Arabesque by M G da Mota - Book Tour - Exclusive Excerpt - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Arabesque
by M G da Mota

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GENRE:    Historical Psychological Drama

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BOOK BLURB:

A woman living alone in a coastal Sussex town in 1998 plants a copper beech sapling at 3 a.m. on a dark, cold night. Why?

A ballet dancer in 1960s East Germany is oppressed, longs for escaping with his little daughter but not his wife. Why? Will he make it?

In 2022 Karsten von Stein, widower and principal of the Royal Ballet, with two young children, meets Ivone Benjamim, a Portuguese, newly-arrived principal dancer. They discover a magical chemistry when dancing and soon it transfers to their private lives.

Against the background of ballet and its dancers, a woman called Grace tells her story from a rehab centre. Obsessive, delusional she begins believing Ivone robbed her of the man of her dreams—Karsten. And then a skeleton is found in a garden...What connects all these people and their stories?

You’ll be the audience facing the stage of this balletic novel.

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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:

Ivone finalises her preparations. The swan princess appears briefly in the prologue—blink and you miss her!—and properly for the first time in Act Two. A little earlier, already in costume, she stood briefly in the wings to watch Karsten appear on stage. She heard the warm applause greeting him. Would the public welcome her as well? Of course she is a principal and principal dancers are generally greeted with clapping and a roar from the audience. But does the London public actually know her? Probably not. Does it matter? Ivone knows that the visitors to the Royal Opera House are rather international. Many British of course but often a large part of the audience is made up of people who visit the country and love culture and the arts. They programme one or more visits to the Royal Opera House as part of their holiday.

She recalls Karsten’s words earlier Don’t fear, you’ll be fine and remember I will always be there for you, to catch you and make you shine. Ivone feels a wave rushing through her. A mixed wave of warmth and attraction. She finds him engaging, enticing. He captivated her from the moment they first met. She remembers her first day at the Royal Opera House only two months ago.

***

It is Wednesday, 1st December, a national holiday in her country, celebrating the day Portugal regained its independence and expelled the Spanish occupiers. Ivone wonders why she suddenly remembered a history lesson. Perhaps her nerves.

She walks under a large umbrella, carrying her rucksack on her back with the equipment she needs for class. A small handbag is across her chest. She is heading to the Royal Opera House, her new ballet home. Stepping slowly along Bow Street she can see first the building from the side, then she is suddenly in front of it. She stops and stares at the palladium façade, looking up slowly, hugging the building with her eyes.

Here she is. After four years, some of intense suffering, she is here. She got through it all and has landed on her feet. A few drops of rain fall on her face. She smiles. There is hope in her eyes. It’s a new beginning. The start she wanted. The dream she harboured since she’d won the Royal Ballet scholarship as a teenager—to become a principal of the Royal Ballet. And now she is one.

Ivone breathes in and out a few times. She is nervous. Anxious. Will she be good enough? Will the public like her? Will her colleagues welcome her? After all, she is landing directly at the top without going through the Royal Ballet company ranks. But she went through the ranks at La Scala and quickly became a soloist and a principal. The same in her home country with the Companhia Nacional de Bailado, the Portuguese National Ballet company, based in Lisbon.

Butterflies flutter in her stomach and Ivone feels sick. She inhales and exhales deeply a few more times. She needs to relax.

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AUTHOR BIO & LINKS:

M G da Mota is Margarida Mota-Bull’s pen name for fiction. She is a Portuguese-British novelist with a love for classical music, ballet and opera. Under her real name she also writes reviews of live concerts, CDs, DVDs and books for two classical music magazines on the web: MusicWeb International and Seen and Heard International. She is a member of the UK Society of Authors, speaks four languages and lives in Sussex with her husband. Her website, called flowingprose.com, contains photos and information.

Website:

https://www.flowingprose.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/m.g.da.mota

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mgdamota

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarida-mota-bull

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AMAZON BUY LINKS:

Amazon US Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.com/Arabesque-M-G-Mota-ebook/dp/B0D7CMSD5F

Amazon CA Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.ca/Arabesque-M-G-Mota-ebook/dp/B0D7CMSD5F

Amazon UK Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabesque-M-G-Mota-ebook/dp/B0D7CMSD5F

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GIVEAWAY:

M G da Mota will be awarding a $25 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner's Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner.

Arabesque by MG da Mota - Book Tour - Author Interview - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Arabesque

by MG da Mota

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE:    Historical Psychological Drama

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOOK BLURB:

A woman living alone in a coastal Sussex town in 1998 plants a copper beech sapling at 3 a.m. on a dark, cold night. Why?

