If anyone knows their positions, it’s a ballerina.
Hamrick, who is alsoMick Jagger’spartner, shares an exclusive and very steamy!
excerpt from the novel, and answers some of our questions below.First Positionhits shelves June 20.
Andres de Lara
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve worked as a ballerina and a choreographer in the world of professional ballet.
How did that shape or inspire this story?
MELANIE HAMRICK:People say to write what you know, and ballet is what I know for sure.
That we’re all these perfect little jewelry box ballerinas.
We’re human beings with our own past stories, and this is our profession.
We go into our job everyday like everyone else.
and “Can you do the splits?”
And yes, these are both true things!
I lovedThe Turning Pointas a child, [it’s] one of my favorite movies.
But I think I was most inspired byBlack Swan.
It brought ballet to a mainstream audience and was popular.
Lots of people think of ballet as stuffy or boring and I loved whatBlack Swandid with it.
People were curious about ballet like never before after.
Of course,Black Swanis a fictional tale, but it’s based on truths in the ballet world.
That’s what I wanted to do with my novel.
Its fiction based on truths.
And fiction is just so fun to write.
you’ve got the option to make it as crazy or wild as you want.
This is a tale of lust and forbidden desire.
What made you want to go so steamy?
Did writing those scenes come naturally, or was there a learning curve?
Ballet is beautiful and sexy, so it just seemed natural to go steamy.
Why or why not?
It is a work of fiction, so I wasn’t worried…
I’m proud of all sides of myself and of my book.
However, a fun pseudonym could have been from a ballet maybe Odile von Rothbart!
Do you plan to write more novels?
I’ve just finished a rough draft of my second novel.
I’m very excited about it.
It follows one of the characters fromFirst Position.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
It was literally intoxicating.
I don’t know how a voice or a touch can do that, but it did.
I am powerless against it.
“What do you want, little swan?”
Chills run through me.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.
I think again about apologizing or saying I don’t know, but then decide to be honest.
“I want you to touch me.”
I feel like I’m on hard, deadly drugs.
My inhibitions have vanished.
He draws back almost imperceptibly, and I feel a reprise of fear.
“How do you want me to touch you?”
My mind is hesitating, but my body has not a slice of confusion about what it wants.
And the only reason my mind is hesitating is because I am truly afraid I have lost my mind.
“Are you sure of what that is?”
His hand is on my waist.
A gasp escapes me as he touches me.
The feeling he is giving me is a little like drowning.
But this is making me forget I can even be seen.
In this moment, I don’t care about anything but this.
Barks Diana on the stage.
“But very good, Jocelyn.
he asks before putting his mouth on me.
“Yes, yes.”
I touch his hair, that gorgeous hair.
It’s even more perfect to the touch.
I pull him by the back of his head, and push him where I want him.
He moves out of his seat to crouch in front of mine.
The heat and the wetness and the surprise of it makes me feel desperate.
My heart is pounding and everywhere I am throbbing and clenching and releasing.
There is no longer a past or even a future.
All that matters is now.
And it is intense.
It is taking everything in me to remain silent.
He squeezes my thigh and then smacks it.
My hips begin to twitch, I feel my insides throbbing and responding to everything he does.
“Resa, swan, surrender.”
I let out a gasp of air and convulse into him, then again, again, and .
“Yes,” he breathes against me.
I grip into his body as if I trust him with my life and surrender completely to him.
He doesn’t disappear as soon as I am through.
Instead he lingers on my thighs, kissing and touching me lightly.
I could sleep or slip into the devastatingly soothing heat of a warm bath.
This is the moment when the dancers are summoned to the stage over the god mic for notes.
I know what comes next.
“He’s going to ask for the house lights up!”
I scramble into my sweats just as we both hear, “House lights, hey!”
I catch my breath and register that Robert Calvo, our director, has joined Diana onstage.
“Everyone gather round,” says Robert, clasping his long fingers in front of him.
I stand and adjust my warm-ups as I prepare for the walk down the aisle.
The entire company erupts in gasps and applause from the usually impermeable girls.
And I see a man begin to walk down the aisle.
He glances at me as he walks by.
He takes his right hand and touches his lips and nose.
To anyone else it would look like a human gesture that meant nothing at all.
But I know where that hand has just been.
dammit,” I utter.
I have just made a huge, huge mistake.
FromFirst Positionpublished by arrangement with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Copyright 2023 by Melanie Hamrick.
