OTHER STAGES, and when Amazon ruins your launch day

First things first… Today, January 25th, Book 4 of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles, Other Stages, has launched!  Woo hoo! From the author of Outside the Limelight—named a Kirkus Best Book of 2017—comes a story about parenting, the performing arts, surviving high school and fighting back, in this gripping finale to the Ballet Theatre Chronicles. “An accomplished interweaving … Read more

The pure, true beauty of “O Holy Night”

  Confession: I stopped writing this essay on “O Holy Night,” soured by something I couldn’t name, bogged down by the online research. I set it aside, but the urge returned and I started it up again several days later. Then it happened again, an edgy, almost negative feeling as I read article after article … Read more

We love you, Michael Tilson Thomas

Last week I called the San Francisco Symphony box office to switch dates for a subscription ticket with a conflict: Sunday’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. There was Saturday night availability, but as life has been busy of late, I weighed the pros and cons of deferring to a … Read more

Join my readers’ club!

Join my Readers’ Club to enjoy an exclusive excerpt (and new cover art!) from the forthcoming Book 4 of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles HERE! Or prefer a free e-copy of Book 1 of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles? Click HERE!  This year I celebrate 10 years of blogging as The Classical Girl. It also marks 21 … Read more

Swans, Art and Pain

The closing scene of the ballet, Swan Lake, carries a real-life poignancy that can be hard to capture in 19th-century story ballets. In the ghostly light of a full moon against a lake, lovers Siegfried and Odette clash with evil sorcerer Von Rothbart in a fight to the death, as Tchaikovsky’s dramatic music builds to … Read more