''As usual,'' Carly Simon says, ''I was writing about my life and trying to screw it up just enough so it wouldn't be totally accurate.''

Simon's on the phone on a whirlwind day of taping TV gigs to promote her new CD, rehearsals for a concert in Miami, fielding phone calls from her ex-husband (no, not that one), and reconciling with daughter Sally Taylor. But more about that later.

Right now, Simon's talking about Romulus Hunt, an opera about divorce and its effects on children. She composed it in 1993 when New York's Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center jointly commissioned a piece to appeal to a younger audience.

The occasion to bring up this old work is its featured role in a weekend of activities for Simon in Miami. Florida International University's theater department will stage Romulus Hunt, featuring an all-local cast, at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. Artist Romero Britto and Simon's brother, photojournalist Peter Simon, have created original works to be unveiled during the production.

The opera is preceded Friday night by Simon's pop concert -- incredibly, her first in Miami. Son Ben Taylor is a part of her band on guitar and vocals. Simon plans to spotlight classic hits and music from her Brazilian-inspired new CD, This Kind of Love.

Romulus Hunt focuses on Rom, a 12-year-old New York boy who is shuttled between divorced parents. His father, Eddie, an artsy type, lives in a loft with his eccentric performance artist girlfriend. Mom, Joanna, is a reformed flower child turned uptight single mom. Rom, with the aid of an imaginary friend, a Rastafarian named Zoogy, plots to bring his incompatible parents back together.

'EXAGGERATED ME'

''I never like things to be verbatim so I made the mother be the uptight one, the one who lived on the Upper East Side and who had strict rules for Romulus,'' Simon, 62, says. ``It's the exaggerated me. The father was bohemian. And if you want to put it in contrast of me and James [Taylor, her first husband and father of Sally, 34, and Ben, 31], I exaggerated the uptightness of James.

''I've seen a lot of divorces, unfortunately, and so many kids are left confused [or] in a state of denial,'' Simon adds. ``The fights can be worse. The children can feel grabbed at and totally in the middle.''

Both events, the opera and the concert, benefit CHARLEE, a not-for-profit agency that cares for children placed in foster care due to abuse, abandonment and neglect.

''Many of our children are the product of broken homes, and the divorce rate today is staggering,'' says Marilyn March, CHARLEE's development director. ``Time and again we see children who clearly want to repair their damaged home environment, restore the adult relationships that have dissolved through no fault of their own, and move forward as an intact family unit. There are huge obstacles to overcome for these children to feel good about themselves.''

Simon relates. ''I was digesting all the information that I was processing in my own life, and other people's lives, [trying] to put it into a context that was more entertaining and possibly more dramatic,'' Simon recalls about composing Romulus Hunt. In so doing, a painful memory surfaced. As a teen, she had caught her mother in an affair. Her father, Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing house, died soon after.

''They didn't divorce,'' Simon says. 'But it was a harrowing shock for me. . . . The kids just live on with these things, wanting to love the mother who survives, yet being angry at the mother, but so wanting the love of the mother and for the role model to `be good.' ''

Says March, ``We all grew up with Carly Simon's music and we knew how much of her personal life's journey is reflected in her lyrics.''

STAGING `ROMULUS'

Staging this version of Romulus Hunt proved a challenge for director Phillip Church, head of the theater performance program at Florida International University. Selecting the opera was a given. He'd seen a production in North Carolina and has been a fan of Simon for years.

''I seem to find less and less pleasure in doing theater for theater's sake. These days, I feel I have to be compelled by a social need,'' Church says.

Making it work with all local actors, Church says proudly, was an adventure.

''Romulus is a pre-adolescent and this is a major consideration for any production of the opera,'' he says.

Twelve-year-old Steven Nikolic from South Miami Middle School won the part.

''The two productions I have seen of this piece both had child actors who were well into their teens,'' Church says. ''We were all praying that Steven's voice would not break during the year since he was cast -- but, of course, it comes down to a whole lot more than just an unbroken voice -- this child takes refuge in his imagination as a way of escaping. I would wager that 99.9 percent of those children in CHARLEE's care would associate themselves with that same desperation for friendship and solace,'' he says.

The culmination of all of this activity -- for at least two of the principal players -- seems to have had uplifting results.

For Simon, they came through promoting her new album. The lush This Kind of Love is another collection in a long line of introspective songs she has built her career upon. Two highlights -- Hold Out Your Heart and They Just Want You to Be There -- are unusual in that they are written by a parent about love for her adult children.

Simon has rehearsed Hold Out Your Heart for the Friday concert. Its lyric addresses an estrangement from her daughter Sally -- who gave birth to Simon's first grandchild, a boy, in October. Mother and daughter had always been close.

Oh my girl what have you done? / Is it something we can't even talk about? / Did you try to ignore me, make me all but lost?/Did you cloud up the sky when you needed me most?

The tune sports a conciliatory message, however. If you ever need an endless night / And you need the moon and stars to shine / Just hold out your heart my darling / And I will give you all of mine.

Simon has performed the ballad on a round of TV appearances. ''Sally saw us [the band] do it on Regis,'' Simon says on the phone, only a few hours after its airing. 'She was crying so hard: `Mommy, I love you so much.' We've had such a hard time,'' Simon says.

March has her own familial story, refreshened after spending so much time anticipating this weekend at the Gusman.

``When I was seven months pregnant with our first child and we were trying to make do on a police officer's salary, my husband discovered that there was a double feature at the [Gusman], plus a sneak preview. It meant we could see three movies for the price of one. After sitting in the theater through three movies, I delivered prematurely the next day. Everything turned out all right, and I have long ago forgiven the theater. We celebrated 39 years as a couple last month, and I'm getting close to forgiving my husband.''

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