Brave New World

Welcome to the premier post of my brand-new web journal, Parsifal's Horse. I hope to make this space a combination of a weblog regarding my interests in the arts and spirituality and a journal for publishing some of my work in those areas. As an introduction, my name is Susan Brooks, and I am an artist who creates music under the name Fleur D'Amour (see http://www.fleurdamour.us/ or www.myspace.com/fleurdamourmusic for more detail on that). I am also a writer who works freelance for music and arts publications and who has completed two book manuscripts. One purpose of this blog will be to document my efforts to bring my projects to fruition in the public sphere. I want to publish my books and to develop and release my music. I also want to write here on topics such as theology and religion that overlap with my art interests but for which I have as yet found no other public forum. In my world-view, art and spirituality are inextricably intertwined, with the one an expression of the other. The fundamental purpose of Parsifal's Horse is to provide me with an unedited and uncensored outlet for that expression. I have never maintained a blog before because I have been immersed in my book projects for the last several years, but the time feels right to use this medium to talk about all the interacting aspects of my creative process. Finally, I aim to use this space to share essays, poetry and miscellany that don’t have a ready home elsewhere, to convey some of my personal philosophy, and to simply provide a dynamic accompaniment to my books, journalism and music. I am very excited about this project, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I expect to. - Susan Brooks