Guy Mankowski's Blog - Posts Tagged "ballet"

I’m very pleased to announce that the publication and acquisition of world rights for my second novel ‘Letters from Yelena’ has just been announced by Legend Press. It is due for release on 01/10/12.

Although in many ways the journey with this book is clearly only beginning, it hasn’t been at all an easy ride to get to this point. The book has taken me on many twists and turns, and each twist and turn has only taken it into an even darker place.

The idea for the book first came to me during a coffee break whilst at work- on an A4 pad I scratched out an idea for a ballerina who, during her whole lifetime, was only able to open up in the letters she wrote to one reclusive author. Soon many questions about her came flooding thick and fast to me. Why exactly was she writing to him? Why did she struggle to open up to anyone? How had the two of them got to know of each other in the first place? And these questions soon opened up entirely new areas of possibility. I decided she had to have come from somewhere remote in Eastern Europe- probably the Ukraine- before for some reason moving to England. As the grandson of a Polish immigrant I wanted to bring in some of the issues surrounding immigration that I had been told about as a child. But first I had to get to the heart of why Yelena had felt so removed, so isolated, in a way that transcended even cultural boundaries and time.

I firmly believe that art at its most functional becomes so much more than an accessory, and it can become the actual furniture of one’s life, around which we navigate our existence. And with no one is this truer than with Yelena. Ballet is her way of finally entering into communion with the world- of expressing all of her frustrated beliefs in a better life, as well as all her most potent, intoxicating fears. She doesn’t just fight to express what has happened to her in the past- she also fights to express what she fears will happen to her in the future. The darkness of her childhood, and her constant struggle to open herself up despite her incredible gifts only makes her eventual expression all the more dramatic. But the story is not that simple- fortunately and unfortunately there is far more too it than that. This book is intended to ask questions about exactly how we live, how we open ourselves up, how we struggle to develop a consistent perception of ourselves as we move through such an unpredictable world. How we help ourselves by connecting with people, but how we can also hurt ourselves if we’re not careful too.

Writing this novel I was admittedly taken to limits that I had never been near before. It was all very well deciding to write a book about a dancer who trained in Russia, but finding a way to go there and meet the necessary people in a meaningful way was something else entirely. In so doing I met some of the most interesting and talented people I have ever encountered. I was extremely fortunate enough to be able to interview Isabella McGuire Mayes, who's the only British ballerina to ever be accepted into the Vaganova Academy- probably the most prestigious ballet school in the world. At every stage I was trying to track down my main character who I knew only existed in the recesses of my mind. I’d meet one ballerina who had aspects of Yelena about her, but then she’d contradict an aspect I was looking for and so I’d be off again, searching for her somewhere else. Pretentious as it might sound even now, with the book completed, I feel she is in some ways just as mysterious to me as she ever was. I feel just as enamoured, admiring and unsettled by her as I have ever been. Having told her story the next stage is to work out how to present her to the world- even though she is probably less able to compromise than any character I have written before. Although at the point the book is published she’ll no longer be under my complete control hopefully she’ll take on another existence when people begin to read about her life. I’ll be interested to see how.

Please please pre-order the book from Amazon from the link below if you think it sounds interesting

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-Yelen...

'Yelena, a brilliant but flawed Ukrainian ballerina, comes to the UK to fulfil her dreams and dance in one of ballet's most prestigious roles: Giselle. While researching content for his new book, Yelena meets Noah, and here begins a journey of discovery.Life takes an unexpected turn, and the two write letters in which they try to provide a blueprint of their lives and find their way back to each other. But during this process, Yelena visits the darkest corners of her life and, before she knows it, her past begins to catch up with her in ways she can't control. A dark, intricate labyrinth, Letters from Yelena explores the depths of one woman's own inner torment, the extremes to which we can be taken, and whether or not there is a way out.'

Available on Kindle from today- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-From-...

'Yelena' has more emotional and intellectual depth in a chapter than the entirety of The Black Swan. Instead it harks back to something like the visual masterpiece of The Red Shoes; romantic, dark, uncompromising, and beautiful' Hanna Jameson- author of 'Something You Are'

‘It’s unusual to find a young male writer who can write with such sensitivity and maturity. This is clearly a writer of great talent.’ Andrew Crumey, Booker Prize longlisted author.

It is always strange being asked to chair discussions about a book you wrote. I have never failed to be surprised by the questions the audience most want answered. I suppose it is intriguing- how did a book come from nothing, a mere idea, to ending up in the shops? At what point does an idea become a valid, existing entity? To research my novel Letters from Yelena I conducted years of research, and travelled to Russia to gain insights into the carefully guarded lives of the ballerinas there. I was one of the first English people to be allowed complete access to the world's most famous ballet school, The Vaganova. At times it felt like the novel would not be finished, and I simply would never get the information I needed. In this discussion group I discuss how I wrote a novel which, to my surprise, ended up adapted as a play, reaching a Bestseller in Fiction List, and used as GCSE training material. I hope it will be helpful for anyone who is writing, or planning to write a book.
http://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/leg...