DANCING FOR THE DEVIL AND THE OULED NAIL DANCERS

 SWORD DANCE, Book 3 of the historical romance trilogy DANCING FOR THE DEVIL, was recently released by Áccent Press. Like the first two books in the series – DREAM CATCHER and BLUE BONNETS – it mostly takes place in the far north of Scotland, so you may wonder why I'm writing a post about Algeria's infamous Ouled Nail dancers. Algeria is a long, long way from Scotland!

Well, here is why. THE DREAM CATCHER, the first novel in my DANCING FOR THE DEVIL trilogy, features Rose Saintclair, an unconventional heroine born and brought up in Bou Saada, an oasis in the Sahara desert. This was where many dancers from the Berber tribe Ouled Nail lived and worked.

The Ouled Nail were made famous by painters such as Etienne Dinet, who settled in Bou Saada in the late nineteenth century and who, like so many other visitors to North Africa, was fascinated by them. The Ouled Nails were trained since their girlhood in the art of dancing. They left their villages to earn a living in market towns and usually returned home after ten to fifteen years, when they had saved enough money to settled down and get married.

Unlike most women in Algeria, they were always unveiled and wore heavy make up. Their eyes were lined with kohl, their hair was braided on both sides of the face, and adorned by elaborate headdresses. Their costume featured voluminous and colourful skirts, lots of necklaces, charms and bracelets. These bracelets often had studs and spikes which the girls used to defend themselves against the unwelcome attentions of overexcited spectators.

The Ouled Nail literally wore their wealth on their person, usually in their long necklaces, sawn into their skirts and shawls, or on their headdress. This made them easy preys to unscrupulous thugs and many were attacked and robbed.

The girls usually danced in pairs. Their style has often been described as 'earthy', and it was often the case that after several dances in costume, the dancers would retire behind a screen, only to reappear completely naked, except for headdress and jewellery, to continue their performance.  

An Ouled Nail Dancer by  Etienne Dinet

Ted Shawn, the famous American dancer and choreographer, saw the Ouled Nail in the early 1900's and is quoted to have said that their dancing could not be called suggestive 'because it left nothing to the imagination'.

Rose Saintclair, the heroine in DANCING FOR THE DEVIL, learnt the art of dancing like a Ouled Nail from one of her childhood friends.  However now she is married to Cameron McRae, one of Scotland's richest landowners, she has to forget all about that most unsuitable skill...Or does she? 

And to carry on the theme of dancing, DANCING FOR THE DEVIL was published in three parts, each one with the title of a Highland dance.

THE DREAM CATCHER

Blurb

Can her love heal his haunted heart?

Cape Wrath, Scotland, November 1847.

Bruce McGunn is a man as brutal and unforgiving as his land in the far North of Scotland. Discharged from the army where he was known as the claymore devil, haunted by the spectres of his fallen comrades and convinced he is going mad, he is running out of time to save his estate from the machinations of Cameron McRae, heir to the McGunn's ancestral enemies. When the clipper carrying McRae’s new bride is caught in a violent storm and docks at Wrath harbour, Bruce decides to revert to the old ways and hold the clipper and the woman to ransom. However, far from the spoilt heiress he expected, Rose is genuine, funny and vulnerable - a ray of sunshine in the long, harsh winter that has become his life.

But Rose is determined to escape Wrath and its proud master - the man she calls McGlum.

DREAM CATCHER is the first in the DANCING FOR THE DEVIL trilogy and is followed by BLUE BONNETS and SWORD DANCE.

It is available both as an ebook and paperback from

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dream-Catcher-Dancing-Devil-Book-ebook-y/dp/B017D73N0Q/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

SWORD DANCE is out!

I am delighted to announce that SWORD DANCE, Book 3 in my Scottish historical romance DANCING FOR THE DEVIL has been released by Accent Press. The cover really shows my heroine's lovely, sunny personality, don't you think? 

 So, what happened in Books 1 and  2, THE DREAM CATCHER and BLUE BONNETS and what can we expect in SWORD DANCE?

The story so far...

Cape Wrath, Scotland, November 1847.

