QUEST OF THE SLEEPING PRINCESS unfolds during a gala performance of the New York City Ballet in 1988 and is a novel about making steps through the poetry and terror of living in the Now. While caring for her mother, Susan McFadden dreams, aspires to be a singer, and pursues the visions of the ballets of 20th century's genius George Balanchine via myths of western culture, particularly the story of the Sleeping Beauty. We watch Susan watch the ballets, read, struggle with falling in love, negotiate the minefields of the worlds of opera and ballet, and we watch her watch her mother fight death. Through all of this, Susan becomes herself transformed into the artist she dreamed of being.