A ballet dancer in 1960s East Germany is oppressed, longs for escaping with his little daughter but not his wife. Why? Will he make it?

In 2022 Karsten von Stein, widower and principal of the Royal Ballet, with two young children, meets Ivone Benjamim, a Portuguese, newly-arrived principal dancer. They discover a magical chemistry when dancing and soon it transfers to their private lives.

Against the background of ballet and its dancers, a woman called Grace tells her story from a rehab centre. Obsessive, delusional she begins believing Ivone robbed her of the man of her dreams—Karsten. And then a skeleton is found in a garden...What connects all these people and their stories?

You’ll be the audience facing the stage of this balletic novel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT TWO:

After a moment I decided in favour of the bus. Taxis were too expensive. Just then I heard the roar of an engine and instinctively stepped back. A red Ducati parked only a few metres away on the side road. I knew about motorbikes. My brother liked them. He owned an Aprilia and took it to the tracks in Portugal much to his wife’s chagrin and my little niece’s excitement. I recognise and appreciate a terrific motorbike when I see one.

Admiring the Ducati from a distance I watched the biker who dismounted with the elegance of a model about to shoot a fashion video. He pulled off his helmet, attached it to the steering, next to a spare already there and walked into the station. I followed him with my eyes. His walk. As if floating. It was him. Last month’s stranger on the Strand. It could only be him. The way he moved was unmistakable. So light. So elastic. Graceful. Not effeminate. Stylish. Noble. With class. He wore black jeans, laced ankle boots, a pilot’s leather jacket and a black and red wool scarf around his neck. I thought he looked like a prince, or at least what one imagined a prince should look like—tall, athletic and handsome.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

Any weird things you do when you’re alone?

Weird things I do when I’m alone…well, I suppose so. I talk to myself or have conversations with my characters aloud. Sometimes I dance around the room pretending I’m a ballerina or I pretend I’m a conductor at the head of an orchestra performing some of my favourite classical music pieces; other times I sing along to opera.

What is your favorite quote and why?

There are many quotes I like from either books, people I admire or poems and I tend to use quotes in my novels that relate to the different parts of the plot. It’s difficult to name a favourite but if I have to, I’d go for one by Albert Einstein in an interview he gave in 1930: “I never think about the future. It comes soon enough.” I like it not only because it has humour; in my opinion it is true and because when I was younger, I used to plan lots of things ahead of time only to be disappointed because they never happened the way I’d planned. Now, I tend to follow Einstein’s quote and life feels easier and better.

Who is your favorite author and why?

I don’t have a favourite author as such but there are many I admire. I love many authors from the past who have become classics and are considered literary giants – for e.g. In the States Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, in England Shakespeare, Stevenson, P D James, Jane Austen and Eva Ibbotson; in Portugal Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa and Camões, in Germany Stefan Zweig, Clemens Brentano, Heinrich Heine to name just a few. As to contemporary authors there are many I admire and whose books I enjoy. Listing only a few here, I’d say Isabel Allende who is well known; Claire Winter, Cay Rademacher and Sabine Weigand in Germany; in the Portuguese language José Agualusa, José Rodrigues dos Santos, Isabel Stillwell and Rosa Lobato Faria and in the English language Tracy Chevalier, Kate Morton, Minette Walters, Peter May, Robert Harris and Marie Benedict.

There are many more but the list is too extensive to write down here.

What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

To me the most important elements are:

1) a good command of language to create interesting dialogues and atmospheric descriptions, using the words in a different, more beautiful way than in a colloquial, informal manner. I don’t like it much when people write the same way they talk. 

2) well researched topics. 

3) suspenseful plots 

4) unusual, intriguing characters.

5) Not repeating the same words too often, especially not in the same sentence or paragraph when possible and suitable. Sometimes repetition is necessary to convey certain emotions or impressions.

Where did you get the idea for this book?

The idea for this book came from my love of ballet and my admiration for the dancers who seek perfection with every performance.

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AUTHOR BIO & LINKS:

MG da Mota is Margarida Mota-Bull’s pen name for fiction. She is a Portuguese-British novelist with a love for classical music, ballet and opera. Under her real name she also writes reviews of live concerts, CDs, DVDs and books for two classical music magazines on the web: MusicWeb International and Seen and Heard International. She is a member of the UK Society of Authors, speaks four languages and lives in Sussex with her husband. Her website, called flowingprose.com, contains photos and information.

Website:

https://www.flowingprose.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/m.g.da.mota

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarida-mota-bull

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mgdamota

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GIVEAWAY:

 MG da Mota will award a $25 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner's Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter at the end of the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway