Celebrating Writing Friends 6 - Michelle Styles

I suppose I could say that Michelle S was a virgin till I deflowered her! If you’ve read my post about Julie Cohen then you’ll understand this reference a bit more. But for those who haven’t – I founded a scheme of support and information for newcomers to the RNA annual Conference. The RNA Virgins. 2004 was the last year that I was actually actively involved in this scheme as the ‘Virgin Mother’ and that year , when the conference was held at Leicester. Michelle was one of my Virgins. She is also, I’m delighted to say, one more of my Virgins who I have seen become published authors.

Michelle writes Historical Romances. But, being Michelle, she writes them with a difference. She has launched her career with the first Roman romance that HMB have published. And this is in spite of everyone telling her that M&B would never accept a Roman story. As someone who became a writer in spite of (or perhaps because of) so many people who told me that I would never become a novelist. This appeals to me and I’m thrilled to have seen Michelle prove them wrong with not just one Roman accepted but three, with more in progress as I write.

Like Julie, I met Michelle through the eHarlequin message boards and then through the RNA. We had already been in contact by email for some time before I met her in Leicester. So I knew that although she lived in North East England, she was in fact born in America, near San Francisco, California and she had lived in Britain since 1988 when she married. So I knew that she wanted to write Historical Romances and I also knew that she had an idea based around a Roman Gladiator. But this was the book that she had been told M&B would not publish. I knew that HMB were expanding the historical line and that they were accepting a wider range of time periods so when I met the Senior Editor in charge of Historicals, I was able to ask if it was worth Michelle submitting. The answer was a very definite yes, so I’m delighted to feel that I played a small part in getting Michelle’s first book The Gladiator’s Honour on its way towards publication.

Michelle tells me I did more than that - she says:

You were involved in it beyond just speaking to Linda. Way back in August 2003,
you gave me some valuable advice. Basically to concentrate on writing for the
line I really wanted to. Also when I first started writing, you put something on
eharle about voice and conflict (looking at the conflicts Prince Charming could
have) Light bulbs started flashing in my mind. And I was off.

That’s one of the slightly scary things about Michelle – she remembers stuff! I’ve had lots of conversations about writing with her and most of it I’ve forgotten - but she’ll come back at me with something that she’s remembered that I said years ago. One thing I do recall saying though is that if you want to write romance you should write from the heart and this is something that Michelle has very taken – well, to heart! She has taken a favourite historical period – one that isn’t generally well represented in romance fiction - created a vivid and powerful fictional world, peopled by living and believable characters and so stamped her own mark on the category of fiction she writes for. The Gladiator’s Honour has a background of detailed historical accuracy but it also has those believable characters and the emotional appeal that draw in the reader to care about the characters, no matter which century they live in. What more could anyone ask of a Historical Romance?

I asked Michelle why she first chose the Roman period to write about:

One of the main reasons I decided to start writing historicals is that you told
me -- to look into my heart and aim for the line I really wanted to write for. I
had always thought Roman historicals could be very popular but the one ST title
I had read wasn't done very well and I became determined to try.

I’m convinced it’s that ‘look into my heart’ bit that matters. Writing Romance isn’t something you do cynically or because you believe it will make you a lot of money – though there are plenty of people who will try it because of that - it is writing from the heart that makes a book sing and I’m so pleased that the books that Michelle has put her heart into have worked and are now being published.

The book in the Bag of Books is Michelle’s first Roman title - The Gladiator’s Honour (which is also out in Audiobook format, on CD)and there are more titles coming up. A Noble Captive is a UK paperback in January 07.
Sold and Seduced is a UK paperback in April 07. Both of these will also be published in America, but there are no confirmed dates yet,

Sold and Seduced is a book I’m specially looking forward to reading. Last October, I spoke at a Day Workshop that Michelle part organized in Newcastle. During the day, we had a discussion about a book that I had written and that was due out in December – The Antonakos Marriage. As a result of our talk, Michelle went away, thought about the plot line I’d mentioned, and wrote Sold and Seduced. This is how romance writing works. It’s not plot stealing – there are few, if any, romance plots that haven’t been used by someone else already. But it’s taking a plot, working on it, putting your own individual spin on it, using your own ‘voice’ and turning it into something new and something that is authentically ‘you’ that creates a great romance story that readers enjoy.

That’s writing from the heart – and Michelle’s great Roman books show how that really works. Good luck Michelle. I’m thrilled to see Historicals trying new things so that the line is not just the Regency Romance line. And I’m delighted that you had the courage of your convictions to really ‘write from the heart’, break into the market with something different and so a less easy ‘sell’ and put your own special vision into the Historical Romance line. Romance writing is a living, growing genre. It needs new ideas and new blood to keep it that way and Books like Michelle’s, like Julie Cohen’s, are at the heart of that growth and so the genre’s survival. I hope the Romans – and the Viking books that I understand are coming up next - are as wonderfully successful as they deserve to be, for Michelle’s sake and for the strength of the line in the future.