Night School by Lee Child 

Posted on November 20, 2016 by fredreeca


Overview

It’s 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he’s off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind.Two other men are in the classroom—an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.

Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor—a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.”
For what? And who from? Reacher and his two new friends are told to find the American. Reacher recruits the best soldier he has ever worked with: Sergeant Frances Neagley. Their mission heats up in more ways than one, while always keeping their eyes on the prize: If they don’t get their man, the world will suffer an epic act of terrorism.

From Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev, Night School moves like a bullet through a treacherous landscape of double crosses, faked identities, and new and terrible enemies, as Reacher maneuvers inside the game and outside the law.

Review

Jack Reacher has always been a fabulous book character. The strong, silent type. However, this one fell a little short for me.  I did not feel Reacher’s strength coming through the pages. There were many places he just felt wrong.

 I also had trouble following the story in places. I am not sure if the problem was me or if the story just didn’t have it. Probably a little of both. I did enjoy all the different places the story took you. It just didn’t have a “Jack Reacher” feel. 

As I have said in previous posts, Jack Reacher has been my book boyfriend…well forever. There are only a handful of book series I have stuck with. This is one of them. And I have not even read them all, nor have I read them in order. He is just a character which I feel a connection with. 

Have I given up on the Reacher series?  Absolutely not!  I will give this series several more books before I say good bye.  

And as a side note…Tom Cruise is NOT Jack Reacher! 

I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review.



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Christmas Card 2016 

Posted on November 20, 2016 by fredreeca

Here is my Christmas card design for 2016. 

All the stamps and die cuts come from Heartfelt Creations. 

Thanks for stopping by! 


Posted in Cards, Christmas, Scrapbooking, Stamping | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

At Close Range by Laura Griffin #XOXperts

Posted on November 19, 2016 by fredreeca


Overview

New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin “delivers the goods” (Publishers Weekly) again with the eleventh title in the gritty, heart-pounding Tracers series.

When a lakeside tryst ends in a double murder, police detective Daniele Harper arrives on the scene determined to get answers. Clues are everywhere, but nothing adds up. Dani turns to the Delphi Center crime lab for help, but soon regrets it when her secret attraction to their chief firearms examiner threatens to distract her from the most important case of her career.

As a ballistics expert and former Navy SEAL, Scott Black knows firearms, and he knows he can help Dani unravel her case. Scott has managed to hide his interest in his best friend’s younger sister for years, but when her investigation brings them together, the sparks between them quickly get out of control. Scott resolves to keep his hands off Dani and his eyes on the goal—identifying a killer. But when that killer zeroes in on Dani, all bets are off. There isn’t a line Scott won’t cross to convince Dani to trust him so that he can help her take down a ruthless murderer who has her in his sights.

Review

Scott becomes a suspect in Dani’s murder case. He is determined to clear his name. Scott and Dani team up (in more ways than one 😘) to find the killer. 

These two characters work great together…well, not really. There is a lot of tension, sexual and otherwise, between these two. This just adds much fuel to the fire.  Scott and Dani can be extremely frustrating!  You just want to come through the pages and give each a little pinch and a lecture! 

I enjoyed this read immensely.  This story moves quickly and is hugely entertaining.  You sit down to read for 15 minutes and end up staying an hour. Time flies when you are having fun!  This is a lightening fast romantic thriller and BOY, did I fall in love with Scott. Not only is he HOT….he can even make the reader mad enough to throw something at him….of course, after he saves the day! 

This story also includes some really nice shoot’em up scenes with Scott as the “stud in action” 

Move over Jack Reacher…..HEEEEELLLOOOOOO new book boyfriend SCOTT!

I received this book as part of Simon and Schuster XOXPERTS. 

                                                                                              
Purchase here 

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Gated 3 by Matt Drabble – BOOK SPOTLIGHT 

Posted on November 16, 2016 by fredreeca


Gated 3By Matt Drabble

Genre: Thriller, Horror

 

It’s time for the multi award winning trilogy to come to an end, but will anyone be left standing.

 

It was the chance of a lifetime for Avery Grant, the opportunity to run an election campaign for a candidate that seemed like the real deal.

