Q&A: ‘Bermuda Blessings’ Author Barit Nolan

After working for more than a year to assemble her first book, Pamela Barit Nolan couldn’t be happier to see the final product on local bookshelves.

‘Bermuda Blessings’ is a compilation of the new author’s favourite prayers written over the past five years at St. Paul’s Anglican Church of Bermuda. She’s hoping the collection, which features beautiful illustrations by artist April Branco, will remind people of the beauty of the island and inspire them to go deeper in their faith as well.

Pamela Barit Nolan [right] and artist April Branco [left] teamed up to produce ‘Bermuda Blessings’

Ms. Barit Nolan tells us more…

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

A: Several things came to pass that brought about this book. Firstly, two of the members of the congregation at St. Paul’s [Rosemary Critchlow and Judith Pitt] had been encouraging me to make my prayers, which were written for the intercessions at the 8am church service, more widely available.

Another thing that happened was the church was in need of additional funds and raising funds through the sale of this book seemed like a good way to do it. Also, given that writing these prayers had given me a closer connection to God, I wished to offer people a way to inspire their own prayer life and perhaps write their own prayers and deepen their connection to their faith.

Q: Where did the title ‘Bermuda Blessings’ come from?

A: That is actually a funny story. I had been playing with names for a bit – bouncing some of them off artist April Branco and Rev. Anthony Pettit and others and nothing was sticking. I went out to lunch with my 86-year-old mother one day and I told her that I was struggling with a title for the book and she looked up at me and said what’s wrong with Bermuda Blessings – and I said – wait what did you say – and she repeated it – Bermuda Blessings – short and very appropriate. The blessings from the prayers and the art. So I owe that idea actually to my mom, Gaynor Buesser.

Q: Did you ever imagine you’d be a part of a project of this size?

A: Definitely not. I mean how can you ever expect to be part of something like this? When Rosemary and Judith put the idea of sharing my prayers in my head I first started putting some of them on the church’s Facebook page and then thought well maybe I could collect some of them together with some photos of Bermuda and print a few of them using Blurb.

It spiralled from there when local media consultants Rosemary Jones and her husband Paul Shapiro of Brimstone Media encouraged me to consider a bigger project. Soon after that I got together with April to catch up and as we spoke I told her about this crazy idea that was brewing. She looked at me a bit startled and told me that recently she had been drawing a lot of angels and was puzzled about why. We looked at each other and said – maybe you are supposed to illustrate my book!

From there we had the words and now an illustrator – all that was left was funding. I met with some friends who had worked on books and knew it would take a big investment to make that a reality. I did a budget and then decided to try to see if people would be interested in sponsoring this work. I made a list of about 20 people and then started asking – the book was almost fully funded in 10 days – I thought that was a pretty good sign from God that the book was destined to go forward.

Q: What went into getting this off the ground from start to finish?

A: I wrote my first prayer in March 2011. I think it was the fall of 2013 that Rosemary and Judy first started asking me about sharing the prayers more widely…so you could say three years. But from when I first started speaking to Brimstone, the book’s production team, probably 15 months. First we had to gather all the prayers into one document. There were about 120 in all. We then had to select the prayers that would be included, edit them and provide that work to April so she could create her illustrations, among many other things.

Q: How do you feel now that the books are on the island in hard copy?

A: When the first advance copies arrived, I got together with April and said – look you are an illustrator and she said – look you are an author. It all seems a bit unreal. I feel like scratching through my name and putting God there – it is through his grace that this book exists. I would never have imagined this coming to pass but He has his own plans and desires for each one of us.

Q: What is the underlying message behind the book that you want readers to get from it?

A: Prayer is powerful. Prayer brings you closer to God and connects you to others. Prayer can be entered into on your own but gains strength when groups come together in circles and congregations. I want this book to inspire people to pray and to deepen their relationship with God. The art plays a special role as well. I sometimes think that people take this amazing island for granted.

We zoom around in our cars and don’t see the cardinal flying by or notice that freesias blooming. These are God’s creations and we need to first notice them and then be grateful for them. He has given us a small slice of paradise and we need to care for it and appreciate it. The last few pages of the book are blank in order to allow people to write their own prayers and if they feel inspired to do so they can share those prayers on a special page that I have created on Facebook. Let’s create a global circle of prayer!

Q: Will you be doing any events or book signings to mark the official launch?

A: Yes. April and I will be signing copies of the book on Saturday [October 22] at the BookMart at Brown & Co from noon until 3pm.

Bermuda Blessings is available for $35 exclusively at BookMart from now until February. You can also get copies from St. Paul’s Church office from Monday to Friday 10am to 2pm or by contacting Ms Barit Nolan directly at pamela@transformbda.com.

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