A-Z Blogging Challenge - E is for Ellie

Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Vaughan is the heroine of my novel Irish Deceptions, whose career as a professional ballet dancer ended because of a car accident in which her knee was badly damaged.

Why did I, who has never had ballet (or any dancing) lessons, choose this occupation for my character?

The answer is because, for a purely practical reason, I needed my heroine’s career to be cut short by an injury. Not enough to disable her seriously, but enough to end her professional career. Okay, she could have been an athlete of some kind e.g. a gymnast, or swimmer, or tennis player – but at the same time, I needed her occupation to be something that would bring her to the Mist Na Mara Arts Centre in Ireland (which has featured in all my Irish novels), so dancing seemed to be the obvious choice.

Could she still teach dancing even if she was unable to perform? Research showed that this is a career transition made by many dancers, even after injury may have halted their performing careers. So far, so good.

Then came the finer details. Yes, I know the names of the most famous ballets, I even know what ‘up to 5th’ means (not sure how I know that!) – but the more complex movements in ballet? Not a clue! Google and YouTube proved useful, of course, but I needed some reassurance that I had got things right. And in this situation, it was not a case of ‘write what you know’ but rather ‘find someone who knows about what you want to write’. Fortunately I didn’t have to look very far, as I remembered a friend’s daughter has been a dance teacher for about 20 years. As a result, she and I had several phone conversations, and even more email conversations so hopefully, with her help, I got my facts and ballet terminology right.

Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 1, after Ellie’s friend Maria is convinced the man standing at the bar is Dan Nicholas, the heart-throb hero of a recent historical drama on television.

 Ellie stood, pulled her black jacket from the back of her chair, and stretched her arm into the top of one sleeve.

“Ellie!” came Maria’s warning cry.

She spun around in time to see the dark-haired man duck away from her elbow and spill some of his Guinness as he did so.

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” she gasped, letting her jacket fall to the floor.

He flicked his hand down his thigh. “No harm done, my trousers will dry.”

As she looked up at him, a dozen confused thoughts crashed through her mind. Yes, he was definitely Dan Nicholas. The dark eyes which had enthralled millions of women on television met hers, sending a tremor down her spine, and the deep, rich timbre of his Irish voice left her lungs short of oxygen.

“I–I’m so sorry,” she stuttered again.

He put his glass on a nearby table, picked up her jacket, and smiled. “Let me help you with this.”

Her heart raced as he held the jacket for her and she slid her arms into it. She only remembered to start breathing again when she turned back to him. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

A fire of embarrassment heated her cheeks. “Apologies again for spilling your beer. I hope your trousers won’t be stained.” She glanced down at the wet patch at the top of his thigh, but wished she hadn’t when she raised her eyes and caught the amused twitch of his mouth. Struggling to salvage a few shreds of dignity, she mustered what she hoped was a calm and poised smile. “Well – goodbye.”

Outside the pub door, she blew out a huff of annoyance. “Oh lord, how to make a complete fool of yourself in ten seconds flat.”

Maria snickered. “It’s not every day you cause a star of stage and screen to slop beer down his trousers, is it?”

“First and last time, I hope.”

“But you missed an opportunity,” Maria went on as they set off along the street.

“What opportunity?”

“You could have asked him to come on Saturday.”

“Oh, sure. Excuse me, Mr. Nicholas, but now I’ve stared at your crotch, may I invite you to the taster day at the Mist Na Mara Dance and Drama Studio?”

(All my books are available from Amazon  or from Tirgearr Publishing )