 

Christian Tolanson has risen through the ranks of British politics. A man with a unique ability to inspire those around him to almost cult like levels of devotion. He has lived many lives down through the ages from his humble beginnings as a child preacher. But now his life force is finally starting to fade and time is running out pushing him to desperate levels. A man consumed by his own destiny and ready to burn the world to get what he wants.

 

Avery will discover the path that many have walked before her and never returned from. A realisation that anything that seems too good to be true, will likely get you killed.

 

About the Author


 

Born in Bath, England in 1974, a self-professed “funny onion”, equal parts sport loving jock and comic book geek. I am a lover of horror and character driven stories. I am also an A.S sufferer who took to writing full time two years ago after being forced to give up the day job. 
I have a career high position of 5th on Amazon’s Horror Author Rank of which I am immensely proud. I was also accepted as a full member of the Horror Writers Association.
“GATED” is the 2015 Readers Favorite Gold Medal Winner. It is also a UK & US Horror Chart Top Ten Best Seller & winner of the Full Moon Awards 2014 Horror Book of the Year.
“ASYLUM – 13 TALES OF TERROR” was a US Horror Chart #5. It was also voted #5 on The Horror Novel Review’s Top 10 Books of 2013 & was the Readers Favorite 2014 Gold Medal Winner for Anthology Fiction.
“ASYLUM II” was also a UK & US Horror/Anthology #1 and is the 2016 Readers Favorite Silver Medal winner for Anthology Fiction. 
“THE TRAVELLING MAN” won an Indie Book of the Day award.

 

“ABRA-CADAVER” was a 2015 Kindle Book Review Finalist, an Indie Book of the Day winner and the 2016 Book Excellence Award Winner for Horror Fiction.

 

https://twitter.com/MattDrabble01 

https://www.facebook.com/matt.drabble.3

http://mattdrabble.com

Pre-order on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0E5HT1

 

 

 

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Joanna Paterson – Author Spotlight and Guest Post 

Posted on November 10, 2016 by fredreeca

GUEST POST

My two books of short stories, “The Old Turk and Other Tales” and “Through the Mirror”, examine that tricky balance between experience and the Otherworld. Short stories should stimulate thinking—they are always true. So many of them lose themselves in the usual earthbound stories about romance and the twists and turns of people in love, but I tried to go beyond those confines to involve spiritual worlds. The short stories I wrote are phantastic in the sense that they treat the unseen as a vital encounter, but engage with it as a possible extension of the Self. The stories don’t tell you what to do. They are meetings with vibrant beings, ways of seeing. Some are fun, like the story about hats. I also call to mind the ancient goddesses and what they represent. This is about memory and about the sea. I explore Europe and ancient places in Ohio, U.S.A., and what they represent, the unusual, the dialogue with them that can create connections, letting go the mundane, the things you are used to. I hope there is pleasure in the mind’s adventures.

What I liked most are the stories of transformation in “Through the Mirror”. The metamorphosis does not have to be into human lives, but can be a bird such as in “Jenny Wren”. Or it can have a message as in “The Owls of Scarba”. And then there are some places that simply evoke the moon and thinking in different ways of where you are, such as in an eighteenth century tower in Dessau, Germany, or in a long forgotten village in Austria.

“The Shaman Birches of Argyll” and “The Travelling Moon”, my poetry books, on the other hand, are grounded in living and sailing on the West Coast of Scotland. They are an exploration of nature and lochs and birds, indigenous or those that visit. They are my encounters. I think about them and try to find them again in words. I was born in the land-locked—except for the cross European river Danube—city of Vienna. My books of poetry are probes of the new countryside on a big Celtic island indented with water—the mysterious sea, the rising moon, the trees and ferns that grow wild on hillsides. The essence of the poetry is myth and place. Nature has different dimensions and I want to bring them close. Poetry gives feelings and vision in versions that other genres cannot.

My books are all available from Amazon as Kindle or print-on-demand editions under the name Joanna Paterson.

