Harmony Rising
In a magical town where every voice can be heard, one woman must find the courage to listen to her own
a novella in progress developed in our Cinema Therapy program
In the hidden valley of Harmony, Montana—where humans, animals, and dragons speak a shared language through the magic of Whispering Yew pollen—Ellie Smith, a fifty-year-old librarian living with Parkinson’s disease, carries the weight of her great-grandfather’s legacy. He founded Harmony a century ago on principles of communication and connection. When a massive earthquake strikes, the town’s foundations — and its ideals — are shaken. One of Ellie’s favorite students, a ten-year-old boy named Ralphie, is missing.
While searching for him, Ellie and her loyal talking dog Tock find a glowing egg. It hatches into Flint, a miniature purple dragon who imprints on Ellie as his mother. Sadly, they cannot find Ralphie. Fear, anger and accusations rise in Harmony.
A year later, Ellie and Tock pick up the search for Ralphie again. Ellie's wise older sister Melinda (the Mayor of Harmony), Ralphie’s furiously grieving father, Roscoe, and Flint join them. They search beyond sacred boundaries, into the direwolf-haunted Dark Forest and the mountaintop dens where other dragons are rumored to live. They face physical and emotional peril in their search for Ralphie. Ellie navigates prejudices and mistrust both within their group and between species. She discovers inner strength and becomes a leader. Will it be enough to find the missing boy and heal Harmony back into the utopian community her great-grandfather built?
Author: Susan Scarlett
What Harmony Rising means to me
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Harmony Rising means freedom, discovery, and courage. By writing Ellie’s story through her eyes, I gave myself permission to imagine what I might do in situations that once felt beyond my reach. Ellie’s courage to say “yes” mirrors my own journey—where I had often let shyness and insecurity stop me before I began, I now find myself exploring choices and actions that reveal strengths I didn’t know I have. Fiction gives me a safe space to move beyond self-doubt, just as improv gives me a stage to practice saying “yes” out loud.
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In my seventies, this experience has been transformative. Writing Harmony Rising marked my first foray into fiction, and with this story, designed for a youth audience, I feel pride, joy, and a huge sense of accomplishment. At the same time, improv has become a home where acceptance is unquestioned, even as Parkinson’s changes me. The two practices now feed one another—writing strengthens my confidence to create “from whole cloth”, and the “no mistakes” hallmark of improv deepens my trust in taking risks in storytelling.
Like Ellie, I’ve learned that courage isn’t about banishing fear; it’s about choosing connection, creativity, and compassion. Harmony Rising reflects not just Ellie’s evolution, but my own rising into a life of self-expression and possibility. I have even started teaching Improv classes!
