Michelle Major’s USA Today, best-selling romance is all about new beginnings, second chances, and always a Happily Ever After. Just the thing for Christmas relief and her latest festive book, The Christmas Cabin delivers on all fronts. Hi, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler, and on Binge Reading this week, Michelle talks about the appeal of Christmas stories -she’s written lots of them – and why Second Chance Romance is one of her favorite things to write. This Week’s Giveaway Our Giveaway this week is a Book Bundle of three holiday novellas for my own Of Gold & Blood historic mystery series. If you enjoy twisty family secrets and a dash of sweet romance, you’ll love this trio of novellas et in New York, Hawaii, and California. DOWNLOAD HOLIDAY NOVELLAS https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1z2rd1zjlx You can support the show by buying me a cup of [email protected]/jennywheelx. Your contribution helps to pay for production costs, but all of my time in researching and recording the show is done for no cost. If you enjoy the show, leave us a review so others can find us too. Word of mouth is still the best way for others to find great books they will love to read. Links to things mentioned in the episode: Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series – books; https://juliaquinn.com/series/bridgertons/ Bridgerton TV show: https://www.tvguide.com/news/bridgerton-season-3-release-date-cast-trailers-news-everything-to-know/ Shonda Rhimes: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0722274/ Lisa Kleypas: https://lisakleypas.com/ Jill Shalvis: The Sweetheart List, https://www.jillshalvis.com/the-sweetheart-list Readers Take Denver: https://www.readerstakedenver.com/ Lori Foster Reader Author Get Together: https://readerauthorgettogether.com/ Where to find Michelle online Website: Michellemajor.com Facebook: @Michellemajorauthor Instagram @Michellemajorbooks. Introducing romance author Michelle Major Romance author Michelle Major – feel good books for Christmas Jenny Wheeler: But now here’s Michelle. Hello there Michelle, and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us. Michelle Major: I’m so excited to be here. Thank you. Jenny Wheeler: The Christmas Cabin is your newest release. and it’s also part of the very successful Carolina Girls series.When I looked at the series, I discovered that this is actually the third Christmas book you’ve done in that series, so obviously your readers love them. What do you think it is that attracts readers to Christmas stories? Michelle Major: As a reader myself and a writer I think Christmas stories are so special because it’s a time of year when we look back at our memories whether we have those rose-colored glasses on and everybody thinks about the perfect, Christmas around the fire though unfortunately, it’s not always the reality in the world at large or in a family. And so, I think escaping into a Christmas book where you can just sink into all of those traditions and sweetness is really special at this time of year. Jenny Wheeler: Now the couple in your story, Laura and Ben, were married briefly as youngsters and for quite understandable reasons it didn’t last very long. They’re now meeting up again quite some time later in their old home territory. I guess you would describe this as a Second Chance Romance, wouldn’t you? Michelle Major: I would. And Second Chance Romance is one of my favorites to write, so I loved it. The appeal of Second Chance Romance Jenny Wheeler: Why is that? Why is Second Chance Romance so attractive? Michelle Major: My writing process often starts with character development and the emotions between the two main characters, You know, in movies, I love Love at First Sight shows, and I love those moments of being hit by something. But I think writing Second Chance, it’s just so juicy because they have a history and often it hasn’t ended well. You can jump in the deep end on the emotional tension. Jenny Wheeler: I guess often when a relationship breaks up, people are at a certain point in their development and they frame things in a certain way, which may not actually be at all correct and truthful and may not reflect what the other party sees. And then years later, they’ve had a chance to think about it a bit more, so they might see it all rather differently. Michelle Major: They might see it differently, but I think a lot of times when second chance couples first come back together, they don’t quite see it differently at the start of their reunion. They’re maybe stunted a little bit back in that breakup, those feelings of the big breakup song and what happened. The readers get to go on this growth journey with them where they realize, oh, maybe it wasn’t quite how I thought it was years ago. Jenny Wheeler: Sure. They come to it with preconceptions. That’s right. The Christmas theme comes through very strongly in The Christmas Cabin because you’ve got a Christmas market that takes place. I’d like you to give us just a little bit more of a rundown on the storyline to help explain why that Christmas market appears. Hope, healing and Happily Ever After Michelle Major: I would love to do that. Lauren, the heroine, comes back to Magnolia, North Carolina, her hometown that she really hasn’t returned to since her breakup and divorce with