It is wise to hang a mirror in the darkest corner of the darkest room. It will catch the light where it shines least. It will suck in the remaining light like a waterfall. The light tumbles down into the deep, dark space, the dark side of the mirror. Like the dark side of the moon, the most beautiful light gathers and meets there. Put the book down on your lap as you sit in the room with the mirror and look up. The room is painted in oxblood which means it has a mauve sheen. The deep colour brings out the pictures. They lift from the walls. They circle the room in measured leisureliness. They know they are the artworks that last; but the mirror enthrals them because it has stories in it. The white hand-made paper in one frame shows the big rust-coloured fishing vessel that lists towards the stonebuilt quay. The coal steamer is tired-looking. The wood creaks; it has not been caulked or cleaned. It was painted a loving bright red once with a blue arrow decorating its prow. The blue has washed out. The red of its funnel is rusted. The fine black paint of its pilot house is slashed in peeling greys.

Goodreads


“It’s an intriguing set of prose pieces, almost epigrammatic in parts, and rather strange in an individualistic way. It took me a while to get used to the narrator’s voice and tone, and I feel it’s the type of writing that one’s unlikely to absorb at a single reading – which is no bad thing” -Dr Peter Boehm, on The Old Turk and Other Tales

Goodreads

Biography 


Writing has been the major part in her life for decades under her academic name, Professor Joanna Geyer-Kordesch. She has worked for many academic publishers writing scholarly books and articles. She was Head of the Wellcome Unit at Glasgow University, the first woman to be entrusted with the history of medicine as an acknowledged field. There were few other such Units at the time. Her specialty was the Halle an der Saale physician and proponent of body and soul unity, Georg Ernst Stahl. Although he died in 1734 his legacy can still be detected in the accent on emotion and feeling in the Romantics.

As Joanna Geyer-Kordesch she also wrote the history of the Glasgow Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and other prominent institutions in the history of medicine. She then turned to landscape gardens in the eighteenth century as a new subject of study. As she is bilingual she published the diary of the Duchess Louise von Anhalt-Dessau when she visited England in 1775.

But since her retirement she has joyfully left behind the restraints of academia and published poetry and short stories, entering a new world. She was born in Vienna, Austria, thus adding visions to her work not often met in conventional stories. These amount to surprises and unusual places to be delved into. “The Old Turk” harks back to many meditations all over Europe. These stories are an exercise in imagination.

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The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 

Posted on November 9, 2016 by fredreeca


A TRAGIC DISAPPEARANCE

After a harrowing, otherworldly confrontation on the shores of Exmouth, Massachussetts, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is missing, presumed dead.

A SHOCKING RETURN

Sick with grief, Pendergast’s ward, Constance, retreats to her chambers beneath the family mansion at 891 Riverside Drive–only to be taken captive by a shadowy figure from the past.

AN INTERNATIONAL MANHUNT

Proctor, Pendergast’s longtime bodyguard, springs to action, chasing Constance’s kidnapper through cities, across oceans, and into wastelands unknown.

BUT IN A WORLD OF BLACK AND WHITE, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS

And by the time Proctor discovers the truth, a terrifying engine has stirred-and it may already be too late.

Review

There are only a handful of book series which I stick with. I usually end up bored with the characters or the stories lose their fascination.  This series of 17 books, yes I said 17, just keeps getting better and better. And Agent Pendergast has nine lives. 

Agent Pendergast is a character with so much mystery surrounding him, his family, his money,his homes…he is almost like Batman to me.  I am truly amazed how the authors keep him so intriguing throughout this series. 

In this novel Pendergast finds himself rescued (rescued?? Yes, rescued…must read the book) by criminals and held for ransom. In the meantime, his fortress of a home has been infiltrated and his ward kidnapped. His very loyal bodyguard is lead on a wild goose chase across the world to save her. This story is non stop! 

The authors always throw in some history and science which just make the story so much more compelling than just a regular thriller. The way they weave these into their tales is creative and unique. 

If you have not read this series, I would start with the first book, Relic.  There is so much about Pendergast in the first of the series it will help you follow better in the latter books. 

I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review 

Purchase here 

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The DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook by D Grant Smith – Book Spotlight and Guest Post 

Posted on November 8, 2016 by fredreeca

The DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook: How To Grow Hack Your Fan Base Using Indie Radio AirplayBy D Grant Smith

Genre: Music, Self-Help, Marketing

 

Musicians are constantly looking for opportunities to reach new audience. Radio airplay continues to be one of the best outlets to grow your audience and reach new fans. Yet getting your music on the radio is complicated and difficult for many artists. How can you get your music heard on radio so that you can build a stronger and larger audience?

The DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook illustrates a practical and thorough step-by-step process for gaining radio airplay AND building solid connections with the people who make radio happen. Jump into the mind of a radio programmer to discover what works and why to gain radio, media, and music industry success with your music.

Author D Grant Smith is not just a music marketing pro. He’s the creator and host of the internationally syndicated program The Appetizer Radio Show, and a former radio station manager. In the book, you’ll see why radio programmers make their picks on what music gets picked up, and how you can get your music on their radar. Discover the proven process that has helped countless musicians go from unknown and undiscovered to known and celebrated through indie radio airplay. For creative entrepreneurs outside of music, this book is also helpful in seeing how creating human connections and valuing others is the means to create growth that provides long-term benefits. Bloggers, authors, and media creators can gain insights here too.

D Grant Smith

The Secret To Gaining Attention For Your Work Begins With Giving Attention To Others

How Musicians, Authors, & Creatives Can Gain Media Exposure In A Noisy World

Everyone Wants To Rule The World

It’s not hard for us to see that the majority of creative entrepreneurs are all doing much of the same things to market themselves. Spend even 5 minutes on Twitter and you’ll experience a great number of folks all clamouring for everyone’s attention. They main method of doing this, that most people use, is talking only about themselves. Then, after they gain a new follower, many of them will send an auto-message to your inbox that says something like this “Thanks for following. Listen to my music on this link, that link, this other link, and one more link. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Soundcloud, Tumbler, Aunt Cheryl’s House, and 15 other social platforms. Oh, and watch my 55 youtube videos. Then sign up for my newsletter…..”

If you haven’t experienced this phenomenon yet, give it time. Especially if you’re in the music space (self-published and indie authors are generally less pushy than this, but still….).

Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone wants to be the center of attention. Everyone wants to have the massive numbers of followers, views, listens, and ultimately fans. Yet very few creative entrepreneurs (musicians, artists, authors, etc) are doing the real work that makes growth and success happen.

After spending 13 years cultivating relationships, networks, and helping to launch the careers of countless musicians via my syndicated program The Appetizer Radio Show, I wanted to help creative folks understand how to reach media better. There is a much better way to gain the attention you seek. However, modeling after the pushy folks who only focus on themselves is not the way to do it. Here’s what actually works.

 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The method that I’ve developed for building strong connections with media (i.e. radio, blogs, podcasts, media sites, etc.) has come down to adopting an old-school way of operating.

It’s a model based on farming, where cultivating connections over time builds a stronger and more long-term solution to growth than the quick-fix of social media follow hikes. This Growth Farming idea came from a conversation I had with Seth Godin, where he described how growth and marketing is best modeled.

If you’ve read the seminal business book “How To Win Friends And Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, you know that much of what worked in the 1930s for business growth is even more true today in the digital age.

Nowadays, connections are easy to make with the click of a button. Networks and relationships aren’t. Where do those start and how can we build something to last over time? They begin with first taking notice of the person you want to reach and taking the time to get to know who they are, what’s important to them, and why connecting with them matters.

This is a process, much similar to growing a garden. This is where the concept of Growth Farming comes from. It takes time and attention. It’s also more of a conscious decision to build a real connection than one that wants only the glory of adding a new number to the list of followers.

As artists, authors and creatives, the numbers game works only as long as there is connection and potency involved. There are creative entrepreneurs with large fan numbers on their social channels, yet they receive very small amounts of income or connection from their work from their audience. That’s a lack of real relationship and connection.

When you choose to focus on the quality of your connections, both with your individual fans and with the people you reach out to for marketing and promoting your material (i.e. media), you gain so much more. You gain a potential friend and network member. Friends do far more for each other, and do so more often, than anyone does for strangers.

It’s like Mr. Carnegie said, “You can gain more friends in two months by showing interest in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.”

I’d much rather have a growing group of friends with a reciprocal connection to me and my work (and I to them and their work) than a random list of strangers who supposedly are following me. That’s what real growth looks like. How can you make that happen?

