"We don't just meet people by accident; they are meant to cross our path for a reason." Unknown AMID THE NOISE AND HASTE is my first novel of inspirational adult fiction based on the belief that everyone has a guardian angel and that if you are tapped into your own subconscious deeply enough, you start believing that this angel takes many forms, physically and mentally, to help you get through life. This 76,500 word novel is as much a spiritual journey as it is a physical one, as my protagonist's adventures span four continents, and more than a dozen countries, in search of herself during her work as a broadcast journalist. Inclusive of many non-fiction references to and interviews with real people, musicians, artists, cities and events from the end of the 90s into the turn of the new millennium, Piper Brown follows the voices of her mantra found within the famous poem, THE DESIDERATA, to find her way back home. AMID THE NOISE AND HASTE is similar in texture and diction to Elizabeth Gilbert's NY Times Bestseller, EAT, PRAY, LOVE, in the sense that there is a young female protagonist searching for a balance in life. As my heroine is being guided by the wisdom of her God, she like all of us, struggles with the human condition and is ever evolving, moving from her morning to her noon then to her night of life, in order to find the answers for which she's been searching. As a music reporter and travel journalist, Piper Brown shares, with an entire generation of readers just entering middle age or 'the afternoon of life', her profound love, infectious laughter, and wide-eyed curiosity, while she discovers herself through the real people, music and travel adventures she experiences. We believe she is a kindred spirit; we want to cheer her on in victory and cry with her in defeat. " Prologue 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two at mid-day and three at night?' The Riddle of the Sphinx The answer is Man; he crawls on all fours as a baby, and then walks on two feet for the majority of his life; then he gives way to the use of a cane as he reaches old age. Although there are many interpretations of the history behind the riddle, its purpose and its inventor, legend has most commonly credited it to Oedipus as a riddle that he enforced to provide security into the entrance of the great tombs of the pyramids. One needed to answer the question correctly or be slain. It was Hera, who knew the answer. I was very fortunate throughout my life to have had the opportunity to travel and it was on one such adventure to Egypt where I was reminded about the complexities and the capabilities of the human spirit. I was in awe of the pyramids and the Sphinx and marveled at the construction of such eternal masterpieces because most particularly, they had been crafted so many centuries ago; but it made me realize that no matter how much we as humans have evolved, we are still plagued by the same riddles, suffer the same conditions and pay the same consequences as our human brethren did back then. We are the most evolutionary creatures on the planet. Yet we cannot seem to move beyond our own complexities and limitations. We are all united in our misery by what makes us divinely human. My protagonist, naturally, is no different, she suffers the same human conditions; she lives, she loves and she dies. She is ever evolving moving from her morning to her noon then to her night of life, but she feels the need to go outside herself in order to seek what is really within all along, in order to find 'peace with her soul' as it says in The Desiderata and to find her 'home', whatever that is perceived to be. This then bares the question, is she actually meeting and seeing real people or merely incarnations of her self?" The moral of the story is to listen to the voices in your head, to tap into your subconscious. They're telling you things for a reason; they're showing you the way to go home.