This book delves into the history of the involvement of women in jazz. It covers how women participated in the music as well as in-depth interviews, and also includes a discography of recordings by female artists. "Dahl boldy goes where no man (or woman) has gone before. For people who love jazz...who get bleak when they think of what happened to Billie Holiday, this is their book." - Los Angeles Times Book Review
I have always loved to write about characters, usually edgy, little-known folks with wonderful stories and talents. I love places and music too, above all, jazz. As a girl, I dreamed about traveling around the world. As soon as I could, I took to the road. I was fortunate to live and work in several Latin American countries and after college (Latin American Studies, minor in
Buddhism - hey, it was the late '60's), I moved to the Yucatan in Mexico. From there I made the pilgrimage to another foreign country called New York City, with a suitcase and several hundred dollars. Finding the requisite cheap, shabby apartment (you could still do that in those days), I started writing in earnest. I had a number of ridiculous jobs to pay the rent, such as writing reviews of C- movies I never actually saw (and no one else seemed to either), driving an ice-cream truck through Central Park for just one day until I had a fender-bender, and writing a history of the cheeses of the world with a two-week deadline for a manic food editor. I also managed to produce novels, biographies and essays about music and quirky travel articles about Latin American topics - the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio, an interview with a candomble priestess, a.k.a. voodoo, in rudimentary Portuguese, and another with a Mayan healer who fortunately spoke Spanish.
I am happy to say that most of my books have been published, well-reviewed and are still in print. "Gringa in a Strange Land" is my latest, a novel to be published in January of 2010.
