Having had a bit of a break, it’s so good to be blogging again and today’s guest to stay in with me on Linda’s Book Bag is Barbara L. Baer who is helping me get back into the swing of things.

If you’re an author who’d also like to stay in with me to tell me about one of your books, please click here for more details.

Staying in with Barbara L. Baer

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Barbara. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I am choosing my most recent novel The Ballet Lover and would love to sit down with a cup of tea and this small book coming to life with the excitement, beauty, cruelty of ballet at its most dramatic level.

(Now don’t laugh Barbara, and I know you’d never guess to look at me, but I used to have ballet lessons when I was a little girl. The cruelty for me was that my parents couldn’t afford the shoes so I couldn’t progress to the next level.)

What can we expect from an evening in with The Ballet Lover?

Like myself, my narrating character isn’t a dancer herself but is in love with ballet and the great dancers who she follows as a reviewer. To her dismay and growing anguish, she watches as Rudolf Nureyev mistreats his ballerina, the Russian Natalia Makarova who has just defected to the west.

Geneva, the narrator, finds herself drawn too close to the flame of these fiery stars.

(Sounds intriguing. I think the world of ballet has the potential to lead to all kinds of stories.)

What else have you brought along and why?

May your readers enjoy the warm soothing tea as they follow the mercurial stars of the ballet.

(Tea is ALWAYS on the go in this house Barbara.)

I will bring along a recording of Swan Lake and fast forward to the Black Act when the malign Swan seduces the clueless Prince and the heavens send down thunder. In this scene in The Ballet Lover as it happened on the stage, Nureyev lets Makarova fall, so it’s high drama.

Maybe a glass of sherry to calm the nerves?

(I’ll stick to the tea thanks, Barbara, but you help yourself to the sherry. I prefer mine in a trifle!)

Thanks so much, Barbara, for staying in with me to tell me about The Ballet Lover. Our evening together has rekindled all manner of memories for me.

The Ballet Lover

The Ballet Lover exposes the beauty and cruelty of ballet, the performances, the back stage moments, and the personal dramas of the famous ballet dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova as seen through the eyes of an American female journalist.

Paris, 1970s: the orchestra plays the first ominous note of Swan Lake. In the audience sits Geneva, an American journalist and ballet lover, waiting for the heart-stopping beauty and seduction of the romantic duet to start, but instead she witnesses Rudolf Nureyev failing to catch his Russian partner Natalia Makarova, allowing her to fall with a crash upon the stage.

Geneva interprets the fall as an act of cruelty, a man with all the fame and power in the world brutally letting fall his delicate, wraith-like artistic partner. When other critics defend Nureyev and accuse Makarova of causing her own tumble, Geneva vows revenge on the page, creating havoc in her own career and discovering surprising parallels between herself and the fallen ballerina.

The Ballet Lover is a refined, mesmerizing, fictional account of two of the most celebrated dancers in the dance world, how one compromised the other, and how the drama on the stage often mirrors those played out in real life.

Published by Open Books, The Ballet Lover is available for purchase through the publisher links and on Amazon.

About Barbara L. Baer

Barbara grew up in California, got her BA and MA at Stanford University before going to South India to teach, study dance, and have experiences unlike anything in her American life. She taught in Madras (now Chennai) and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then part of the USSR, which gave her the inspiration and voice for her novella, Grisha the Scrivener. After a decade of encounters and adventures, she returned to the US, taught at Dennison University in Granville, Ohio, worked for newspapers, and wrote fiction and travel pieces.

Barbara has lived many years in Sonoma County, California, where she writes, edits and teaches through the county jail program, tends a garden and an orchard of pomegranates and olives, and is active in environmental and political causes. She lives with her husband, Michael Morey, also a writer and bricoleur, jack of all trades, who keeps things going.

You can find Barbara on Twitter @pomegranatebarb and visit her website.

Five Years From Now

My Review of Five Years From Now

After a short break whilst I was on my travels to India in the hope of seeing tigers in the wild, I’m delighted to return to blogging today by spending an evening in with K.S.R Burns who has joined me on Linda’s Book Bag to tell me about one of her novels.

If you’re an author who’d also like to stay in with me to tell me about one of your books, please click here for more details.

Staying in with K.S.R. Burns

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Karen. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Hello Linda! Thanks for the wonderful invitation. I’m happy to be here.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

Today I’ve brought along my brand new novel, Paris Ever After. It’s just released today, May 1, 2018, and is the continuing story and adventures of Amy Brodie, a young woman whose “secret” trip to Paris (the city of her dreams) unexpectedly turned into a life in Paris.

