Jean says, "Not only am I a hopeless romantic but I've also been a singer all my life. Which means I've been a fan of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy all my life. She was glamorous (and I could sing in her range). He was handsome and possessed a profoundly grand voice. He went to Hollywood to become famous, just as she had, and, in reality, the Hollywood life destroyed them. They were young and beautiful and famous, and Hollywood was just as wild then as it is today. I could see their love – it was all in every movie shot – so why didn't they ever marry? Were they Tristan und Isolde?

"This idea made me very sad, so I decided that somehow I must set things right. I had to arrange it so that they were together and lived happily ever after. This was a subject entirely too large for poetry – it seemed the time had come when I had to write a novel. Fiction. But it all could have happened. I was very careful, researched everything, worked through the myth and magic, let them love each other, have "a happy ending." I think they could have been happy together all their lives.

"They both made terrible, dreadful mistakes. They couldn't seem to "get it right." But, in every movie, their love burns the screen whenever they sing to each other. They looked at each other while they sang - and no one had done that before. They had huge fan clubs, were victims of the old Hollywood studio system and the moguls who ran it, subject of ceaseless propaganda and gossip columns. Just like today.

"I had to invent a best friend for Jeanette to narrate the story. (An entourage, if you will.) I created a few other characters as well. Everything I wrote happened or could have happened. You may have to try to figure out which is which...and I think you will be satisfied by the extraordinary ending created for their stories and their lives.

"Remember – it could have happened."