Judith Rock
“AN ARTIST IS ONE ON WHOM NOTHING IS WASTED...”
Years go, I came across these words, though I don't remember whose they are. But I know how true they are.
Before I was a novelist, I was a dancer and choreographer; actress and playwright; professor and police officer; lecturer and researcher. Each of those passions and adventures has deepened and expanded my writing.
The Rhetoric of Death (which will be released by Berkley/Penguin on Oct. 5, 2010) is a historical novel with a dark mystery at its heart. It grew out of my 17th century dance research in Paris and is set in the Paris Jesuit college in 1686. Besides taking you into the lavish dance and drama the Jesuits produced on their college stage, the novel also takes you into the treacherous world of religious and political intrigue in Louis the XIV’s France.
You can read up on the history behind the novel in Terpsichore at Louis le Grand (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996). I think you’ll be surprised at what real Jesuits were doing back then, especially with dance!