 

How To Really Gain Media Attention & Win With Your Creative Endeavors

When I started the process of syndicating The Appetizer, I had a few choices. I could try to hire a PR or publicity company to market the show to stations across the country, at a very high expense. OR I could do it myself, contact stations directly, and build a network of contacts along the way.

I opted for the 2nd option. The learning process of building out our carrier stations to over 40 has taken a few years. In the process, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with more and more media folks in a variety of fields beyond radio, help hundreds of artists build their audience, and connect with individual music lovers around the world. All of that is chalked up to big wins. The process of doing this is what I detail in the DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook: How To Growth Hack Your Fan Base & Build Stronger Networks Using Indie Radio Airplay.

If you’re a musician, this is the most actionable plan for getting your music on the radio. If you’re an author, you can apply the same principles to getting media exposure with your books. This method is what has helped the careers of musicians like Lindsay Katt, Kelley McRae, William Fitzsimmons, The Rocketboys and many many others gain media exposure and build successful careers.

If you’re a creative entrepreneur in a different field, and you want to expand your leverage to get on blogs, podcasts, and indie radio stations, this is the method that works. I take you on a step-by-step process that I’ve used to grow my platforms and businesses. It’s also what I teach musicians how to do in the Indie Radio Promotion Course (with a discount to the course inside the Introduction of the book).

I’m big on helping creative people win. Here’s what results you can expect from reading this book:

● Save money on marketing and promotions by learning what really works.

● Be your own PR specialist.

● Apply these methods to building your social media following to boost support for your work.

● Grow a solid contact list and network of influential media professionals to help market your work for long-term growth.

● Get sample messaging templates that work to build connection and response.

● Much more.

In the end, growth in our creative efforts comes down to us choosing to be different than what the world is doing. It’s a matter of being uncommon. Those who choose to not follow the bandwagons, who pay attention to other people first and make them the focus of the conversation, are the people who win in gaining the right people’s attention. That’s how we build platforms and careers that are truly successful.

 

About the Author


D Grant Smith is the host & creator of The Appetizer Radio Show, a syndicated variety music program that began in 2003. Over the past decade+, Smith has helped musicians get discovered & grow through indie radio airplay like Lindsay Katt, The Rocketboys, William Fitzsimmons, Kelley McRae, Birds Over Arkansas and many more. His experience with The Appetizer Radio Show’s growth through syndication taught him what works in marketing media to media, which has helped to fuel his work as “the audience Growth Farmer.” Using principles from Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and community building, Smith helps musicians and creative entrepreneurs build supportive communities of superfans through relationship building. His work includes private mentoring, workshops, and speaking engagements where storytelling and empowerment are used to create vibrant and powerful transformations.

 

https://www.facebook.com/thedgrantsmith
https://wwww.twitter.com/Appetizerradio

http://dgrantsmith.com/books
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eDJ6pn 
Kindle: http://amzn.to/2fS9m1e 
 

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To Find You by Cerece Rennie Murphy – BOOK SPOTLIGHT 

Posted on November 6, 2016 by fredreeca


To Find YouBy Cerece Rennie Murphy

Genre: Historical Romance

Release Date: November 29, 2016

 

Two Souls

One Desire

To Find Each Other…Again

 

The journey begins with Ama and Ekow ~ Two lovers betrothed, then torn apart by an enemy disguised as a friend. And in the midst of an unthinkable bargain, their freedom is sold for a bag of gold.

But what their enemies thought would break them only unleashed a power greater than life itself.

From the ancient shores of Ghana to the streets of pre-colonial India,

From the burning embers of Oahu to the heart of a nation’s capitol,

Their souls risked war, death, and betrayal to bend destiny to their will.

 

Will they survive?

Will they succeed?

 

Join them on this timeless journey and see…

 

About the Author

Cerece Rennie Murphy fell in love with writing and science fiction at an early age. It’s a love affair that has grown ever since.

In addition to working on the release of the 2nd book in the Ellis and The Magic Mirror children’s book series with her son, Mrs. Murphy is developing a 2-part science fiction thriller set in outer space. Mrs. Murphy lives and writes in her hometown of Washington, DC with her husband, two children and the family dog, Yoda. To learn more about the author and her upcoming projects, please visit her website at http://www.cerecerenniemurphy.com.

