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A friend once paid me the great compliment of saying she liked to reread my books when she was depressed because they always ended with someone getting healed in some interesting way. In this case, the healing of Piper expressed my own wishes for healing for my second son Robin, who is autistic and has never spoken at all. However this book also gave me a chance to enjoy and explore the power of words by which I make my living, as well as the joy of music.
This story is about Silverhair as much as it is about Julian. Since I could not publish the book with a soundtrack, I tried to simulate the sound of music by including the lyrics to Silverhair’s songs. This book has more poetry than any of the others. Some years ago I made a CD of songs from the first two books with Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover of the music group Broceliande, and we are working on making copies available. We hope to do a recording of music from the Jewel books as well.
On the Tree of Life, the sphere associated with the element of air is Hod, whose color is orange and whose planet is Mercury. This is how Mañero/Coyote, the Westrian Trickster, came to poke his long nose into the book. The Mercury movement from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst conveys the sparkling delight in words and thought that characterizes this sphere.
