Dancing With Velvet by Judy Nickles Excerpt and Book Trailer

Dancing With Velvet by Judy Nickles
$4.99

In the waning days of the Great Depression, Celeste Riley wonders if life will always be the same: going to work, coming home to keep house for her widowed father who ignores her. She clings to her married sister, Coralee, and the recurring dream of a blue velvet curtain and a faceless lover who beckons her beyond it. Then a blue velvet dress in the window of a local department store seems to promise the change in her life she so desperately longs for. When she dances in the arms of traveling salesman Kent Goddard at the Roof Garden, she is sure she has found the man of her dreams and is crushed when he disappears from her life. Then, soon after Pearl Harbor propels the United States into war, he returns in uniform as a student at the new bombardier training school. A wartime separation threatens their deepening relationship. Then Celeste realizes that what she doesn’t know about the man of her dreams may become her worst nightmare.

Dancing with Velvet
a story of love and war and survival

President Franklin D. Roosevelt concluded his request to Congress for a declaration of war on Japan with the words, With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God. Inevitably, not only the armed forces but the people at home would be fighting, too…though different battles on a different front.
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In the waning days of the Great Depression, Celeste Riley wonders if life will always be the same: going to work and coming home to keep house for her widowed father who ignores her. She clings to her married sister, Coralee, and the recurring dream of a blue velvet curtain and a faceless lover who beckons her beyond it. Then a blue velvet dress in the window of a local department store seems to promise the change in her life she so desperately longs for. When she dances in the arms of Kent Goddard at the Roof Garden, she is sure she has found the man of her dreams and is crushed when he disappears from her life. Soon after Pearl Harbor propels the United States into war, he returns in uniform as a student at the new bombardier training school. Inevitably, a wartime separation threatens their deepening relationship. Then Celeste realizes that what she doesn’t know about the man of her dreams may become her worst nightmare.

With Kent overseas, Celeste fights her own war with pride, self-deprecation, and the need to forgive. Before he comes home…if he comes home…she knows she has to win.

Trivia about the book:

1. The building on the cover is the real St. Angelus Hotel before it was demolished. You can see the Roof Garden on the top floor.
2. The idea for the story came from hearing my parents talk about going to dances there. I think there were live bands on a regular basis.
3. I’d only been up to the Roof Garden once for a dance when I was in high school. I needed my memories refreshed, but my parents were dead, and I really didn’t know anyone else who’d been around then. So I wrote to a columnist at the local paper, The San Angelo Standard Times and told him I was looking for information. He wrote a column describing my project and what I wanted to know. People came out of the woodwork with their memories—and he (Rick Smith) got three MORE columns out of the topic!
4. I listed all the people who wrote/called Rick in the front of the book.
5. To make sure I had all the places located correctly, I studied old city directories.

About the author:

Judy Nickles, writing as Gwyneth Greer, has been creating stories since she could hold a #2 pencil and, later, peck on her father’s ancient Underwood typewriter. After retirement, believing that ‘Someday is here’, she decided to pursue publication. A passionate interest in history and long years of genealogical research provide an endless supply of writing ideas. Dancing with Velvet is her fifth published novel. She is currently working on a series of six cozy mysteries set in a small Arkansas town.