Message to Readers

Dear Reader,

Born in Fresno, California, in 1947, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and experienced the commotion of the Vietnam protests during my college years. I lived in Canada for some time and returned to California with my young son in 1977. While working as a secretary, I met my present husband, a company executive. When my husband retired in 1992, we began to travel regularly to Italy, France, and England.

Because of this remarkable opportunity to visit the home of Western Civilization, I studied history so that I would understand what I was seeing. I audited classes and read and read and read. The study took me back to the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, the foundation for Western thought. I soon understood what scholars mean when they say we cannot understand the present without understanding the past.

I have also been fascinated with the interaction of body and soul, matter and spirit. Science is only beginning to understand some of the mechanisms of the brain; how we think and perceive is still a great mystery. Evidence supports the theory that the body and soul are closely connected, that our mental/spiritual state affects our physical well-being. My novels explore some of these ideas.

Over the years I have had many wise and loving people guide me on this journey through life. I have learned from the old and the young, friends and family from every walk of life. I have begun, I believe, to catch glimpses of our place in history, see patterns of love and suffering that marble each of us.

I hope you enjoy my first novel, Pilgrimage, set in Italy and its sequel, Offerings, set in France. Inheritance, the third in the trilogy, is set in England. My fourth novel, Hana-lani, takes place in Hawaii and explores the nature and commands of love. My fifth novel, The Magdalene Mystery, involves a search for the true Mary Magdalene and is set in Rome and Provence. My sixth novel, The Fire Trail, is a literary suspense set at UC Berkeley concerned with today’s threats to peace and freedom. Angel Mountain, released in 2020, set on Mount Diablo and at St. Joseph’s Chapel in Berkeley, considers current cancel culture, free speech, mob violence, Heaven and Hell, Intelligent Design and Evolution, the Holocaust and the importance of history and human dignity. My blog reflects my life of faith, family, and travels.

Christine Sunderland
Chris@ChristineSunderland.com