(How exciting. Happy publication day.)

Paris Ever After is actually the follow-on book to my first novel, The Paris Effect, but you don’t have to have read the first book to enjoy the second—it’s “standalone”.

(Actually, I’d like to read them both. Paris has a very special place in my heart. My husband and I had our honeymoon there after a whirlwind romance and marrying within 10 months of meeting. We were poor students and did everything on a shoestring so we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary by returning and doing it all in style. I think both The Paris Effect and Paris Ever After could transport me back again after another 10 years of marriage!)

What can we expect from an evening in with Paris Ever After?

On page one, we find Amy living in Paris. She’s estranged from her husband, living in France illegally, and also—yikes—pregnant. But, amazingly, she’s making it all work. She’s found wonderful friends. She’s found a home. She’s celebrating her thirtieth birthday in the most fabulous fashion possible (in Paris!). But then two unexpected visitors show up. Boom. Before she knows it, Amy is faced with the disappointing prospect of saying au revoir to the new life she’s worked so hard to build. She wants to do the “right thing” (for herself and for her unborn child, Catherine). She just doesn’t know what that “right thing” is.

(This sounds great.)

Kirkus Reviews says Paris Ever After is “an entertaining read for Francophiles, foodies, and romantics.”

Midwest Book Review calls it “touching and engaging.”

Janice MacLeod, NYT-bestselling author of Paris Letters, says that, “Once you begin, it’s difficult to stop.”

(What wonderful endorsements. You must be so proud of Paris Ever After, Karen.)

What else have you brought along and why?

In The Paris Effect, Amy is introduced to French macarons, those adorable, pastel-colored little cakes that have become so popular. Here’s a whole plate of them:

(Gorgeous. You’re my kind of guest. You can come back any time!)

In Paris Ever After, Amy gets seriously into madeleines. This is a not-too-sweet French cake that is great with a cup of tea. Madeleines are quite easy to make and my publishers have even included a recipe for them in the back of the book.

(Am I allowed both? We are celebrating today’s publication of Paris Ever After so I think that’s a good reason to eat French inspired food don’t you?)

Either one of these French treats (or both!) would be perfect to nibble on while reading my Paris books. Or listening to – I should also say that the first book The Paris Effect is now available here in audio format.

(What a wonderful image to go with it too.)

Finally, I know this book will put many readers in the mood to go to Paris and I can’t resist saying, Just go! There is so much beauty there. So much culture. Some of it is well known (the Eiffel Tower). Some of it is more obscure. Here’s a couple photos of me during our last trip. That little street lined with macaron-colored houses is the rue Cremieux. It’s quite unknown and hidden—not even my French friends knew about it. The market photo is from the wonderful Marché d’Aligre.

(That looks so tempting and for those of us who can’t travel to Paris in real life at the moment at least we can get there through your books.)

Thanks so much for staying in with me, Karen, to tell me all about Paris Ever After. I’ve loved revisiting one of my favourite cities and look forward to reading both your books.

Paris Ever After

When Amy loses her best friend, Kat, to cancer, she knows their dream of a secret trip to Paris will never come true. Yet Kat’s words haunt her, urging her to embark on the Paris trip alone and shed the dissatisfaction of her life in Phoenix.

Little by little, Amy, grappling with a failing marriage and struggling with painful childhood memories, lets herself be swayed. Guided by Kat’s bold voice, Amy sneaks off to Paris while her husband is away on a business trip. Once there, however, she finds that her problems have come right along with her.

Through her adventures, laced with luscious descriptions of food and Paris, Amy learns that often in life, love, and friendship, nothing is exactly as it seems. Will Amy choose the life she’s discovered in Paris or decide to revive the one she left behind?

Paris Ever After is published today, 1st May 2018 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

About K.S.R. Burns

K. S. R. Burns is the author of Amazon best-seller The Paris Effect (optioned for film and TV by Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment), its standalone sequel Paris Ever After, and The Amazing Adventures Of Working Girl: Real-life Career Advice You Can Actually Use.

K.S.R. Burns has lived and worked in four countries and 22 cities, including Paris. No longer a wanderer, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest, where in addition to novels she writes a weekly career advice column for The Seattle Times.

To find out more you can follow K.S.R. Burns on Twitter @WorkingGirl, and visit her website. You will also find her on Facebook.