Why I Wrote The Christmas Season by Ally Sinclair

Glad to welcome back Ally Sinclair to my blog this week. She is going to tell us why she wrote her Christmas novel The Christmas Season, which is published by Hera Books. I always love a Christmas book, so over to Ally …

The Christmas Season is my fourth published Christmas story, and it’s been eight years since the last one. At that point I’d written the three Christmas Kisses (mybook.to/ChristmasKisses10) novellas, under my previous pen-name, in consecutive years and I honestly thought I’d said everything I could possibly say about love in the festive season.

So, what drew me back? Well the world of the Season was just too irresistible. It combines everything I love into one magnificently over the top, romantic bauble. There’s Christmas. There’s love in so many different forms. There are sexy bits. There is a hint of regency sparkle. And there are characters who grow and change and become better versions of themselves on their journey to find love.

And I poured all of that into The Christmas Season. Let’s break down those elements…

1. There’s Christmas.

There’s snowfall. There’s ice skating. There’s carol singing. There are kisses under mistletoe. Everything to make my little festive heart sing.

2. There’s love in different forms.

Love stories are absolutely for everybody. So The Christmas Season explores existing relationships that are faltering. Sibling rivalries and loyalties. Love after loss. Parent child relationships. Lots of lgbtq+ representation. And heaps and heaps of happy ever after.

3. There are sexy bits.

Sex is brilliant. And it’s part of love. Writers and readers sometimes debate whether you need to put sex on the page in romance stories. I’m very much in the camp that says if the sex is part of the story, you put it on the page and for one of the couples in The Christmas Season the sex is absolutely key to their story. It’s how they let their guards down. It’s how they become vulnerable. Ultimately it’s how they fall in love. So hurrah for the sexy bits!

4. There’s a hint of regency sparkle.

OK. I admit it. During the pandemic I might have watched too much Bridgerton. And I definitely watched Matthew Macfadyen striding moodily out of the mist in his Mr Darcy breeches more times than is healthy. It’s possible that I’ve become a little obsessed with the idea of the regency social season and the matchmaking that abounded within it. And my little writer brain caught onto the idea of creating the same sort of social season in the modern world. How would that work? That simple question kicked off both The Christmas Season and A Season for Love.

5. There are characters who grow and change and become better versions of themselves on their journey to find love.

And that, for me, is what happy ever after stories are all about. There not about being saved by Prince Charming. Or about somebody else fixing all life’s problems. They’re about self-love and learning to be open to love.

All these things are pretty much irresistible to me. My happy place is basically a Hallmark movie about an exhausted legal executive from the Big City finding love with a disturbingly hot smalltown Christmas tree farmer. This year I watched Red, White and Royal Blue three times in one week. I basically have no level of romantic sparkle that I consider too much. Especially as the nights grow darker and the wind gets chill, I want to be wrapped up in love and comfort and have my heart warmed. So that, in a nutshell, is why I wrote The Christmas Season.

About Ally Sinclair

Ally grew up on the North Yorkshire coast and now lives with her husband in Worcestershire, at least until she can persuade him to give into her yearning to live somewhere nearer the sea. No kids, no pets. She sometimes manages to keep a pot plant alive. Briefly.

She has been writing professionally since 2013, and is also published as Alison May and, in collaboration, as Juliet Bell. Ally is a former Chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and also works as a writing tutor and mentor and freelance editor. Ally writes joyful, inclusive stories with love and romance at the heart.

Ally loves to hear from readers. You can find her on Instagram @MsAllySinclair, on Facebook at facebook.com/allysinclairauthor, and on her YouTube channel @AlAllyAlison

All Ally’s links are here: https://linktr.ee/allysinclair

About The Christmas Season

You are cordially invited to your Happy Ever After…

Emma Love is a matchmaker who believes in old fashioned courtship, over swiping left or right. She’s inspired by Jane Austen, Bridgerton and a thousand and one perfect romance stories, where matches were made at elegant soirees and not by sliding into your intended’s DMs.

This year, Emma is inviting you to a very special social season, where a hopeful singleton might find their own Mr Darcy waiting under the mistletoe. At a series of glamorous, festive, and, most importantly, romantic events, Emma is making it her mission to find love for everyone this Christmas Season.

How will she fare trying to find perfect matches for the Price twins, both too busy trying to outdo the other to ever look for love? Can she encourage the sexy Season rake, Theo, to change his ways? And what of Hope Lucas, who Emma has failed to match before, but who still has faith that Mr Right is out there?

And with Emma so focused on finding everybody else’s happy ever after, is she at risk of letting her own perfect match slip away?

Welcome to the Christmas Season.