Michelle Styles, To Marry a Matchmaker and a Giveaway!

Today we have Historical author Michelle Styles with us and she's got a book for you! 

But before we give over to her...a reminder! My Blog's sidebars on both sides have links to follow KATE WALKER and CHRISTINA HOLLIS blog tours for MEGA GIVEAWAYS! Follow and Comment for giveaways and to go in the Grand Prize Draw!

So over to Michelle now....

Finding Inspiration

For me, when I turn in my manuscripts to my editor, it is the beginning of the journey rather than the end. This is a polite way of saying that there are ALWAYS revisions and a number of times, the story radically changes. To Marry A Matchmaker was no exception. My then editor highlighted a number of problems because basically it suffered from sagging middle syndrome. To tell if your story has sagging middle syndrome, one quick way is to see if your hero and heroine are spending a lot of time apart, busy with things but the relationship isn’t advancing. Every scene needs to work hard and further that central relationship.

My former editor basically gave me the choice to bin the story and start afresh. However, I loved the story and was determined to save it. One of the major difficulties was my heroine. She wasn’t coming across on the page as I wanted. Then I accidentally saw something that perhaps I shouldn’t have and someone described me as a busybody because sometimes I do give unasked for advice. It comes from the heart and because I want people to succeed but occasionally my good intentions go wrong. And the moment, I read those words, I knew I had my heroine.

Like me, Henri was a proactive person whose actions are motivated by her desire to do good and to leave the world a little better than how she’d found it. Only often her plans go awry. She is like my great grandmother used to say someone who if the road to Hell paved with good intentions, the head contractor in chief. Do-gooding with unintended consequences runs in my family!  She means well but can occasionally have blinkers on, particularly where match-making is concerned.

I also knew I had my hero, Robert, a self-made man who doesn’t entirely approved Henri’s penchant for match-making, particularly as his ward just suffered near ruin in London and is coming up to Northumberland to recover. Determined to forestall Henri, Robert wagers with Henri that she will be unable to refrain from match-making for a month. Never one to back down, and with the possibility of besting Robert in the prospect, Henri happily accepts. However, things do not go precisely as either of them planned.

I had enormous fun writing To Marry A Matchmaker and Henri remains one of my favourite heroines.  It was worth the trauma and heartbreak of not getting it right the first time. Sometimes ideas are just better when you have had to really think and ponder about the solutions.

Does anyone else suffer from good intentions going wrong syndrome?

To Marry A Matchmaker is out in Large Print this month and to celebrate, I am offering a signed paperback copy of To Marry A Matchmatcher to one lucky poster.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide variety of time periods. To read an extract of To Marry A Matchmaker, please visit http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/

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Thank you Michelle for being with us here and for this giveaway!