Ben. And she brings her daughter, who’s having some struggles of her own – her teenage daughter – back for her younger brother’s wedding. And when she gets there, she realizes she didn’t have a great home life and the brightest spot in her youth was Camp Blossom, the local summer camp. That was, for her as a child and a teenager, her found family at that point. The camp is closing and is being redeveloped. Ben and her estranged father are doing that, but Lauren decides that she’s really going to give the owner of the camp and herself and her daughter one last amazing Christmas to rekindle all those great memories. The Christmas market is a big part of that. Jenny Wheeler: It’s also an acknowledgement of the older man, isn’t it? The old man and his life achievement, so it’s very sweet. You describe your books as stories of hope, healing and happily ever after. And I thought to myself that it’s really clear that at the moment, the way that the world is, people are under a tremendous amount of stress, which probably began with Covid, but nothing’s really returned to how we understood it to be before. Do you think there’s a place for this hope, healing and happy ever after even more now than there was before? Michelle Major: Yes, absolutely. Even more, I think. It’s not to discount the problems in the world, but I think as people and individuals, it does get so heavy. A lot of that did start during Covid, when so many of us felt so isolated. This ability to connect through the words on a page, to me it’s one of my favorite things about being a writer to provide this. I know as a person, I have a strict rule when watching movies that if I know it’s not going to be a happy ending, I can’t sign up for that at this point. I’m willing to laugh and cry, but I need some redemption at the end. Small town romance in North Carolina Jenny Wheeler: Yes. You’ve written over 30 contemporary romances in eight different series, and the most recent ones as far as I could see were Carolina Girls and Magnolia Sisters. They’re both set in North Carolina and for some reason North Carolina’s been very much on my radar recently as a place where a lot of romance and sweet romance family stories are set. I wondered if there’s any particular reason for that? Michelle Major: I think North Carolina… I didn’t grow up there. I grew up in the Midwest, in Ohio, and I’ve lived for the past 30 years in Colorado. But my family vacationed to North Carolina, back in the late seventies and early eighties, when we were in the wood -aneled van, trundling down the highway I recall the beaches as really special there, but it also has mountains and small towns. It’s a great mix of a lot of things that makes small town sweet romance special. Jenny Wheeler: Your stories are also about facing up to life not delivering what people might have hoped for. About brokenness and disappointed expectations. I think in the previous book, the heroine had been the self-proclaimed Queen Bee of Magnolia, and now her husband’s been arrested for fraud, and she’s become an outcast in the shallow circles where she used to rule. Now that sounds such a great set up for a story of somebody getting to know themselves well. Do you think people like to even get a few lessons in how to do that when things go wrong? What readers like best about Michelle’s books Michelle Major: I hope so. I do as a reader, and I love to explore it as a writer. I think when you are reading a book about people, especially a book that’s set in contemporary times, people who have real problems that you can relate to, it does give you some empathy for the character. Then as they overcome the problems, you can see yourself in those people and watching them grow and learn and become better versions of themselves I hope is inspirational. Jenny Wheeler: What do readers tell you they like best about your books? Michelle Major: I think – I hope the romance – but I also think that I hear from a lot of readers because I tend to write books with big worlds in a small town where they’re close knit. There’s a lot of secondary characters. And I hear a lot about the female friendships in my book and those feeling really real, which I love because I’ve been married over 20 years and I adore my husband, but I don’t think I could get through life without my female friends too. So showing that aspect, all aspects of a character, I think is really fun. Jenny Wheeler: Did you start out writing these sorts of books right from the beginning or is it something that’s evolved as you’ve gone along? Michelle Major: I started out as a category series writer with Harlequin. I was writing shorter books and the deadline schedule was such that I was doing several a year, which I think was such a good training ground for me as far as plotting and staying on deadlines. Then when I branched out into writing these bigger stories, I felt like that was a natural progression for me as an author. Jenny Wheeler: And they were small town sweet romances, were they, at the beginning? A ‘light bulb’ moment in a terrible job Michelle Major: They were. I’ve done a variety of heat levels in my books, but probably if you’re doing a one to four scale of heat, I think four is the hottest I’ve gotten. But always with that kind of cozy, small town feel. Jenny Wheeler: Sure. And did you have a light