BRIGHT BURNING STARS
Best friends Marine and Kate have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they now compete for the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera's prestigious corps de ballet. But their bond begins to fracture as selection day draws near.
AMAZON STUDIOS FILM DEAL
Amazon Studios, Anonymous Content, and director Sarah Adina Smith have begun the filming of BIRDS OF PARADISE, a film based on the book BRIGHT BURNING STARS. Huge thanks to Trevor Adley, Sarah Gordon, Sarah Adina Smith, Kristine Froseth, and Diana Silvers for taking on and being inspired by my story! More to come soon! Read more.
Compulsively readable. I was breathless and battling tears up until the very last stunning turns onstage and beyond. A dazzling, heart-wrenching debut.
-Nova Ren Suma, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Walls Around Us
“
Book Launch Party Photos
Thanks a million to everyone who came out to support me and my debut novel! What a fun evening!
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MY INSPIRATION IN PHOTOS
Click on each photo to read more about how it inspired me while writing BRIGHT BURNING STARS.
What Kate and Marine’s feet and all the other dancers’ feet look like.
Arabesque
Young classical dancer
What I imagine Kate to look like in the wings.
Paris Opéra tutus in a vitrine.
Two dancers at the Paris Opera. Their intimacy reminds me of Marine and Luc.
What stunning Marine might look like.
Kate
Student dancers at ABT, the American version of Nanterre.
Dancer, Polina Semionova,ex-principal dancer of ABT, who reminded me of Marine.
Eternal Idol, by August Rodin, is what made me think of the dancers and their bodies fusing then repelling, the push-pull they constantly have.
A classical dancer’s leg.
The need to regroup is sometimes crucial in the studio.
Aurélie Dupont (ex-étoile de l’opéra de Paris) at the barre.
Two étoiles at the Paris Opera rehearsing.
This is the roof of the Palais Garnier with its bronze Pegasus figures sculpted by Eugène-Louis Lequesne.
A male dancer who reminded me of Cyrille as I drafted the novel.
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Photo sources - books, Pinterest, Instagram, and other online sites.