Before the Boy

Even in death, a mother guides her son through triumph and tragedy to his true destiny.Billie Nickerson must accept her own mortality as the only way her son will receive the intuitive gifts he was born to inherit, to save her family - and perhaps the world - from a disastrous fate.But learning that she has died too soon creates a Karmic crisis, as Billie tries to escape the afterlife and return to her loved ones.In this prequel to The Moon Singer Trilogy (The Crystal Clipper, The War Chamber, The Wind Rose) we learn the uncanny circumstances that that made Billie's son, David, become a seeker of spiritual truth. As his teacher and mentor, she gave him the courage to overcome his unexpected deafness, to excel at music - and to hear the voice within that speaks from his soul.While Billie's life is fraught with danger and dark spirits, the story is an illustration of a mother's love and devotion that transcends the boundaries of the here and the hereafter. Since childhood, I've been torn between two worlds: writing and singing. It's difficult to serve "two masters," as they say, but I was compelled to do so. When I was not singing, I was writing; when I was not writing, I was singing. Now I do both. (While still working a day job!).I've learned, for me, that one creative expression nurtures the other. Much of my writing has a musical theme somewhere in the plot, or is the plot. Whether it's in my non-fiction writing about the power of music itself, in picture books and stories and, of course, in writing music and lyrics for songs.