Inspiration for a YA novel

In New Orleans, along the streets of the French Quarter and at Jackson Square, street performers entertain tourists and passersby for tips. Some costumed performers hold their poses as if they were statues of bronze or stone and only move to acknowledge the dropping of money into a hat or a bowl. The inspiration for JULIETTE ASCENDING was one of these performers: a young woman dressed as a cemetery angel, standing on a pedestal on Royal Street, as motionless as if she were really carved from white marble. When I dropped a tip in the small urn at her feet, she momentarily bowed her head, then resumed her pose.


This angelic girl, with her pale wings and draperies, stood in a shaft of sunlight, a red brick building behind her, its balcony edged with scrolling wrought iron. And I saw Juliette of New Orleans, a kindred spirit to Juliet of Verona. Re-reading ROMEO & JULIET, I realized that the young lovers were indeed married on Shrove Tuesday--another name for Mardi Gras. How natural then that Juliette should be masked when her romantic adventures begin.


Last June, when speaking on a panel at the Historical Novel Society Conference, I described the image that set me plotting JULIETTE ASCENDING. Then another panelist, Eileen Charbonneau, a wonderful writer of books for both young adults and adults, commented that all of us who are writers must watch for our creative angels and be receptive when they appear. I'm deeply grateful to the Angel on Royal Street, and though we never exchanged a word, her voice fills the pages of my novel.