You’ll be the audience facing the stage of this balletic novel in ARABESQUE a historical psychological drama by M G da Mota ➱ Book Tour with Author Interview & Giveaway
ARABESQUE
M G da Mota
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GENRE: historical psychological drama
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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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EXCERPT:
First Variation – Amadeus
Berlin, East Germany, July 1965
Amadeus gazes at his wife. Margarete or Grete, as is her preference, sleeps, exhausted from the effort of birth. Her hair appears glued to her forehead, wet from perspiration. Next to her, in a plain white hospital baby cot, their daughter is also asleep. He touches the little girl’s head gently. The baby, a small bundle inside the clothes too large for her, stirs marginally but does not wake. He arranges the cover around her slight body to keep her warm. She was born with hair, if one could call the blonde fluff hair. His chest swells. He already loves that little person with all the force of his being. Swallowing a couple of emotional tears he realises he will do anything, anything, to protect her. He wants her to grow up in peace, in freedom, to be able to make her own choices. With a heavy heart he wonders whether such wishes will ever be possible in this German Democratic Republic where democratic is a word devoid of meaning.
East Germany may be a lot of things but democratic is not one of them. Will he be able to adequately protect this tiny being and give her all she deserves? His chest tightens. He may have to shelter her from her own mother. Feeling shivers down his spine he recalls how his fears, his suspicions were confirmed a few months earlier, just after Grete told him she was pregnant.
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Author Interview:
AUTHOR Bio and 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
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarida-mota-bull/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mgdamota/
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GIVEAWAY
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Thank you for featuring ARABESQUE today.
ReplyDeleteHello Wonderful World of Words, I'm M G da Mota, author of Arabesque. Thank you for featuring my book and an interview with me today.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very intriguing. The world of ballet is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteHello Pippirose, I'm M G da Mota, author of Arabesque. The world of ballet is indeed fascinating. I have met some of the professional ballet dancers that inspired the book when I gave them a copy and they are equally fascinating to talk to. I hope you'll enjoy it if you decide to read it.
DeleteIm looking forward to checking this book out. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteLooks very impressive.
ReplyDeleteWhat research did you do for the book?
ReplyDeleteHi Kim, thank you for your question. I started my research from my own experiences, meaning going often to live ballet performances and what I knew and experienced about the GDR (German Democratic Republic) during the 10 years I lived in West Germany. From there I tend to start searching topics on Wikipedia. It always provides good basic information and lots of links to research further. I then looked for books on ballet to consolidate my own knowledge of the art and for information on the former GDR and the informants in every profession that worked under cover for the Stasi (the secret police). I took notes and compiled the information and, as I wrote, I included what was needed. If there were gaps to fill or I'd forgotten something I went back to the books, articles and links where I found information to begin with. I also needed to go to more ballet performances than I normally would but that was a lovely by-product of the research as a whole. Hope this answers your question but don't hesitate to ask if there's something else related to the book or my writing that you'd like to know.
DeleteWhat first sparked your desire to become a writer?
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't anything that first sparked my desire to become a writer. It happened naturally and gradually. I suffer from asthma which meant that as a child I couldn't run around with the other kids because I'd get ill with asthma attacks and end up in hospital to receive oxygen. This meant I had to entertain myself at home. So I invented stories for me, my dolls and my teddies. Before I could read, my parents read me a story every day, which stimulated my imagination. Once I could read and write, I began writing little stories for myself as a way of playing. I have a brother who is 7 and a half years younger than me, so when I was in my teens and he was a little boy I wrote adventure stories for him. At school my compositions were generally praised because I wrote differently than what most children did. I won a prize at some stage. Then at University I continued to write for myself, family and friends. I showed my work to a Uni Professor and she encouraged me further and gave me very good advice. So from there I continued to write more seriously alongside my various day jobs throughout the years. Eventually I began publishing my work and now I do it full time and still enjoy it as much as I did when I wrote stories for my little brother. I take great pleasure when people tell me they enjoyed my work and spent a few entertaining hours reading my novels. That's why I do it.
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