 

Twitter: @cerecermurphy

https://www.facebook.com/Cerece-Rennie-Murphy-205753729546299/

http://www.cerecerenniemurphy.com

 

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The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello

Posted on November 6, 2016 by fredreeca


Overview

As war rages in 1944, young army lieutenant Lucas Athan recovers a sarcophagus excavated from an Egyptian tomb. Shipped to Princeton University for study, the box contains mysteries that only Lucas, aided by brilliant archaeologist Simone Rashid, can unlock.

These mysteries may, in fact, defy—or fulfill—the dire prophecies of Albert Einstein himself.

Struggling to decipher the sarcophagus’s strange contents, Lucas and Simone unwittingly release forces for both good and unmitigated evil. The fate of the world hangs not only on Professor Einstein’s secret research but also on Lucas’s ability to defeat an unholy adversary more powerful than anything he ever imagined.

From the mind of bestselling author and award-winning journalist Robert Masello comes a thrilling, page-turning adventure where modern science and primordial supernatural powers collide.

Review

I am an immense fan of archeological mysteries. This is an archeological mystery plus set in WWII…A DOUBLE WHAMMY!! 

Lucas is a wounded soldier/professor.  He returns from the war to teach at Princeton where he is then asked to decipher the mystery of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus.  

Where this story leads keeps a reader well involved.  First, there is Lucas and Simone.  They develop a romance while working together. Plus, they are adorable.  

Then, the setting of Princeton in 1944. I enjoyed this backdrop more than I can express. And Einstein makes a guest appearance. He is so real to life and a perfect fit for this thriller. 

Finally, the sarcophagus.  Where do I begin?  This is where the story veers off the beaten path for me. I love the history which is unveiled, but the tale becomes a little of a fantasy.  I really do not do fantasy….that being said, the story is so well written and researched, I continued to enjoy it all the way through.  

I do feel the story is a little long winded.  However, the action, mystery and thrilling ride keep a reader totally engrossed till the very end.  I also turned around and ordered all of this author’s books and added them to the never ending TBR list. 

I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review. 

Purchase here

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Amazon

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Outside the Limelight by Terez Mertes Rose

Posted on November 5, 2016 by fredreeca


Outside the Limelight

Ballet Theatre Chronicles, Book 2

By Terez Mertes Rose

Contemporary [Women’s] Fiction

 

Book Summary

 

Rising ballet star Dena Lindgren’s dream career is knocked off its axis when a puzzling onstage fall results in a crushing diagnosis: a brain tumor. Looming surgery and its long recovery period prompt the company’s artistic director, Anders Gunst, to shift his attention to an overshadowed company dancer: Dena’s older sister, Rebecca, with whom Anders once shared a special relationship. 

Under the heady glow of Anders’ attention, Rebecca thrives, even as her recuperating sister, hobbled and unnoticed, languishes on the sidelines of a world that demands beauty and perfection. Rebecca ultimately faces a painful choice: play by the artistic director’s rules and profit, or take shocking action to help her sister.

Exposing the glamorous onstage world of professional ballet, as well as its shadowed wings and dark underbelly, OUTSIDE THE LIMELIGHT examines loyalty, beauty, artistic passion, and asks what might be worth losing in order to help the ones you love.

Review 

Rebecca and Dena are sisters and each must face the biggest challenge of their life. Will it be enough? Will they meet all the demands of life and succeed on and off the stage. 

Parts of this story leave you breathless with anticipation and parts leave you wanting more. There are some places where the dialogue needs a little fine tuning.  However, the story and the characters are very well put together.  I did really dislike Dena though. I wanted to jerk her baldheaded in places. This kept  the story entertaining.  

I always enjoy stories about ballet. I like to see if the author really knows anything about the craft. I have had many years of ballet training so, it is always interesting to see if there are any mistakes. I did not find any in the novel.  The author hit it square on. The practicing, the terminology and the competition are very well done and true to form. 