bulb moment when you thought, I’ve got to write a book, or how did it happen? Michelle Major: I absolutely had a light bulb moment. I was always a reader and I was a journalism major in college, but I had a career in human resources during the late ‘90s, early 2000s, when the.com bubble busted. I was traveling the country laying people off. My company went bankrupt and it was a terrible job. One time, randomly in the Denver airport, I picked up a romance. I’d never read. the genre before, and it was exactly what I needed at that point in my life. That escape, that happiness, those butterflies in my stomach. And I also thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’ The stories that I tell myself in my head or I watch a show and think this is how I would’ve done it,t hey lend themselves to romance. So that’s what I want to do next. Jenny Wheeler: Do you remember what that book was? Michelle Major: I do, it was it was An Offer From A Gentleman. It was a Julia Quinn, one of the Bridgerton books. Writing while baby sleeps – not as easy as it sounds Jenny Wheeler: Have you got into the series on Tv? Michelle Major: Yes, I love this series on Tv and it’s been so fun since I read those books, a decade ago. It’s great to come back and revisit those characters. Jenny Wheeler: So you read that book, then you went home and just started writing? Michelle Major: Not exactly. I was still working and then at that point I was getting married and when I was pregnant with my first child, I thought, okay, I’m going to work part-time, which I still was, and I’m going to have a baby. But babies sleep all the time, so while he’s sleeping, I’m going to just write, and write, and write. What I didn’t realize, is that at least my baby, slept for five minutes at a time. And so it took a few years. I worked on craft and I joined my local Romance Writers of America chapter and met a like-minded group of people and then eventually the kids slept and I got into it more seriously. Jenny Wheeler: I think this is a familiar story with many writers actually, there are quite a few years of apprenticeship and learning and perseverance. There’s almost no writer you talk to who has had that overnight success. Michelle Major: I agree with that. I wish when I was reading the classics and reading literary books in college and in my early twenties that I had picked up a romance, because maybe I could have started earlier. But I also think things happen when they are supposed to. And I’m really grateful that they did. How Michelle Major approaches her writing Jenny Wheeler: It’s funny, isn’t it? Because that does reflect the way that romance was regarded in those years as being not as important as literary writers and so it wasn’t ever included on college reading lists and things like that. Michelle Major: Exactly. Exactly. But I think some of that – I hope some of that – is changing. And to me, one of the really great things about romance is the author and reader community. People are so dedicated and so open and I love it. Jenny Wheeler: So are you somebody who just sits down and starts writing, or do you do a lot of plotting beforehand? Michelle Major: I like to think of myself as a planster. I’m somewhere in between. As I said, I do a lot of character development where I know a lot about the character’s wound and what they have to overcome. I know the ‘big tent poles of the plot’ and I always know how it’s going to end for some reason, the first scene and the last scene. But then I tend to plot. More specifically, three chapters in advance where I give myself a little freedom to see where the book is going to go. But I like to have some guidance so I’m not writing into the mist. Jenny Wheeler: Yes. And what does a typical writing day look like for you at this stage of your life? Michelle Major: At this stage, I am newly an empty nester. That is a big change in a good way. I get up really early, still 5 or 5:30 am and I’ll do some movement, walk the dog and let’s say get my own self in order. And then I sit down and I tend to do a couple of hours straight in the morning and then take a break, do email, social media, and then come back in the afternoon for more. Making it work no matter what Jenny Wheeler: And do you have a daily goal in terms of the number of words you write? Michelle Major: I typically do a weekly goal, which is, if I’m drafting a book, it’s between 10 and 15,000 a week. I like to break that up into two to 3000 words a day. It doesn’t always work that way, so sometimes I’ll have to make it up. Jenny Wheeler: I read a little bit on your website about your early days and your adventurous spirit, the way you set off across the country. I like to ask about previous work experience before you became a writer and if it was of benefit or detriment to their working as a writer when they set to it. And you sound as if you had a very great adventurous spirit when you were a young woman taking off like that. Can you tell us a bit about those early years? Michelle Major: I grew up, as I said, in Ohio, but my family always took vacations near the mountains and I knew I wanted to live somewhere near the mountains in college. I graduated early. That was before the internet and computers were pretty new to the mainstream public. I got a book out of the library called Jobs in Paradise, and I sent my resume and my letter out to any job that was available in a state that had mountains. I got hired on at a dude ranch in Colorado. And I had some experience riding horses, but I packed up my old Honda and my luggage was black garbage bags and put everything in and headed west. I had a variety of jobs in my early days out here. I didn’t know anybody in the state, so I was just trying to find a way to stay here. And I think, at that point, when you’re in the middle of it, it’s like writing a story where you’re not thinking, wow, this is an accomplishment. But I think the perseverance there to go, okay, I’m going to make this work no matter what I have to do has served me in the writing career. One thing that is the secret of success? Jenny Wheeler: If there was one thing that you’d see as the secret of your success in that career, what would it be? Michelle Major: I think keeping the promises to myself. It’s certainly easier to write when you have a deadline that comes from your publisher, and you’ve got an advance. But I think the perseverance of going, okay, I say I’m going to do this. Sitting down and writing the words even on a day when it doesn’t come easy and I’d rather watch Instagram reels of cute cats all day. I think that is my superpower as a writer. Jenny Wheeler: Promises to myself. That’s fantastic. Was there a specific goal that you had in mind when you started out as an author? Have you still got an unfinished ambition, like to have a Bridgeton series on Tv or something? What are your goals and have you reached them yet? Michelle Major: I have reached some of them for sure. I would love to have a Bridgerton series on Netflix. I said every author everywhere in the world, every day. But goal-wise, one of my big goals, and I’m not sure where it came from, but I’m a pretty fast writer and it’s also the only thing I really like to do and that I’m good at doing. Other than walking my dog, I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I decided I wanted to publish 50 books in 10 years and 2023 is my 10-year-anniversary. I hit 50 books, actually in 2022. So that felt really good, to just stick with it for that goal. Jenny Wheeler: Fantastic. And I think we can all remind ourselves that Bridgerton actually took 20 years for them to discover it, didn’t it? Michelle Major: Yes exactly. What Michelle Major is reading Jenny Wheeler: In fact, the actual Tv series has been rather pepped up for the 2020s. When the books were first published in 2000, they weren’t quite the same, were they? Michelle Major: They were not quite the same, which is also really fun to see how you can modernize something for where the culture is at a time in a really respectful way. I love it. And who wouldn’t want something done by Shonda Rhimes? I think she is fantastic. Jenny Wheeler: Yes, she has got an amazing touch. Look, we always like to ask our authors about their taste as readers, and we do focus on the popular fiction side of things, the books that people read for comfort or entertainment or escapism. I’m not sure if you read books for that purpose. I suspect you do. But what are you reading at the moment and what would you like to recommend to our listeners? Michelle Major: I will admit I don’t read as much for pleasure now as I used to, just because the writing takes to so much time. But I absolutely love reading for pleasure. And as I said, Bridgerton was my first foray into romance and I’ve always loved historical romance. Lisa Kleypas is another like super author for me. I’m a big fan. Right now, I am reading The Sweetheart List by Jill Shalvis, who’s a contemporary romance author, and I’ve been reading her for decades and think she’s fantastic. I think when you find an author whose voice, and humor resonates with you as a reader, it’s just such a pleasure to return to whatever world they’re creating. Jenny Wheeler: Sure That’s right. Looking back down the tunnel of time at your creative career, if there was one thing that you would change, what would it be? Michelle Major: I would say, as I mentioned, I wish I would’ve started earlier. And two, I wish that when I was first starting, I wasn’t quite as – there is a stigma around romance outside of the romance community – and I wish that I had – I wouldn’t say told more people off – but stood up for the genre the way I do now, as a newer author. Writing romance proudly Jenny Wheeler: What would you say to those who do still rather look down their noses at romance? What do you say? Michelle Major: I think the fact that it’s undeniable how much romance books sell. I think that is a true factual thing, but I think, something that people need to remember too is most stories, whether it’s commercial fiction or big blockbuster movies, they have a thread of romance running through them. It is something that binds us all together. I think it’s important to point out, you might think you don’t like romance, but if you tell me what your favorite movies are or your favorite books, I bet I can find a romance subplot at least in them. Jenny Wheeler: What’s next for Michelle as author? When you look ahead for the next 12 months, what have you got on your desk that you’d like to see finished by this time in 2024 or started by this time in 2024? Michelle Major: My next book comes out in February, I have that to