Mary Shelley: London & Sussex, England
with Dana Schwartz
April 24th-April 29th, 2022
The story goes that Frankenstein was born from a now-iconic scary story writing contest between her and companions at Villa Diodati in Switzerland during the ‘year without a summer.’ Her legacy of feminism, humanism, passion and horror follows us today. We are going to walk in her footsteps, then follow her lead, writing and sharing our own scary stories.
We will spend time in London, visiting the grave of Mary Wollstonecraft where she first kissed Percy Shelley, seeing her portrait and other important haunts. Then we will retreat to the countryside to walk and write with Shelley as our inspiration while asking ourselves the question: What makes us human?
We will meet in London on the morning of the 24th, explore pieces of Mary Shelley’s life and past, and then travel to Tilton House where we still stay for the remainder of our time together. We will spend our days reading Frankenstein, discussing its themes, taking great walks as Mary Shelley used to for inspiration, and in community over this text.
DANA SCHWARTZ
Dana Schwartz is a writer of books, comics, and television. She’s the author of four books, including New York Times best seller and Reese Witherspoon book club pick, “Anatomy: A Love Story," and the host of the number-one charting podcast, NOBLE BLOOD. Dana lives in Los Angeles with her fiancé and their two cats, and she spends most of her time baking and learning strange facts about history.
VANESSA ZOLTAN
Vanessa is the CEO of Not Sorry. She is on three of our podcasts: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, The Real Question, and Hot & Bothered. She founded Common Ground Pilgrimages in order to travel with brilliant faculty to beautiful places and talk about books with amazing pilgrims. It was a great trick she pulled off. She is also the author of the book, "Praying with Jane Eyre".
Vanessa was trained as a non-denominational chaplain at Harvard Divinity School. She is a proud California girl who currently lives in MA with her gorgeous, blended family. Her Romance novelist pseudonym, if she ever publishes a Romance novel, will be Lorelai Mason, as you can see in her profile pic.
What's Included:
One day in London and five nights in Sussex at Tilton House in shared rooms
Vegetarian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from lunch on the 24th to breakfast on the 29th
Transportation within England from April 24th in London until April 29th in Sussex
One-on-one chaplaincy sessions
Private walking tours, picnics, and talks with local experts
Customized journal
Logistics:
Registration is first-come, first-served.
Payment plans are available upon request.
We will reach out to the first registrants with a link to make an initial deposit within 72 hours of receiving their registration link.
The rest of the payment will be due eight weeks from the day the deposit is made for the remaining payment.
When you sign up through our registration system, it will act as a waitlist, and we will let you know via email once a spot has been confirmed for you.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at commonground@notsorryproductions.com.
COVID Policy:
We are so excited to begin traveling with you again, and as always, our first priority is to make sure that the trips are safe for everyone involved, including the communities we visit and the people who host us. To that end, we are keeping a close eye on the evolving COVID situation and will update you as frequently as we can if the situation with the pilgrimages changes.
Below are some potential expectations we could have in terms of covid safety. Only sign up for the trip is you feel comfortable following any/all of the below guidelines:
Wearing masks indoors or outdoors, no matter group size
Social distancing, both indoors and outdoors
Getting proof of a negative COVID-19 test within a certain number of hours before arrival
Getting a negative COVID test upon arrival at the destination
Proof of vaccination
Quarantining upon arrival to destination country
On our end, we will refund fully any payments made for the trip in the event that we at Common Ground Pilgrimages have to cancel due to change in travel restrictions, variants, etc.
By making a deposit, you acknowledge the above precautions and are willing to follow them, or any similar recommendations, when you come on the pilgrimage.
Refund Policy:
Please be sure you can attend the event before booking. If an unforeseen circumstance does occur, we will do our best to find a replacement for you. If we are able to get someone to take your place, we will refund your full payment minus a service charge (usually 7.5% of the deposit depending on the credit card processing fee). For cancellations within six weeks of the beginning of the trip, we are not able to find replacements. If you can find a replacement independently, we are happy to transfer your registration to them after receiving the new participant's payment and refund your purchase minus a 15% service charge. We strongly urge you to purchase travel insurance in the event of a personal conflict, health issue, or unexpected circumstance.