Just returned last night from New York where we spent three days wandering around the great city, stopping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we tried to convince our 8 and 10 year old boys that art really does matter (had success with the 10 year old but the 8 year old found it challenging after the initial excitement over having an audio guide faded)– and the Museum of Natural History where they watched their mother go crazy over the Big Bang exhibit (next lifetime I am coming back as a cosmologist! ) The eight year old may have had difficulties accepting the soulfulness in the eyes of Velázquez’s  portrait of Juan de Pareja but he had no such difficulties during the performance of The Lion King we took in the night before. It was truly wondrous to watch his face light up during the opening segment as Julie Taymor’s wonderful costumes came alive on the stage and we were treated to the parade of spectacular giraffes, elephants and lions supported by a  wonderful African beat.   I had known of Taymor through her design of  The Magic Flute Continue Reading →

If there is one thing that is truly wonderful about being a writer, it is the many people you meet because of a book you have written and to whom you would have no connection otherwise.  Our books become the ”slender threads”  the Jungian writer and wise man Robert Johnson speaks of, which unite your life with other threads held by people in sometimes disparate corners of the earth.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I heard from my agent that an Australian composer had called to enquire about turning my novel into a music drama.  It was all the more surprising given that I had articulated my desire to see such a thing happen when the novel was originally published and was informed that having a book turned into a musical was  rare indeed!

I immediately contacted Kevin—delirious with gratitude that he should be interested in such a thing–and a scant few months later we were meeting in Toronto Continue Reading →