Gabriel Born - Stockdale, Muriel

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Résumé :
Sheila Jensen, desperate to invent a genetic cure, defies rules against combining animal and human DNA. She stirs outrage, so her fiancE and boss, Philip Ohl, blames her for the illegal and immoral work, destroying her career. Still, Sheila is motivated; her diagnosis will kill her, so she engineers her last ovum to make a deadly nerve disorder cure. Risking her life, she bears the child, hoping her transferable DNA cure will work, but she can't find the cure in Gabriel's DNA. She loses faith; soon her strength and health deteriorate. As Gabriel grows, her perception shifts. He is a prodigy that wins her wounded heart. She is shocked when he develops perfect blue wings at age five. All he wants to do is fly. Sheila can't contain him. When he flies, some of each watcher's consciousness joins him; his audience feels as if they fly too. When video goes viral, devotees flock to watch the angel boy, hoping to join the ecstatic ride. Violent protestors arrive too, spewing vitriol against him. Sheila flees with Gabriel, afraid that Philip will claim her son. When he does so with a court order that shuts Sheila out, she fears for Gabriel. She knows the institution will do anything in the name of research. Gabriel has completely opened her heart, healed her, and given her a taste of unimagined freedom. Clearly, the only way to rescue him is to accept his expanded vision and allow him to teach her how to actually fly.

Biographie:
Muriel Stockdales creative compulsion has manifested itself in numerous disciplines. This is her first novel. Her career started in rural Vermont where she secured a federal grant to form a company presenting theater to schoolchildren who had no opportunity to see a play. She went on to direct several shows in New York City and in New England, to perform onstage, crew backstage, design costumes and scenery, and manage costume shops. Soon Disney, NBC, ABC, PBS, and more began turning to Muriel for costume design.So did dozens of US and European regional theaters. She has worked with world-renowned, award winning performers, directors, writers, and composers such as Edward Albee, Adriana Trigiani, Richard Adler, Hayden Panettiere, Colleen Dewhurst, Tony Roberts, Lonette McKee and Kermit the Frog. Wanting to pay forward the rich lessons of her career, Muriel taught at NYUs Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Design Department for fourteen years. In 2003 Muriel produced and directed a short film entitled, New York City Spirit, celebrating diverse ways New Yorkers connect to their divine impulses. As an artist her US art flag series, E PLURIBUS, celebrating the diverse cultures of the US has been shown in multiple venues during the last 15 years including the Martha Stewart American Made Summit in 2015, The New Britain Museum of American Art in 2009 and two New York Libraries in 2008. In 2005 she returned to costume design for the feature film, Conversations with Godproduced and directed by Stephen Simon and in 2013 for the Opera Omnia production of The Return of Ulysses. Currently her focus is on production of her art flag series and various writings including a new opera version of The Ramayana. Her secret passion has always been spirituality, science and the mysterious, she has read countless science fiction and fantasy books and many of the worlds scriptural texts but she also devours books that explain the latest scientific knowledge. With a Bachelor of Science and Phi Beta Kappa key from the University of Vermont and a Master of Fine Arts from New York University, it is clear from the beginning that Muriel is not only well rounded in her interests and pursuits but also well rounded in her accomplishments.