Christine Merrill - I Hate Perfect People

Probably because I am an accident waiting to happen. If I eat, I spill.  Usually on myself, but I am also the person at the table most likely to break a wine glass.  Like Jennifer Lawrence, if I wear heels, I trip and fall.  Actually, not like J-Law at all. When she does it, it’s cute. If you put me in an evening gown, there is a chance I will blow out a spaghetti strap and walk through a hotel lobby with one lace covered boob hanging out, until one of my friends can pull out a safety pin and rescued me.

And then, there was the time I wore my dress inside out for a two hour book signing. That time, I didn’t notice until I got back to my room.

It should not be a surprise to anyone that I write deeply flawed characters. When I introduced the Duke of St Aldric in THE GREATEST OF SINS, he was beloved by all.   He was rich, handsome, intelligent, and good humored. Everyone called him ‘The Saint” (although he was far too modest, to encourage the use the word to describe himself). He gave the heroine a kitten.  He got mumps from tending to sick orphans.

The hero of the book hated him for being so damned perfect. He had good reason. I got reviews that said, ‘Didn’t care for the hero. But when will Saint Aldric get a book?’

In THE FALL OF A SAINT, he gets his book. To readers who expected continued perfection, I’m sorry.  Truly, I am. But according to dramatic principals that go all the way back to the Greeks inventing hubris, someone as good and kind as Michael Poole falls hard when he finally makes a mistake.

Michaels’s story begins a few months after he drank himself insensible, wandered into the wrong room, and had sex with the woman in bed. There was no force or coercion. He stopped when she said “No”. He had no intent to hurt anyone.

But sometimes good intentions don’t matter. Now, Maddie Cranston is pregnant, and the duke is going to marry the only woman in England with a reason to hate him.

I think everyone deserves a second chance. At least, everyone fictional does.  Real men are much harder to change than the ones in my imagination. If I’m making them up, I prefer bad boy heroes. I cannot help but try to redeem rakes. But in poor St Aldric is the first time I had to ruin a perfectly good hero, so he could fall in love and find redemption.