Virtual Excerpt Tour: Arabesque

I’m happy to welcome back Portuguese-British novelist M G da Mota. Today, she shares her new release, Arabesque.

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.

Exclusive Excerpt

Lacey and I took the tube from Sloane Square to Westminster. Lacey’s house was close to the square. She wasn’t happy about it. She employed a chauffeur who normally drove her into the city centre or out of town. Lacey could drive but didn’t like to. Her money allowed her to be driven. But I always felt awkward whenever I arrived somewhere with her in a chauffeured car. People stared. Possibly envious or just wondering who these two women could possibly be. I asked her to take public transport and, as it was my birthday, she agreed. So, from Westminster underground station we walked past Downing Street and the Horse Guards Parade to Trafalgar Square and from there along the Strand, heading to the Savoy where Lacey had booked a champagne afternoon tea for us. One of her treats for my birthday.

The day was cold but clear. Sunny. Well wrapped up in our winter coats, scarves, hats and gloves it was pleasant to walk in the sun though there was an icy bite to the air. The Strand bubbled with people. Crowds moved like waves along the pavements, occasionally surging across the road from one side to the other when the pedestrian lights turned to green and the cars stopped. Accidently I suddenly tripped on a flagstone bulging slightly from the others. It all happened very fast but for me it seemed as if I were acting in a slow motion movie. Abruptly I had no grip. My body was falling. Lacey was screaming. And a huge, enormous red bus approaching. I was in its path and unable to halt my fall. Impossible for the bus to stop in time. I tried desperately to grasp something or someone but failed.

‘Grace. Oh God, oh God.’

Lacey’s voice. She was still screaming. And at that precise moment a strong hand grabbed mine. A firm arm slid around my waist. I felt my body being lifted and pulled through the air. I landed on top of a person, not on the road in front of the bus but on the pavement. The safe side. The bus missed me by a whisker. Sitting on the ground I sensed someone was still holding me and lifting my eyes I looked up into the concerned face of the Stranger from the Strand, Karsten. He had saved my life or at least rescued me from certain injury. I couldn’t speak. Shock and surprise shook me in equal measure. His light brown eyes, speckled with tiny green dots, were warm. I wanted to kiss him. Lacey fell to her knees and hugged me, bringing me back to reality.

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.

Giveaway

The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.

Follow the author on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.