Carolihe Miller

I received this email the other day from my writer friend Caroline Miller:
Hi Everyone – Below is the press release for my 4^th novel Ballet Noir.
For the first time ever, I’m able to offer a 10% discount to those who pre-order before the release date April 14^th.  Here is the link.
http://www.blackrosewriting.com/romance/ballet-noir.

There was an addendum on that email which said:  Sydney, if you know someone who likes this type of reading, please share the discount.  I clarified with her that sharing the information meant that I could include my blog readers, as well, and I am so pleased that she said yes.

I want to also share that, although I count Caroline as a friend, I have yet to meet her!  Our mutual friend is my neighbor Tucker Wachsmuth who Caroline actually knows as “Chet.”  That’s because Caroline was Tucker’s high school English teacher back in the day when he went by that nickname for his given name “Chester.”

“Tuck’s” Business Card from ‘Back in the Day’

(In fact, while we’re talking about that, various people call Tucker by various names depending upon when they came into his life.  By now, we know him to be “Chester,” “Chet,” “Tucker,” “Tuck,” and “Opa.”  And, knowing the owner of all these sobriquets, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.)

Caroline is one of the few people I ‘know ’who is actually written up on Wikipedia.  Check her out by Googling Caroline Miller of Portland, Oregon.  Not only is she a writer of note, she has been active in politics and in women’s issues.  Along those lines, I recently saw her pictured with Gloria Steinem.

“Ballet Noir” by Caroline Miller

I have to confess, though, that I have only read her first book, Heart Land.  I loved it.  It’s about the antics and angst of a twelve-year old boy and his younger brother in 1939/1940 in the Midwest.  I felt like I ‘knew’ those boys and was especially intrigued because Caroline wrote it in the first person.  She was a most convincing young boy!

She tells me that her other books are gothic and so have a very different feel. I cannot tell from the blurb on the book if her remark applies to Ballet Noir or not:

Her first tour in Europe, Tara Bentley, young prima ballerina with a small Seattle dance company, watches her excitement turn to horror when she’s haunted by the voice of her deceased dance teacher, Yelena Natilova. She fears she might be going mad until she meets a necromancer who assures her the voice is real. Is he a charlatan? Or, has he the power to guide her through this nightmare as she struggles to hold her career together? Their dash through the great theaters of Europe becomes the performance of a lifetime with death waiting in the wings.  

I have mine on order!  Order yours and we’ll compare notes later!