Mozart's Ghost by Julia Cameron

“Mozart’s Ghost”, by Julia Cameron is a supernatural romance novel set in New York City. It was published in 2008. The main character is a woman named Anna who lives, in a New York City apartment building, upstairs from a man named Edward. Edward is a professional pianist studying a number of composer’s works for an important upcoming competition. Among those composers works is that of Mozart. Edward practices night and day for the competition, which irritates Anna. She is a professional medium (also a substitute teacher by day) who meets with her clients in the building. Because of Edward’s practicing, she is having a difficult time hearing what those who have passed to the other side have to say. Then, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart begins contacting her. His strong, larger-than-life, personality and sudden appearances at awkward moments grates on her. He encourages her to go for a relationship with Edward. Also, he loves Edward’s music, saying that Edward plays Mozart’s music the way he himself would play it. He wants to give Edward a few suggestions that will help him win the competition, and wants Anna to relay them to Edward. This request creates a big problem for Anna. She feels that most people think mediums are strange. Also, she has lost a few boyfriends when they found out she was a medium. Because she and Edward have realized an attraction to one another, it is difficult for her to tell Edward about Mozart’s message. She feels the cost could be her relationship with Edward. Meanwhile, she has been practicing appearing normal so that Edward will not even suspect she is a medium.
There are some other interesting characters in the book such as Anna’s twin brother, Alex, who befriends Edward. Anna also has a few friends, a homosexual male friend named Harold who is the principal of a school Anna is subbing at, a bi-sexual guy friend who is interested in Anna, and a female friend who has sort of a disastrous dating life.
I’m glad I read this novel. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. It turned out to be interesting, even though I didn’t care for the beginning. At first, the writing didn’t seem to flow well, and I thought the letters Edward wrote to the couple who is financing his career seemed like something a child would do. I was thinking, you’ve got to be kidding. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on reading. Then suddenly, the writing got a lot better and I wanted to read the book, though I’m not sure I ever loved the letter part of it. I think Cameron portrayed the work of a medium very well. Something, however, that really bothered me in the novel was how the town of Ann Arbor, Michigan was described as being conservative and not open to mediums. This is not true. Ann Arbor is known for being a metaphysically progressive town. If Cameron had selected almost any other town in Michigan, that would have perhaps made sense, but this does not. Also, the other thing I wondered about is why Edward would be interested in Anna. She does not seem very likable. I am also wondering if the character of Anna is based upon a real life friend of the author, Sonia Choquette. Choquette, who lives in Chicago, is a medium and a bestselling author. In her autobiography, “Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir”, Cameron says that she befriended Choquette, helping her with her writing. The physical description of Anna seems to match that of Choquette. I wouldn’t be surprised if the character of Anna wasn’t loosely based on her.
Some people describe “Mozart’s Ghost” as a predictable but enjoyable “light romance”. I think this is true. I also agree with others that it would make a good film, though I would hope that if “Mozart’s Ghost” does get made into a film, that Ann Arbor gets a truer-to-life description of the forward-thinking town that it really is.


