Culture in Miami.....

Miami is world famous for its beaches, nightlife and fashion but it is also a diverse and exciting 
cultural centre.  

This weekend I attended the opening of the 74th season of the Florida Grand Opera.  The sell out audience were treated to a spectacular production of the enduringly popular Madama Butterfly.  
At the Sunday performance at the Arscht Center/ Ziff Opera House  in downtown Miami, soprano Venessa Isiguen made her debut and she was wonderfully supported by Caitlin McKechney as her handmaiden Suzuki.   Vanessa looked beautiful and her voice was pure and haunting.  Suzuki offered
support and strength along with her fierce loyalty. The audience rewarded them with a standing ovation.  

Both of these outstanding singers and also baritone Chance Eakin are members of the Miami Beach Community Church choir where their powerful voices grace our services week after week. Modesty almost forbids me from mentioning that I also sing in that choir! When complimented on my beautiful voice by members of the congregation, I always tell them, 'It's not me. its the lady next to me.  That's Caitlin, she is a member of  the Florida Grand Opera'.  

I am so looking forward to following the global careers of  these fabulous young artistes  and also to more Miami performances at Madama Butterfly in November and December.

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Miami Book Fir International also opened this weekend.  Now in its 31st year, it is believed to be the largest literary event in North America.   The official opening was held at the Olympia Theatre in downtown Miami.  National radio broadcaster Ira Glass hosted a unique theatrical performance called Three Acts, Two Dancers and a Radio Host.  A strange, eclectic mix of dance, radio interviews and storytelling, the experience was a good indication of the type of quirky unusual presentations the Book Fair enjoy presenting along with author events, poetry readings and children's reading activities.  

Author events give readers a wonderful chance to get up close and personal to best selling authors and hear them tell in their own words,  aspects of their life stories, some of the tricks of the writing trade and stories of their writing processes.   Patricia Cornwell's shared details of her life as a journalist for the Miami Herald and also in the Office of the Chief  Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia.  She became a trailblazer being one of the first novelists to incorporate in depth forensic science into crime fiction.   Her latest novel is called Flesh and Blood. Best selling novelist Anne Rice is also in the blood and gore business and she has just published her latest book featuring the vampire Prince Lestat.  

These women are inspirational and I take their phenomenal examples success stories as a vision for my own ambitions.  Let me share a secret with you.  Last year after watching author Dan Brown deliver the opening lecture at the Book Fair, I made a decision, 'Next year I intend to have my own novel out by the time of the Miami Book Fair'.  My debut novel Love Mother Love Daughter was published last month and this weekend (22/23 November) I will be at the Miami Book Street Fair promoting 
it.  

Next year. I am promising myself a best seller..........

Life Is FABULOUS,   LIVE FABULOUS 

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