TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SCHEHERAZADE?

In the story of Scheherazade, the monarch Shahryar, on learning of his first wife’s infidelity, had her put to death. He then vowed to marry a new woman each day and have her put to death the following day before she could be unfaithful to him. At least, that’s the story as I understand it. Needless to say, he eventually ran out of eligible women to marry, and the brave Scheherazade, who was a reader (love that part) and had collected many stories, offered to marry her king. On her wedding night, she told Shahryar a story but didn’t finish it as the sun rose. So he kept her alive to hear the end of the story.

She completed that story but began a new one which once again she didn’t finish. She did this for a thousand and one nights, during which time the monarch fell in love with her, and when she finally ran out of tales, he didn’t want to lose her.

I first heard about this when a very young girl by listening to Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral suite based on this story, so it’s no wonder that literature and music were firmly joined in my appreciation for both art forms.

And as I weave my current story, The Case of the Casanova Cantor, book nine in the Augusta McKee Mysteries … and my seventeenth book overall…I begin to feel like a modern-day Scheherazade. But I’m not answering to a despot in order to save my life. I’m finding a way to fill my remaining days, however many may be left to me, with two things that bring me joy…music and writing. At eighty-five, who knows how much longer I may be around to create new tales?

Since I began writing on May 6, 2013, this coming May I will complete three thousand, six hundred and fifty-two days (two Leap Years in that period) of weaving my tales. (Take that, Scheherazade!) Admittedly, I don’t sit at my computer to put words on paper (so to speak) every day, but they’re brewing in my head constantly. I never dreamed when writing my first book, How I Grew Up, that ten years later I’d still be at it.

Since I live with an elderly cat (Josey is fifteen) who spends most of her time sleeping, my distractions are primarily teaching people how to use their voices correctly so they can sing all their lives. I’m grateful I can continue to do this, and equally grateful to be in touch with several former students who share their activities with me.

How fortunate am I, in this turbulent time in both our country and the world, to be able to escape into my own world, meet wonderful characters, tell their stories, and share our music in my stories.

All my tales are available in both Kindle ebooks and print editions on Amazon. Take a journey through them and perhaps you’ll find something you will want to read!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Susan-Moore-Jordan/author/B00IBZ731U?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Photo by Katy Burton, Pocono Cinema