look forward to. And I think there’s one more book, at least that I’m planning in the Carolina Girls Series. And then I’m working on some new proposals. One where I’ve returned to Colorado as a setting and another one in Tennessee, which is another one of my favorite places. For me, this freedom of being an empty nester allows me to spread my wings a little bit and see what excites me. Jenny Wheeler: The February book, is that part of one of your existing series? Michelle Major: It’s actually part of one of the Harlequin continuity series that I’ve been writing on for 10 books now called The Fortunes of Texas. And it’s a continuity that’s been a favorite with the reader base for, gosh, I think over 20 years now. So it’s really fun. It used to be six books, but now they’re expanding it to 12 books. But the continuity will go six books, one published every month, each by a different author. It’s a very collaborative effort between the authors as far as building the world and connecting the books together. The Fortunes of Texas – Harlequin series Jenny Wheeler: Have you done any of those before? Michelle Major: I have. They started the beginning of the year, January or February, and I’ve been the kickoff author for the past six or seven years. So it’s fun. Jenny Wheeler: Fantastic. And do they have the same cast of characters? Michelle Major: They do have the same. It’s a family that is a very prolific family as far as they have many branches to the Fortunes family tree. We get what we call a series Bible, so an outline of the stories and then as a group of. authors, we get to dig in and make each one our own. For me, a little bit of a palette cleanser because it’s still within the genre, but it’s something different than the worlds I normally write in. It’s a fun challenge. Jenny Wheeler: They’re probably around about 50,000 words are they? Michelle Major: They are, they’re about 55,000 words. They’re the shorter books. Jenny Wheeler: And your normal books would be 70,00 to 80,000? Michelle Major: Exactly, yes. Jenny Wheeler: Now, the last very important question. Do you enjoy interacting with your readers and where can they find you on online or offline? Michelle Major: So glad you asked that question. I do. I love interacting with readers and I am most active on Facebook @Michellemajor author and Instagram @Michellemajorbooks. I do also send out a monthly email which you could sign up for at my website, michellemajor.com, and I do exclusive contests and giveaways and bonus content. And then coming up in 2024, I will be for the second year at Readers Take Denver in April which is a huge, really fun. Last year was the inaugural year and they had over a thousand readers come for the weekend, which was amazing. And then an author named Lori Foster does a weekend in the Cincinnati area. It’s called the Lori Foster Reader Author Get Together, and I’m doing that for the first time this year. Until next time…. Jenny Wheeler: Fantastic. It’s nice to be able to get back out amongst people, isn’t it? Did Covid affect you very much in that regard? Michelle Major: Covid did affect me in that I had two kids in high school at the time. I felt like it didn’t affect my daily life other than the fact that my husband and my kids were around, which definitely was a big change. But also, trying to support them to have a normal teenage experience in the middle of this. Jenny Wheeler: Yes. Look, it’s been wonderful talking. Michelle. Thank you so much for your time and all the very best with that future writing. Michelle Major: Thank you so much. It was so great to speak with you Michelle Major: Thank you so much. This was so fun. I enjoyed speaking with you. Jenny Wheeler: I loved your story, so that’s great. Hope you get that Bridgeton series sometime. Michelle Major: Thank you. I’ll come back on when I do If you enjoyed Michelle you might also enjoy Lucy Coleman and her recent Christmas book A Christmas Wedding in the Cotswolds… Lucy Coleman writes feel good, uplifting stories, set in beautiful locations, like Summer in Andalucía, is about a Jamie Oliver style celebrity cook fronting a TV program that sounds a lot like MasterChef. And A Christmas Wedding in the Cotswolds. What could be more festive than a winter wedding in the picturesque English countryside? Join us for Christmas in the Cotswolds with the bestselling Lucy Coleman. Imogen Tolliman and Gray Adams can’t wait to get married after getting engaged the previous year, when they were stranded by snow in a blizzard. Now they are busy planning their wedding, but when the date slips six months because Gray is working on a huge film project, it seems like fate that after their snowy start, they will end up getting married at Christmas. LISTEN TO LUCY Next week on Binge Reading Next week on Binge Reading, Jo Thomas and more Christmas stories featuring food, love, families, and fun. Jo’s books have been described as giving readers a great big hug. She talks about her latest story. Countdown to Christmas. Chloe can’t wait for Christmas to be over. Her son, Ruben is staying with his dad and Chloe is planning to ignore the holidays altogether, but a surprise call changes everything. That’s next week on Binge Beading. That’s it for today. See you next time and happy reading.

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