When her ship is caught in a terrifying storm off the far north of Scotland and she catches her first glimpse of Wrath Lodge, Rose believes she has reached the gateway to hell. Her encounter with Wrath's laird Bruce McGunn does nothing to reassure her. A reckless officer discharged from the army, McGunn holds a bitter grudge against her husband's family, the wealthy McRaes, and Rose is soon horrified to find out that he means to hold her to ransom in order to save his estate from financial ruin.

 Bruce's health is failing, and he fears he is descending into madness with terrifying hallucinations tormenting him every night. Soon something else is keeping him awake - a growing attraction for his captive, and the gruesome discovery of two women's bodies near the castle. One of them, Malika, is a childhood friend of Rose's she last saw in Algiers the day before her marriage to McRae. How the women died, who killed them and disposed of their bodies is a mystery Bruce now has to solve.  

Rose manages to escape Wrath, taking with her a posy of pine sprigs she believes was given to her by the Dark Lady, Wrath's resident ghost, and her confused feelings for Wrath's tormented master - the man she calls McGlum.

Here is an excerpt. I hope you enjoy it.

‘What are you doing? Please stop,’ she breathed, as his lips trailed along the curve of her throat. 

          If only he could... He looked up and the seductive power of her sultry, heavily made-up eyes gleaming in the moonlight hit him like a bolt of lightning. Every fibre of his body reacted to the feel of her soft body against his, the warm fragrance of her skin. She was right, though. What the hell was he doing? Once again he reminded himself that he had no right to feel that way, no right to want her, but damn it, the woman would tempt a saint. And he was no saint.
          He swallowed a deep, hard breath, released her and made himself step back. ‘All right. We’ll stay here a while and wait until McRae and his remaining guests have gone to bed. Where’s your horse?’
          ‘I left it tied to a post behind the hunting lodge.’
          ‘What about your bag?’
          ‘It’s still strapped to the saddle. By the time I spoke to the girls and the musicians, we had to get ready to come here.’
          ‘How did you manage to get into the hunting lodge without being seen by McRae’s men?’
          ‘It wasn’t easy. I got stuck as I sneaked in through one of the downstairs windows and ripped my - ’
          ‘You got stuck?’ He would have laughed if he weren’t so angry.
          ‘The musicians had to pull me in. We had to be quick and very quiet, because Cameron’s men were in the kitchen.’
          Damn the woman. Didn’t she care about the danger she put herself in?    ‘So, after clambering through a window, you had the brilliant idea to disguise yourself as a dancer and throw yourself into the lion’s den.’
          She flinched at the harshness of his tone. ‘I thought I could avoid bumping into Cameron.’
          ‘You bump into everything and anything you come across, why not McRae?’ he interrupted, taut with temper. ‘He could have recognised you when you were with the others in the music room.’
          ‘Then I would have confronted him and exposed him for the liar and the debauched rake he is in front of all his guests!’ The baubles on her necklace tinkled like little bells as she shook her head.
          ‘Weren’t you afraid of all those men ogling you, lusting after you?’ Me included, he remembered, guilt tightening his chest.
          ‘Well, I... I didn’t think I would have to dance. My plan was to get into the castle and hide until I could speak to Lady Sophia. Unfortunately, Cameron’s manservant was watching us like a hawk and I had no choice but to go into the music room with the others. The girls promised to create a diversion so that I could sneak out unnoticed.’
          ‘A diversion? That’s a mild way of putting it,’ he sneered. ‘The girls’ dancing was... ahem... striking, to say the least. Ask that poor old man who collapsed.’ He drew in a deep breath. ‘Anyway, where did you learn to dance like that?’
          She lowered her eyes, snapped a leaf from a nearby bush and tore it into tiny pieces that spiralled to the ground. ‘Malika taught me, in secret. She always said I was good enough to be one of them.’
          She was right, her dancing had been entrancing, mesmerising, but he wasn’t going to tell her. ‘I still can’t believe you took such risks tonight, just to talk to McRae’s fiancée. It was stupid and foolhardy.’ And damned brave, too, even though he would never admit it. Gripped by conflicting urges, he towered above her, his fists clenched and his jaw set. 

SWORD DANCE is available from Accent Press and from Amazon