Michelle Styles: Do you remember your first library card? plus giveaway

Yesterday, a meme on Facebook reminded me of a long lost technology – sign out cards for library books. And it got me thinking about library cards in general. Library cards have always been hugely important.

My first one was orange coloured from the Mountain View Public Library. I was allowed to have my own card as soon as I could sign my name. I was so proud the first time I checked out books. And then later when I was older, I changed my card for a yellow one so that I could take out books in the adult section. I used to spend hours in the library, looking for great books.

And I have a very vivid memory from when I served as a teenaged  hospital volunteer in the Emergency department ( a Candy striper). One afternoon in January, a young girl had drunk the better part of a bottle of vodka. She was in the operating theatre and no one knew if she’d survive. I went to see if I could get anything for her parents and her father was sitting looking at her orange library card. Turning it over and over in his hand as he asked why she had done it. I backed out and made myself useful elsewhere because intruding felt wrong.

At school things were a bit different as we had the sign out card system. You signed your name on the book’s card which you then handed to the librarian.  One by-product of this system was that you could see who else had taken out the book.

Being a frequent library user, I soon noticed that my choices often had been previously checked by one Lucy Ellis. Lucy Ellis had left the school by the time I started but her name lingered on. As I liked the books and sometimes did not have much time to choose, I started looking for her name. Invariably she had good taste and led to discover authors like Georgette Heyer and Philippa Carr.

I used to try to imagine what Lucy Ellis must be like – answer sauve, sophisticated, with a ready wit.. Many years later, I did get to meet her. She had become some high up executive at a computer company. I can’t remember if I confessed to having searched for her name on the card.

My high school librarian tells me that the system officially changed in 1995 so no one can use that sort of * word of mouth* anymore in theory but in practice the cards do remain and every now and then, she sees my name on one of the cards.

When I was at university in the UK, my library card doubled as my id. I found it the other day and looked so young. It surprised me in a way that when my eldest son and daughter went to that uni, the same system was in place.

One thing they have not done away with at the library I currently use is the date stamp. Because this library is so old (dating back to 1795) it is great to find books that were last date stamped in the 1940s.  I mentioned this to a librarian who sighed and said that sometimes it felt like there was a building full of books that no one wanted to read.

But for me, my library card has always a passport to adventure. Does anyone else remember their first library card? Or have library card memories?

GIVEWAY

My latest SUMMER OF THE VIKING is officially published on 1 June. I am giving a one signed copy. If you wish to enter the draw, please email michelle@michellestyles.co.uk with Totebags Summer Contest as the subject and answer the following question: Where does Summer of the Viking take place?

You can read the first chapter for free  here: 

The blurb reads:

We have the summer, Alwynn. It will have to be enough.' Washed up alone on the Northumbrian shore, Valdar Nerison is a stranger in a foreign land. He has unfinished business in Raumerike, but first he owes his rescuer, the beautiful Lady Alwynn, a life debt. Alwynn is wary of Valdar's promise to protect her – after all, she has known only betrayal at the hands of men. And as summer's end approaches Valdar must choose whether to return home and fight for his honour or to stay and fight for Alwynn's heart...

I will do the draw on 21 May

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide range of time periods. You can learn more about Michelle's books at her newly revamped website -- www.michellestyles.co.uk 

The why of a Happily Ever After by Michelle Styles

At the end of last month, I had the pleasure of speaking to a local reading group. Before I started, I knew the group would be difficult. They tended to read *worthy* books and I write historical romance. However the group meets in my local gastropub and I happen to like the owner. So they put aside JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun and read my Hattie Wilkinson Meets Her Match.

And the dozen or so ladies came prepared to discuss and dissect my novel.

By far the biggest complaint was that there was a happy ending and things were neatly tied up. Real life isn’t like that quipped the former English teacher who preferred her endings open. She wanted to guess.

 I pointed out that closed endings with a satisfactory outcome were preferred by the vast majority of people. And when I read a book, I want closure of the main driving force behind the story or else the story isn’t really done. If you read a murder mystery and the killer was never revealed, you would feel cheated. 

In a romance, the spine of the story is the growth of the relationship of the central couple. And that relationship needs to reach a satisfactory conclusion. For the vast majority of readers, they prefer an upbeat ending to one which is shrouded in gloom, doom and despair. So Happily Ever After where the reader can feel that the couple’s love and relationship will survive is a necessity. It was the growth of this relationship which was driving the plot after all. 

One book which had a profound impact on me was The Gifts from Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In it, she describes romantic love as  a fragile but perfect shell where the two halves form an identical whole. It doesn’t last long and eventually gives way to the much less pretty but infinitely more practical nautilus shell, a shell which often has bits added but can withstand rigours everything the sea wants to throw at it.

For me, the romance genre concentrates on the perfect but fragile shell but as a reader and an author, I want to know the couple can survive to the nautilus stage. That the shell which holds their love is hard and withstand the hardest storms. And for me, if the couple’s relationship is at the centre of the book and is the glue holding  the whole thing together, I want a satisfactory ending for the relationship. In other types of stories where the relationship is not the main glue, a satisfactory ending can be achieved, even if the relationship doesn’t turn out how I would like.

After I explained this, the meeting went far better. However, I doubt I converted that particular woman to the infinite joy and pleasure that is the romance genre. It is her loss and a cross she will have to bear. Personally if I am reading a romance, I want that Happily Ever After feeling when I reach the end of the book.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historic romance. Her next book will be SUMMER OF THE VIKING. You can read more  about Michelle and her booksl on her recently re-done website www.michellestyles.co.uk

Cover story by Michelle Styles

My latest cover --Summer of the Viking (out in June) popped into my inbox the other day. Because I have little control over my covers, this moment is always one of dread and anticipation. This time, it was huge relief as I really like the cover.

I was re-doing my website (www.michellestyles.co.uk ) and happened to place it along side two of my other recent covers.

The first thing  I noticed was the colour scheme for all three was similar.  I like the sort of yellow/sunset tinge to the covers.

The second thing was the  male cover model in Saved by the Viking Warrior and  Summer of the Viking appears to be the same. Not that I am complaining. I certainly would not kick him out of bed for eating crackers. I am not sure of the model's name. Perhaps Doug Porter. Does anyone know  for definite? I am always amazed by how many models' names some romance readers know!

I happen to like the background as it does remind me very much of the area around County Durham where the story takes place.

The other cover I have seen recently is the cover for my latest UK reprint. I had thought good when I saw via the computer but when the books arrived, I was really impressed. The lettering of Regency is in gold. 

It is a reprint of An Impulsive Debutante and A Question of Impropriety.  The UK has an on going programme of reprinting Regency/Victorian novels.

Anyway the choice of colour for the dress made me laugh. Originally I had a teal blue gown of this sort in An Impulsive Debutante but my then editor found a lovely cover picture which had a rose pink gown and asked if I would changed it. The model in that cover looked quite a bit like my editor. It wasn't crucial to the story so I did. It is good to have the dress that I had originally imagined on the front (even though I have no idea how it happened!)

The above cover was designed by Becky Gibbery and I think she did a lovely job. In addition to the dress, I really like the necklace but I think it would be difficult to keep good. It looks to be seed pearls.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historicals in a wide range of time periods. You can learn more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk