The Story of the Story

Shortly after moving to New Mexico, I had the good fortune to attend an opera in Santa Fe with a dear childhood friend. We had front row center seats to La Traviata. I was enchanted! (Note: this was not my first opera. My friend also took me to see Birgit Nilsson in Salome at The Lyric Opera of Chicago.)

For weeks I relived the performance and every little nuance. Remember I was no more than 12 feet away. Gradually a story began to form. So, in 2009—during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)* I spat out 50K words of the first draft.

I worked on it and asked my Opera Friend (see above) to look at it. I should note she is a very talented opera singer AND fluid in French. She provided some wonderful suggestions, which I included.  I had good feedback from others, but got distracted with other story ideas.

Last year I capitulated to the pressure and I am proud to offer the result! Please read the acknowledgements to get a picture of how many have helped bring this love story to light.

I’m sure some of you will have questions which I am happy to answer. Leave them in the comments and I will answer. Also, if you wish to be included in the drawing for a print (2) or eBook (4), please leave a comment with which you prefer. I will draw from a random number generator and winners will be announced 24 hours later on Friday afternoon on this site