About the Author

 

Terez Mertes Rose is a writer and former ballet dancer whose work has appeared in the Crab Orchard Review, Women Who Eat (Seal Press), A Woman’s Europe (Travelers’ Tales), the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. She is the author of Off Balance, Book 1 of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles (Classical Girl Press). She reviews dance performances for Bachtrack.com and blogs about ballet and classical music at The Classical Girl (www.theclassicalgirl.com). She makes her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband and son.  

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClassicalGrrl (@classicalgrrl) 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheClassicalGirl/

 

http://www.terezrose.com

 

Novel Excerpt  

 

When Anders Gunst, artistic director of the West Coast Ballet Theatre, told nineteen-year-old Dena Lindgren he was promoting her to soloist, all she could think was that she’d misheard him. They were standing backstage, post-performance, at San Francisco’s California Civic Theater. Partial lighting streamed from the overhead fixtures, casting the furthest wings in shadows. The stagehands, immersed in their nightly cleanup routine, swept the floor, inspected cables and called out to one another across the empty stage. Anders always spoke softly, and right then, it was hard to hear over their voices.

“I’m sorry,” she stammered, clutching and unclutching the towel she’d used to mop up her sweat from Arpeggio, the ballet she’d just finished. “I misunderstood what you said. Because you’re promoting my sister. Not me. Right?” She felt foolish even suggesting otherwise, like the newbie first-year corps dancer she was. At five-foot-two, she was a petite dancer, and right then she felt her smallness. Anders himself, while not particularly tall, was dressed tonight in a sleek charcoal Italian suit and tie that enhanced his refined looks and made him seem all the more intimidating, even as he smiled at her.

“No.” He shook his head. “It’s you I’m promoting to soloist.”

She began to shiver in her costume, a pale, glittery, silken tunic that clung damply to her skin. “That’s not possible. There’s just that one position open.”

“Yes.” Anders didn’t seem bothered by her aggrieved tone or the way everything about her had scrunched up in resistance.

“But… but,” she sputtered. “That wasn’t the plan.”

He chuckled. “I think, as the artistic director, I have a fairly good sense of what the plan should be.”

And still she stared at him, incredulous, unable to process it.

While he continued speaking, a part of her mind detached and hastily scrolled over the past two hours, this performance of Arpeggio, the unexpected triumph of it in the aftermath of the terrible news she and her older sister Rebecca had just received. Their parents were divorcing; their father already had plans to remarry. Dena hadn’t seen it coming, and this destruction of their family of four had devastated her. Rebecca, dancing Arpeggio too, had taken Dena by the shoulders in the dressing room, given her a shake, told her fiercely to take that pain and pour it into the performance. This crucial performance in which they both had soloist roles, even though they were both only corps dancers. The big, huge, this-could-be-career-changing opportunity for the two of them that they simply had to excel at.

They’d excelled, both of them. And now, by all rights, the career change belonged to Rebecca, three years Dena’s senior, in age and company status. The promotion was to be hers. Everyone in the company knew it.

“Anders,” she said, more vehement now. “What about my sister?”

Anders gave her a thoughtful nod. “Rebecca is a very strong dancer, graced with extraordinary beauty. You lack your sister’s looks—most of the girls do—but it’s that very omission that makes you a more interesting dancer to watch. You can embody a number of different moods and personas, all so decisive and convincing. You have a talent that draws eyes to you. Rebecca fits seamlessly into any ensemble she’s placed in. She blends in. You stand out. I see that now. To keep you in the corps would only hinder what’s flowing from you so naturally. Soloist rank is where I want you.”

He glanced over to the front of the backstage area where Ben, ballet master and assistant to the artistic director, was gesturing to his wristwatch. Anders looked at his own watch. “I’m expected over at L’Orange in ten minutes,” he told Dena. “I’ll leave you to your cleanup. Congratulations, again.”

The implications began to sink in. “Wait! How… how can I possibly tell her?”  

A touch of impatience crossed Anders’ face. “Rebecca and I understand each other. I’ll have a word with her.”

He didn’t wait for her reply, but instead strode away to where Ben stood waiting, by the door with the green glowing “exit” sign above. The two of them disappeared from sight.

She remained there, rooted to the spot, still trying to process it all.

 

 

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