Chanson de l'Ange by Paisley Swan Stewart, is a retelling of the classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera. Inspired by Jimmy , a young burn victim encountered in Paisley's childhood, and by the Phantom story in all its incarnations, the author weaves her own captivating tale of the universal struggle for acceptance and love.

Chanson de l’Ange begins as 10 year old musical prodigy Christine Daae, attends her beloved father's burial on a bleak winter afternoon. Following her father's death, and having no living relatives... The orphan girl is taken to the Paris Opera House, under the care of her newly appointed guardian, the mysterious Madame Giry. Christine is enrolled in the Opera's conservatory, where she encounters a bohemian world of eccentric performers and a life dedicated to music. In the Opera's gloomy corridors and backstage chaos, the young girl struggles to recover from her violinist father's untimely death.

As winter snows melt and seasons change, Christine hears the haunting music of a violin near her father’s grave. Convinced that her father has returned from the grave.... the child opens her heart to the unseen musician. This heavenly visitation ushers in both dreams and nightmares, as the musician slowly and methodically makes himself known. Chanson de l’Ange spans a 50 year journey; fraught with joys and sorrows, obsession... music... and madness.

This young woman will ultimately discover that not all angels have wings, and not all devils are what they seem.

Preview Prologue & Chapter One: Chanson de L'Ange

Like a lot of people, my husband and I are busy getting into the swing of the upcoming Holidays. We are doing some redecorating in our home; our new living room furniture will be delivered on Tuesday.... and after having the same furniture since we got married 30 years ago, it's a VERY big deal for us to have the privilege of all new beautiful things. In addition to to updating and decorating the living room, we are giving our kitchen a little face-lift. Nothing major, as we plan to gut and remodel our very old kitchen next Summer, but for now we are just trying to make it a little more livable.

Years ago we began the remodeling project by removing the old cabinet doors in preparation of refinishing them.... but they are so old and there are so many layers of paint, we decided to purchase all new cabinets, and completely start from scratch. The old cabinet doors were thrown out to make way for the new, but unfortunately the remodel never happened. Other more pressing issues kept eating up our finances over the years, and we've just never had the money required for such a huge project, so the kitchen has been a dreary and ugly sore spot in our house, with no cabinet doors, hideous formica counter tops, inadequate lighting and NO dishwasher!

Finally after all these years of putting our money into our personal ministries and faith based projects.... we are using our resources to improve our own lives. I could not be more grateful.

I spent a number of days stripping off decaying contact paper from all the shelves. It's amazing how these nasty projects just get away from you after you've lived in a house for twenty some years. I vacuumed and lined every shelf and drawer, and I completely reorganized the messes, making everything neat and tidy. We purchased attractive baskets for storing all kinds of things on the open shelves, and I'm trying to make it as attractive as I can until next Summer when the sledge hammers start flying!

These home redecorating projects mean a lot of trips to just about every kind of store you can name. Today found us at Lowes where we purchased cafe curtain rods and other odds and ends for a project we are attempting this weekend. Until we can tear out the old kitchen and put in all new cabinetry, I decided to cover my bottom cupboards with cute cafe curtains, just to hide the clutter and keep the dust from gathering in the bottom shelves. I was so excited when the curtains arrived, because they are perfect for the warm Tuscan decor I'm designing for the kitchen. It's amazing how happy a pretty red table cloth, a table runner with brightly colored sunflowers; shiny new pots and pans and cute little Tuscan striped cafe curtains can make a woman feel!

Each time we are able to make another improvement, I am mindful of the very hard times we've had in our lives together. Over the years my husband has been laid off for long periods of time, and there was even a year when we had not one single Christmas gift under our tree. Both my husband and I had back surgery in the 80's, and he was laid up for months recovering. We barely got by, and yet we never went hungry and we always had clothes and a warm home to be thankful for. We lost the gift shop we had owned and managed for 10 years, and we were forced to declare bankruptcy; an episode that nearly tore us apart.

