Ampersand Gazette #117
Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on some of the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …
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Out of the Audience, Into the Orchestra
When 21-year-old Sterling Nasa woke up on Saturday he could not have imagined he would soon be performing in front of two thousand people.
On that “run of the mill” day, he was planning to spend his evening watching the movie “La La Land” accompanied by live music at the Darling Harbour Theater at a convention center in Sydney, Australia.
By the evening, this regular day had turned into a once-in-a-life time opportunity.
The commotion started during an interval after the first half of “La La Land,” the 2016 musical that centers on the love story of the aspiring actress Mia who meets the ambitious musician Sebastian.
The crowd was starting to realize that something was amiss when the interval went on for longer than they expected and Justin Hurwitz, the Academy Award-winning composer of the film’s score, came onstage.
“Is anybody like an amazing sight reader?” Mr. Hurwitz asked the crowd, adding that one of the musicians had fallen ill and had had to go home. For the show to go on, he needed someone to step in on the keyboard.
The request, to perform with a professional orchestra with no preparation, was nothing short of daunting. In this case, Mr. Nasa had to flip his own pages too, working his way through the show with new challenges waiting at every turn.
It was the musical equivalent of the question “Is there a doctor in the house?” Mr. Nasa said.
As a clutch of hands went up at Mr. Hurwitz’s request, Scarlett Pearce—the friend with whom Mr. Nasa was attending the performance—took charge. “I grabbed his hand and put it in the air for him. I don’t think he was very happy with me at the start,” Ms. Pearce said. But, she told her friend: “You’ll thank me in 10 minutes.”
Justin Hurwitz and Mr. Nasa. Credit...Scarlett Pearce
After some encouragement, Mr. Nasa got up from his chair and went toward the stage where Mr. Hurwitz and the orchestra were waiting, to applause from the audience. “I just tried not to fall down the stairs,” Mr. Nasa said.
Once he got to the stage, Mr. Hurwitz asked him for his name and handed him off to a tech. “I was pretty nervous,” Mr. Nasa said. But about ten minutes into his performance, Mr. Nasa said, he found his groove and started appreciating the moment. “When else are you going to have this opportunity? You just have to go for it.”
The performance included a solo on the keyboard during the song “Start a Fire,” which is sung and performed by John Legend in the film. Mr. Nasa improvised and received loud cheers from the audience. For Mr. Nasa, his brush with fame came at a pivotal time. He is about to graduate from the University of Sydney where he is studying international relations.
His real passion, though, is music. Mr. Nasa said his impromptu performance gave him the confidence to consider pursuing it as a career. Holding his own among such skilled musicians, he said, shows that his goals were “not completely out of reach.”
Excerpted from an article by Claire Moses in The New York Times
“Out of the Audience, Into the Orchestra”
June 2, 2026
When I first read this story, I smiled the whole day. This is the real-life dream of a Peggy Sawyer, the chorus girl in the musical 42nd Street who has to go on for the star. Here, I thought, is proof positive that these bizarre things happen around live performance. They do. Bravo!
But then the story wouldn’t let me go, not for a couple of days. I wondered why, and here it is:
Mr. Nasa—initially—didn’t think to volunteer himself. His friend—who believed in him until he could believe in himself on his own—raised his hand for him.
Mr. Nasa, we have to assume, resisted. This is the supposed humility we teach our children. Don’t brag. Don’t boast. Don’t put yourself forward all the time. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.
But here’s Ms. Pearce doing the exact opposite.
Which one of them was right? The real answer is: both. For different reasons.
Mr. Nasa wasn’t sure enough of his talent. He hadn’t tested it in the fire, so to speak. Well, here was the ember, the kindling, the smoke. Maybe even, flames.
He was following the practical dictates of parents who want to protect their children from disappointment. The easiest way to do that is to teach them not to take risks.
But then comes along a friend who sees far more truly, and Mr. Nasa makes his professional debut because someone believed him enough until he could believe in himself, get up, manage not to fall down those stairs, and join with the rest of his performing cohort to make music, something he clearly loves doing.
Take this away please. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t quite believe in yourself. Let a friend do it for you until you’re sitting at the keyboard improvising à la John Legend.
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A good book usually helps on a bad day.
from Guideposts Magazine
The Question:
How can I learn to manage the bad days?
&mpersand Answers:
Oh, man, does it ever! And, true confessions, I don’t mean The Good Book either. I mean a trashy romance novel or vampire popcorn or something equally enthralling, if the writing’s good, and easy to get lost in.
Sometimes, when you’re having a bad day, the reason notwithstanding, you need to run away for a while. It’s actually a great prescription as long as you don’t overuse it.
This isn’t your head in the sand for good; it’s a time out.
I don’t know about you, but when something has scared me badly enough that I would characterize a day as bad, a break is exactly what’s called for.
You know, there’s a reason that word appears in breakthrough. Sometimes you need a break to have one.*
Instead what we do is grab on to the first idea we have, and refuse to let go for fear that we won’t have another or a better one. Getting some distance on an initial emotional reaction is always advisable.
Now, if there’s a Bengal tiger in front of you on the sidewalk, you don’t need a time out, Belovèd. You need to run! Choose your moments.
I know for me, if I’ll read for a half hour or so, my nervous system calms down, and I can think my way toward a better solution.
Need a breakthrough? Take a break.
*My thanks to marketing wizard, and aspiring world-renowned comedian and actor Ian Stanley for this concept.
