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If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home Meet the author John Jodzio |
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Home Again Meet the author Mariah Stewart |
M.J. Rose
Dear Librarian, Growing up, I didn't want to be a writer; I wanted to be an artist. We lived a block away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I started taking Saturday morning art classes there when I was just seven years old. I love that museum. So its not all that surprising that sooner or later I'd write a novel with a museum as one of my main characters and that I'd pick the museum that was in my backyard when I was a kid. But how I got idea for THE HYPNOTIST is surprising, at least to me. One day about three and a half years ago, on one of my regular pilgrimages to the Met, I headed straight for one of my favorite spots. The Mastaba Tomb of Perneb is a tiny bit of 5th Dynasty Egypt transplanted to Manhattan. A little girl about seven or eight came into the tomb while I was there and examined the space, giving every section careful attention. "It hasn't changed much at all," she said finally in a wistful voice. I asked her what she meant. "Since the last time I was here," she said. Something about the way she said it made me curious. "When was that?" I asked. "When I lived in Egypt." "You know this tomb has been on display in this museum since 1916." I said. "I lived in Egypt way before that," she said and smiled. She was about to say something else when from outside the chamber an older woman's voice called out. "Veronica, it's time to go. Now. Please." The little girl ran off, quickly, without looking back, without giving me a chance to ask her anything else. Even though I write about reincarnation, I haven't had any meaningful reincarnation episodes of my own. I don't get visitations. I've never seen a ghost. But I not sure what happened that afternoon. I can picture Veronica in her navy jumper and white blouse that had a dark smudge on the collar. She had a one-inch scratch on her left hand. She had a child's voice but it was so charged with adult emotion. It was that emotion which sparked the idea for my novel, THE HYPNOTIST. And the paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum that fueled it. If you go the Met, please go visit Perneb's tomb. And if you see a little girl there with long blonde hair and a blue school uniform... ask her if her name is Veronica... and if it is, thank her for me. And if you'd like to be entered to win one of five copies of THE HYPNOTIST write me at MJRNewsletter at AOL.com And tell me what your favorite museum is. Cheers, M.J. Rose www.MJRose.com
The Hypnotist / M.J. Rose / Mira / Hardcover; 405 Pages
Price: $24.95 / ISBN: 978-0778326755 / Published: May, 2010 M.J. Rose is one of our featured authors this week. Click here to view her reader comments and feel free to use them in your newsletters. |