You Are My Song
The nineteen-fifties. Elvis
is wearing “Blue Suede Shoes.” Country music reigns supreme at the Grand Old
Opry in Nashville.
But in a small Tennessee town Jamie
Logan ─ a good-hearted young man with a superb tenor voice ─ stars in his
high school’s musical theater production and begins an unlikely, almost magical
journey that could take him to the pinnacle of the opera world.
The path is far from simple. Jamie just wants to
sing. He is ill-prepared for the jealousy, rivalry and politics he encounters
on his way. Family crises and even a hate crime also sidetrack him and
threaten to undermine his journey.
But Jamie has a voice beautiful beyond belief
─ and the love of a woman who inspires him to believe in himself. His
desire to sing becomes his reason for being. Will that be enough?
I
introduced Jamie Logan in How I Grew Up; he played opposite Melanie
Stewart in their high school production of Carousel. I like my
character Jamie. He has a naturally beautiful voice. He has innate musicianship
and an ability to learn quickly, and no ego. He’s friendly, generous, outgoing,
considerate. Oh, and unusually good-looking. He and Melanie have a strong
connection, and they both wonder if they could be in love. But no, Jamie has a
jealous girlfriend he later marries, and she doesn’t want him to sing.
When You Are My
Song begins, it’s four years after Jamie’s graduation from high
school, and his marriage has failed. I had to laugh at my readers’ reaction to
that; two of them commented they weren’t surprised to learn of Jamie’s and
Sarah’s divorce. I wasn’t either. I wanted to see what would happen if I
allowed Jamie to reconnect with his love of singing.
Jamie’s lack of ego is
unusual in a tenor. It’s a challenge to be a tenor in the world of opera;
everyone wants to hear the tenor’s high notes, and if he doesn’t deliver, there
are inevitably negative reactions. There’s a reason many of us love the tenor
voice. There’s an intensity to the tenor sound; the response to that sound and
those high notes is visceral. It’s a thrill to hear a tenor sing high notes
with power and beauty.
Even
more, we love to hear a tenor who can not only sing that high C, but hold it
forever and play with the dynamics. All of these things are probably contrary
to the laws of physics, or medical science, or something. But the poor tenor is
stuck with it. Of course, there is so much more to what makes a good tenor ─ a
passion for the music he sings; the sensibility to shape a beautiful phrase; the
ability to move the audience with the sounds he makes. He must be able to
connect with his fellow performers; he must be believable in the role he is
portraying.
The
best singers don’t just perform. They share their souls with us. Because of the
remarkable beauty of the tenor sound, we may feel he does that more intensely.
Jamie eventually has the tools to pursue a career in opera, but when we first meet him he's a high school senior with a splendid voice and a good heart. Here’s his introduction to the reader in my first book, How I Grew Up,
remembering the narrator is Melanie Stewart:
Alice [Melanie’s sister] was right; Jamie was a very handsome
boy. He had very dark hair, but fair skin and startlingly blue eyes. But it was
more than that which made him so appealing; Jamie was someone everybody liked.
He was friendly and kind, and always had a ready smile. Jamie had a truly beautiful
tenor voice and he loved to sing, but he wasn’t conceited about it. When people
complimented him on his singing, he always seemed a little surprised. He was
just doing something he loved to do, and if people liked hearing him, well,
that was great.
That was Jamie at
eighteen. My new book begins when he is twenty-two and follows him through the
next seven years of his life, and Jamie goes through a lot in those seven
years. You can order You Are My Song,
as well as How I Grew Up and Eli’s Heart, in paperback
or e-book format on Amazon. People who live here in the Poconos can purchase paperback
copies of all my novels at a slightly discounted price at the Pocono Community
Theater. I’ve loved writing these books. I hope you enjoy reading them.
Cover design by Tristan Flanagan
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