OUTSIDE THE LIMELIGHT’s new first line

Well, I am very excited right now about a very small (to you), writerly thing. I came up with a new first line for the opening chapter of my forthcoming ballet novel, Outside the Limelight.   The old first line was sending the story in sorta the wrong direction, and it was using the wrong authorial … Read more

Elgar, Enigma and Easter

While my first choice for classical music on Easter will always be Handel’s Messiah, which I elaborated on HERE last year, there are a few other wondrous, utterly memorable pieces that conjure up the same rush of powerful spirituality, a sense of Easter Sunday grandeur. There’s the Gustav Holst choral piece I’ve sung in choirs, a gorgeous SATB arrangement of … Read more

The Classical Girl Turns Three!

Back in February 2013, I made a decision. If I was going to give this blogging thing a try, I needed to stick with it. I knew the facts: most blogs fail within six months, simply because it’s damned hard work to keep coming up with new, interesting, insightful things to say. It reminds me of that beer-in-a-shotglass game … Read more

10 bits of wisdom [to self] for the New Year

I’ve gleaned a lot of wisdom over the past two years, most of it the hard-earned, head-shaking kind. During this time period, coincidentally [or not], I recommenced a daily mindfulness meditation practice. You wouldn’t think that sitting on a pillow at 4:45am for twenty minutes, doing nothing but observing the rise and fall of your … Read more

Giving birth [to a book] on Mother’s Day

It’s minutes before midnight and I’m about to give birth. Well, to a book. But, weirdly, there are correlations: this pain of pushing, pushing, and finally, in this agonizing rush of both relief and loss, it’s out there. OFF BALANCE, my first ballet novel, is out there, in stores. My baby, out in the world. But I didn’t … Read more