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Here’s a universal affirmation. It works every time, for everyone, always and forever …
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Oh Lordy. This second book, Betrayed, is going slower than molasses in January, and by hook or by crook, I am even more slowly figuring out why.
It won’t surprise you to hear me note that I never write anything that doesn’t have a lesson for me in it. Perhaps easier to digest: everything I write has a lesson for me personally. That’s where the case mantras started in Mex!
Well, this particular book is a lulu, a doozy, and a yowza. Seriously.
Eventually, I had to ask: where do I feel betrayed? (Duh.) And the answers came back to me loud, and clear, and unmistakable, related to such huge issues—and of course it would be, betrayal is not ever a little walk in the park—that I’ve had to stop and deal with my own betrayals.
The more I do, the clearer the book becomes. I’m sitting here shaking my head as I write this. It had to be. It just had to be because that’s how the benevolence inherent in the universe works.
I’m fifty pages in, and only now do I know how the rest of the book goes. B.L.T.N.
I’m dreaming even more, and huge, and bizarre mandalas so the pull toward the eleventh Mex Mystery remains strong. I may not be able to write these two together, but no matter, Mex will definitely be next.
Book Eleven is called Shrew This! and it takes place during the Covid-19 shutdown. Anchored in an all-female production of Taming of the Shrew presented by the residents of a safe-house shelter, it addresses intimate partner violence. The spiritual healing modality is the use of mandala, one of my favorite methods for calming my nervous system. Coloring. Seriously.
Please make this indie author happy. Choose one of my series, and read all of them. Then review all of them. That’s the way others find books.
The Mex Mysteries, all eleven of them, is one option. Or you could choose The Subversive Lovelies. Or, you could start The Boots & Boas Butch-Femme Romances …
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Take it from someone who knows … Tony Amato is dedicated to the authors he serves. That, in itself, isn’t particularly surprising. Of course he is, we say to ourselves.
But I got to thinking about just how he does this dedication, and whilst it changes on a dime, depending upon the author, the project, and a million other variables, what doesn’t change is far more important. And that is, Tony has an uncanny ability to hear the True Voice of an author. What I mean is, if you’re a wise-guy New Yorker whose stock-in-trade is one-line zingers, Tony is going to help you develop that, and not try to turn you into, say, Fannie Flagg.
That True Voice is elusive for some of us, especially at the beginning of a new series, but Tony has the fortitude, and the experience, to hold firm when he hears your Truth in your writing. I cannot begin to tell you how many times he’s saved me from myself, and my own silly clevernesses!
Is it time you had a reliable set of bumper-guards for your creative life? This is the guy, I promise you. Tony Amato is a full service, one-stop shop. Find this genius—yes, I’m saying it—who has been nurturing authors for more than thirty years, here.
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Forsaken Fae: Book One
by R. A. Steffan
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of the Fae, but I make a serious exception for this trilogy which is so charming, and hilarious, that I had to.
Here’s an excerpt from the blurb:
There's an unconscious Fae drooling on Len's couch. That's not even the weirdest thing to happen to him this week.
Len's been told that not all Fae are scheming, manipulative pricks. A moot point, since this one definitely is—he knows that much from bitter experience.
So, when his vampire ex-coworker dumps Albigard of the Unseelie on Len's doorstep, he gives her two hours to find a better hiding place for the Fae fugitive before tossing him straight to the curb with the rest of the garbage. He should have known better, of course. Because if there's one thing Len's learned since being thrown into the deep end of the seedy paranormal underworld, it's that nothing is ever so simple.
Now he's on the run from a cataclysmic primal force trying to tear its way into the human realm, stuck with an infuriating bastard who not only knows way too much about the inside of Len's messed-up head, but also insists the Len is an untrained necromancer. Seriously, what?
The first time he met Albigard, Len punched the Fae in his too-perfect face. This time, they'll have to learn to work together—or risk having their souls torn apart and consigned to the void, with the rest of humanity facing the same fate soon after.
The Wild Hunt has slipped its chains.
Darkness is coming for the world.
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Forsaken Fae is a slow-burn M/M urban fantasy trilogy. Download Book One today, and enter a world shared by humans, fae, demons, and vampires. It’s a place where the supernatural threatens the mundane, nothing is as it seems, and enemies must overcome their tangled pasts in order to save the future.”
As I said, Fae are not my thing. In general, I find them too mean, but Albigard has nabbed my heart for real. He’s hilarious, and the two together are delicious. R. A. Steffan is one of the most talented authors writing today. Their timing is exquisite. Their sex scenes actually make sense and grow organically out of the character development and the plot. Their world-building is impeccable. Don’t miss this Fae popcorn in which, as an afterthought, oh yeah, they also save the world.
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Are you waiting for a sign?
How about this one?
Change the pronouns, dear one,
to suit your own story.
Believing
is one of those concepts that
metaphysicians toss around
cavalierly.
But it’s really not a casual matter,
it’s a causal matter.READ THAT AGAIN.
Not casual, causal.
(Oh, what a flip of two letters can mean!)
Belief is required for manifestation.
This is NOT faith.
And it’s not belief in whatever thing
you’re working toward.
No, it’s one specific belief,
required for everyone
in every manifestation.
And that is:
YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE
IT’S POSSIBLE.
That’s all.
(And, FWIW, if some part of you
didn’t believe it was possible,
the desire would never have arisen
to begin with.
I swear on my hair, a very
serious swear.)
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I am, without doubt, certain that And is the secret to all we desire.
Let’s commit to practicing And ever more diligently, shall we?
Until next time,
Be Ampersand