Virtual Excerpt Tour and Giveaway: Arabesque by M G da Mota

ARABESQUE

by 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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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

 

London Victoria was as busy as ever when the train pulled into the station and I alighted. People of all colours, sizes and backgrounds, wearing all sorts of attractive, plain or outrageously fashionable clothes ran in chaotically organised invisible paths. Like ants but without the purpose or well-formed single files. I glanced at the clock on the digital departures board. Six thirty-five on a Friday evening. Always a bit of confusion. Not that Victoria was ever quiet. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d seen it empty of people. It must have been deserted during the two years of the pandemic and various lockdowns but then I hadn’t travelled anyway.

 

Precisely at that moment, interrupting my thoughts, I saw him for the second time.

 

I had walked out of the station through the side door onto Wilton Road and stood for a moment in front of the Victoria Palace Theatre, pondering whether to take the bus or a taxi to Lacey’s place. The theatre displayed a large, colourful placard of the musical currently playing, Wicked. Lacey liked it, had seen it twice and couldn’t understand why I hadn’t. 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. His muscles appeared so flexible that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him jump and bounce like a cat at any moment. Perhaps he could move like a cat. Who knew? He had an aristocratic aura about him. A notable presence. Princely? Yes, I suppose so. His face wasn’t remarkable but attractive with charming features as was the whole of him. Like an electric current, attraction surged through my body. Impulsively I followed him back into the station, keeping a discreet gap.

 

 

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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.

 

LINK WHERE BOOK IS SOLD:

 

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

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

 

 

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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GIVEAWAY:

 

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