Review written by Karin Olsen

Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir by Julia Cameron

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Julia Cameron’s autobiography, “Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir” was published in 2005. Cameron, born March 4, 1948, is an award-winning poet, playwright, and filmmaker. She has also written many non-fiction titles, is a journalist, novelist, screenplay writer, songwriter and composer, and a strong advocate for and teacher of creativity. She has written thirty books. Among them is “The Artist’s Way”, “The Vein of Gold”, “Walking in this World”, “The Right To Write”, and “The Sound of Paper”. Cameron is most known for The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, c1992, a twelve-week program she created for artists and others to unblock their creativity. She believes in everyone becoming unblocked creatively whether you are an artist, a writer, or a business person. She based her program upon the twelve-step Alcoholics Anonymous programs.“Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir” is a fascinating book that I read quickly. Cameron’s writing is amazingly honest and I love her depictions of her daily life as an artist. They were quite inspiring. She speaks about her first marriage to the famous film director, Martin Scorcese, her struggle with overcoming alcoholism, and in later years, dealing with a mental imbalance which had to be treated with medication, her upper-class upbringing in Libertyville, Illinois, complete with horses, her daughter by Martin Scorcese, Domenica Cameron-Scorcese who is an actress, writer, and director, her second marriage to author Mark Bryan whom she met in Chicago and who collaborated with her on “The Artist’s Way”. She also talks about her writing life, her beloved parents and siblings, the creative artists and metaphysical people she has met in the places she has lived and worked – Los Angeles and Venice Beach, California, Chicago, New York City, London, and Taos, New Mexico, how she went from writing for “The Rolling Stones” Magazine in New York City when she met Scorcese to screenplay writing in Hollywood, to being a film critic in Chicago, etc. She has mastered a number of forms of creative writing and journalism as well as in her later years, successfully working with music. Julia emphasizes that she had always desired to be a writer. This has been her life’s dream. In “Floor Sample” she speaks about the difficulty of being accepted by the “in” people, surviving financially, finding people who believe in you, “hearing” the work, becoming creatively unblocked, and persevering as an artist. She also speaks of the disappointments when she finished her Hollywood screenplays but they were not made into films. She says it felt like they had been “aborted”. A lot of the book also speaks about her work travelling the country with Mark Bryan and other teachers, teaching “The Artist’s Way”. I have known about “The Artist’s Way” since somewhere in the 1990’s when I lived on Maui and took “freewriting classes” from my writing teacher, Lollie Groth. She used freewriting and “The Artist’s Way” to unblock writers. A decade earlier, in my twenties, I had lived in Chicago and been a member of an organization called “Women in Film”. I was lucky enough to hear Cameron speak as part of a panel discussion about filmmaking. At that time, she left an impact on me and I never forgot about her. Little did I know that years later, I would be using the tools of her yet-to-be written book “The Artist’s Way”. Cameron recommends three basic tools for getting creatively unblocked. The first tool is what she has termed “the morning pages” which are three one-sided 8 ½ x 11” pages of straight writing, getting the junk of your life down, and writing whatever comes to mind. The second artist’s way tool is holding a weekly artist’s date with oneself, where you take yourself somewhere that will inspire you. It could be a bookstore, a café, or a boutique. It is a way of honoring yourself as an artist. The last creative tool she talks about is taking walks. Longer walks are better but shorter walks will do. She says that walking unblocks your creativity, giving you ideas. I have heard other writers also speak of that.

Upon reading “Floor Sample”, I decided to look at the books by Cameron that I had not previously looked at. I checked a bunch out at the library. They are excellent - truly well-written. She says that “The Vein of Gold” may be hard to get through but the people that worked through it ended up having good results with it. I also ended up reading a novel she wrote that was published in 2008. It is called “Mozart’s Ghost”. I really enjoyed it. Sometimes people who speak and write about writing are not good at fiction writing. Fortunately, this is not the case with Cameron. I would highly recommend “Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir”, particularly if you are interested in the creative life. It totally left a strong impression on me. I would also recommend “The Artist’s Way” and Cameron’s other books. They literally have the power to change your life.

Review written by Karin Olsen

New to the Library

What I love about working in the library is that I get to see all the new books that come in. So as I was looking on our new shelf of books I came across these four titles that looked really good.

Adult Book

I love Keri Arthur. I have read all her Riley Jenson books and this is the seventh book in the series. In this installment you find Riley hunting down a powerful sorceress who can raise the dead to do her killing. Plus Riley is caught between her steady vampire Quinn and her growing crush on the sexy bounty hunter rogue wolf Kye Murphy. I can't wait to read it.

Adult Book

Jillian Hoffman is the bestselling author of Retribution. I haven't read any of her books but

Plea of Insanity sounds intense. Julia Vacanti is a young ambitious prosecutor facing a case that could launch her career. The defendant is David Marquette a successful Miami surgeon and devoted family man that is accused of killing his wife and three children. The plea is Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. Just reading the first few lines peaks my interest. Maybe it peaks yours as well.

YA Book

In King of the Screwups Liam Geller is Mr. Popularity. Everybody loves him and he excels at everything. But like a typical teenage boy he has a knack also for screwing up. His father throws him out of the house and Liam is taken in by his gay glam-rocker disc jockey uncle. Liam has a chance to start over and be everything his father wants him to be but his "Aunt" Pete see him for who he really is and Liam has to decide which version of himself he can live with. Sounds good!

YA Book

Fate is the sequel to Tattoo. So I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who wants to read these books in order.

What I'm reading right now

Right now I have been reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series like a mad woman. I can't read them fast enough. They are that good. These books are rooted in Greek and Atlantean mythology. They have Gods, vampires, were animals, romance, danger, humor, and so much more. I can't believe it took me this long to pick these books out. If you haven't read anything by her please go to the library now and get the first book in the series Fantasy Lover. If you like all of the above you wont' be disappointed. Her website is http://www.dark-hunter.com/.