Bøker av Sue Hassel

In Boca di Lupo is Sue Hassel's first novel following up her initial book Random Thoughts of a Creative Mind, a collection of poetry and essays also published by Outskirts Press which has enjoyed wide readership internationally. In Boca di Lupo is the story of talented Soprano Lisa Brennan who began as a modest farm girl in Wisconsin and whose talent as an important solo artist which began in Wisconsin, expanded to Europe internationally performing at Covent Garden, Vienna Stats Oper, La Scala and the Lincoln Opera in New York City. It is the story of a dedicated musician with great discipline who managed an initially modest voice and thrilled audiences throughout the world as her voice matured. Operatic voices can begin as shooting meteors and with time the brilliant lightning bolt begins to age like a fine wine, eventually thinning some and refining to become an established artiste. At a certain point the body changes and the voice follow into secondary leading roles that can be managed to the end of a career. Lisa, however, is not so lucky since fate throws her a curveball when she is thrown into a sudden life or death struggle in the remote woods of New Jersey as a result of an unintended kidnapping by a criminal who has been a lifelong grifter who made a ghastly mistake and jumped into an empty cab for a joy ride and drove off with an unseen famous opera singer who had her head buried in her luggage as she dug through her bag in the back seat of his cab! Was it fate or just bad luck? The rest of the story plays out in the dense woods of New Jersey in a battle of survival to the death. The irony is that Lisa grew up on a farm and did heavy work. The grifter ends up dead in a heap of bloody sinew and scattered cerebral tissue. The grifter misjudged his mark. He is dead and Lisa is charged with second degree murder and is brought to trial by a famous attorney. How will this all play out? Will Lisa ever sing again publicly?

RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A CREATIVE MIND is a collection of all of Hassel’s writings that have been submitted literally since grade school to present time, including one short story delivered in a big writing class that scandalized some, left others howling with laughter, and the remainder thinking quietly as they left for home. Her take on life is unique having grown up on a farm doing heavy labor with her father on and around heavy equipment. She is quite a horsewoman, and above all, she would say, “What you see is what you get.” Hassel is also a fine painter (see cover art), and a gifted amateur dancer enpointe and modern.Sue Hassel grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, attended the UW, Madison, and then went to Europe. Her mother Elenora was a homemaker (who designed and sewed clothes for friends and family). Her father, Carl was an oil trucker for 41 years, a natural horseman and very gifted and humane in handling horses and all animals. Both parents had 8th grade educations. Both of their lives exceeded their educational levels. Sue has an older sister, Beverly, former Professor of piano at UW, Oshkosh, who is the real pianist in the family. Sue considers herself the hotdog pianist. She has to have fun playing piano, i.e. the virtuoso repertoire.  www.suehassel.com

Sue Hassel, originally raised on a farm in the Midwest, sang in Europe professionally, later moving to New York City which has been her home since. Over the years her individual poems and essays have been published in newspapers and books. She has been featured in extended weekend edition profiles of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and enjoys the moniker, "The Soprano on the Bridge." Random Thoughts of a Creative Mind is a collection of her early writings as well as more current articles, a few of which you will find on her website, www.suehassel.com. This book is her attempt at quantifying where creativity comes from in an individual, and how to grow through the various stages of life retaining that creativity and keeping it vital to the end of life.