In recent years I read about identical twins, separated at an early age yet remained exactly alike in many ways. They both married a girl named Carol, drove a Chevy, and had a dog named Buddy. It made me wonder if we are programmed, like the butterflies who emerge from a cocoon and, with a brain smaller than the head of a pin, know to fly to an exact small town in Mexico.

These two ideas—identical twins and whether we are programmed —floated around in my head, pushing me to write a story. One day I had an “A-HA” moment. What if one was raised white and the other was raised black? And if their father was a jazz artist? Jazz had to be in there, of course. Finally, about two years ago I began to write. Something like the butterfly who just knows; the story wrote itself.  I didn’t create Grandmère and Alice, Uncle Albert, Rodeen, and JJ. They just turned up, full blown and invaded the story.

Now “The Color of Music” has been published. I enjoyed writing it and am delighted that the few people who have seen advance copies have told me they couldn’t put the book down. I hope others will read and enjoy my book.

Listen to Claire Gordon being interviewed on September 27, 2010 by Dave Congalton of KVEC 920 in San Luis Obispo, California