrim's Way' website. Between 2004 and 2006 I was fortunate enough to be able to take large spans of time and walk a total of 3000 miles on a network of European pilgrimage trails leading to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain... a network of trails known as The Way of Saint James. In trying to relay this experience I've woven together e-mails, journal entries and poems, and the result is the following four books: Sons of Thunder, (from Seville to Santiago on the Vía de la Plata), and Autumn on the Trail to Santiago, (from Arles, across southern France to the famed Camino Francés), celebrate one summer's 2000-mile journey in very different ways. Part 1 is 'Summer in Spain!,' festive, yang, and right-brained. Part 2 mellows with the season, is meditative, yin, and left-brained. Together they form an integrated expression of what it is like to be away for five months walking these ancient paths. Part 3, Upon This Stoney Holy Year, tells my initiatory eye-opening adventure from le-Puy-en-Velay to Santiago. And Scales of the Dragon is a collection of the poems from the first three books. 

More than 'travelogue,' these physical experiences are part of a spiritual journey, a journey which on one level culminates en masse with hundreds of other pilgrims celebrating in a baroque Cathedral, the shrine of St. James... and which on another deeply individual level ends with an introspective three-day walk to face the finality of the sea, the true end of the road, and cast a scallop shell into the cliff-crashing tide as a symbol of all that continues beyond physical boundaries.

On each book's page (links to the left) you will find its Introduction, photos from along the way, and a few exerpts.


Thank you for visiting... 
ALL FOUR BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, POWELL'S BOOKS and many other on-line retailers... but here are a few quick links:

Sons of Thunder
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sons-of-thunder-james-timberlake/1104972945?ean=9781456767969

Autumn on the Trail to Santiago
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/autumn-on-the-trail-to-santiago-james-timberlake/1105687224?ean=9781456766894

Upon This Stoney Holy Year
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/upon-this-stoney-holy-year-james-timberlake/1106031662?ean=9781463439484

Scales of the Dragon
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scales-of-the-dragon-james-timberlake/1105585331?ean=9781463446086



This is a completely grassroots endeavor and I would appreciate it if you would share this site!

ATTENTION BOOK SELLERS! At the bottom of the AuthorHouse Bookstore Home Page there is a link to ‘Information for Retailers,’ and if there’s interest, the Book Order Hotline’s number is 1-888-280-7715. http://bookstore.authorhouse.com