Then there were the 3 years of Nathan's devastating illness.... the most difficult ordeal our family has ever endured. For me it was a nightmare I did not think I would survive, and I thank God every single day that Nathan is doing well.

Now that we are older, we are blessed that our finances are not too bad in these difficult times. We've made wise decisions that have put us in a good place, and we are having fun fixing up our old home (rather than purchasing a newer, larger one).

Sometimes I feel like I am living in a safe little bubble, because when I am in my cosy home with my family, the troubles of the world seem far away.

It doesn't take much to remind us though, just how difficult a time we are living in. In fact, I was reminded of that today in a little jaunt across the freeway to our local Fred Meyer. We stopped off on our way back from Lowes because I needed to pick up a few more items to put together those cafe curtains, and while I was shopping I was confronted buy just how much people are hurting out there.

We live in a lower middle class neighborhood, where there are quite a few elderly and mentally ill people. We see those folks all the time at our Fred Meyer store, but of late I have noticed a very different atmosphere in this area. People are not happy.... sometimes they are just plain crabby.... and who can blame them when they are on fixed incomes, and each time you go to the grocery store there are more price increases on the items we need every day. You can feel the sadness and fear all around if you stop to look and listen

Today in the store while I was going to pick up a prescription for my antibiotics, I heard what sounded like a woman crying. It was very loud, and certainly not something you hear in a grocery store on an ordinary day.... but these are not ordinary days, are they.

As I walked through the store to the Pharmacy, I could see that this woman was surrounded by security officers and a few clerks, and I could hear her saying something about needing her medicine... only she wasn't saying it, she was shouting and crying at the same time. This woman was attractive with long dark hair and large eyes..... and one more thing.... she was in a scooter.

It looked to me like the Fred Meyer employees were trying to help her, but she just became more and more agitated as shoppers began to stop and stare, like me, wondering what was going on.

By this time my husband caught up with me, and we both walked by the check stand where they were trying to deal with this crying woman. I could tell by her speech that she had some sort of mental disability, and she just kept saying over over again, that she had to have her medicine.

As my husband and I continued onto the pharmacy, I found myself deeply disturbed by this incident. I wondered what the woman's story was, and why she was crying. She had a large basket attached to front of her scooter, and it was full of bags of groceries. I was beginning to suspect there was a problem with her paying for these items, and that perhaps this was why she was so upset and being attended to... but I really wasn't sure.

When my husband and I arrived at the pharmacy, I still continued to look over my shoulder at this woman, and suddenly I just felt my heart aching for her. I stood there in the pharmacy with tears pouring from my eyes, and my husband's eyes were welling up too. We sat together while they filled my order, and I cried for a good fifteen minutes until they called my name.

I was very tempted to rush over and ask if anyone was was helping this woman, and I was even thinking of offering to pay for her groceries and medicine if there was a problem with her payment. But just as we paid our bill, we saw a clerk assisting the woman in her scooter toward the door, and she had her full bags of groceries with her. She had calmed down and was talking in a childlike manner to the clerk who walked beside the scooter, so I assumed that if it was an issue with payment, it was somehow resolved.

Even after she left the store, I just stood there with tears rolling from my eyes, because that woman made it all so real to me; the realness of fragile human lives and of all the things that can happen to tear those lives apart. I thought about all the suffering and shattered souls... people who have so little to be thankful for, who don't have new cafe curtains or new furniture to look forward to. I thought about people with life altering illnesses, about people whose families have been split apart and about all those folks who will spend the holidays alone.

And then I thought about how the Lord must feel when He looks upon the suffering of human beings... and the tears came even harder because I believe that He cries too. How could He not? He never intended it to be this way.

It's all around us.... suffering and broken souls are all around us, and with this economic crisis, I suspect the poor and the needy will no longer be quite so invisible.

As I we got in our car, the words that Jesus said really struck me, "The poor you will always have with you...."

On our way home, I said a silent prayer for that woman, and I asked the Lord a question.... I asked Him, "Why?"

Paisley