New Scholarship Demands a Rewrite

After several weeks of deliberation, I have decided that I'm going to rewrite my book series, "So Faithful a Heart" to reflect the most recent scholarship and discoveries concerning my main character, Nancy Storace, that have come to light in the past few months. It's going to require a complete reworking of many of the main plot points in the first book, and some additional information added to the second book. I've also decided that instead of dividing it up into two books in one volume (as it is now), I'm going to make it one book divided into three parts. My goal with this rewrite is to make more of the impact that her experience as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse had upon her life, career, and relationships and how she not only survived the trauma but triumphed over it in an age when the lasting physical and emotional damage that domestic violence wrecks upon a person's life was even less understood than it is today. And although Mozart will still remain a central character in the story, I'm taking "The Love Story of Nancy Storace & Wolfgang Mozart" out of the subtitle and making the focus of the book about Nancy's personal journey and less focused on the relationships with the men in her life. I rewrote the first chapter tonight. I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of the summer and ready to publish by the end of the year.

There have been some fascinating new discoveries and scholarship surrounding the loss of her voice and the cantata that was composed for her in celebration of her return to the stage after the loss of her voice. And because of my experience as a vocal pedagogue, as well as my work in the field of domestic violence/sexual assault, I have unearthed a reason for the loss of her voice that has eluded historians. I'm the first to make the connection between her experience as a victim of domestic

violence and the loss of her voice as well as the permanent damage that she sustained to it, as well as other physical and emotional scars that plagued her for the rest of her life. I want my novelized account of her life to reflect these new discoveries and connections.

I will be dedicating this rewrite to all the survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault throughout history, as well as to my colleagues at the center/shelter for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, where I now serve as the sexual assault advocate/educator.