A TEXAS-MADE MATCH - Noelle Marchand - One Free Book

This is a new author to this blog. Welcome, Noelle. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I like to loosely base character’s internal conflict on a spiritual lesson I have learned or am learning because of the realism it adds to the story. Otherwise, it depends on the character. They tend to take on their own personalities which have little to do with mine.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

Sometimes when I’m in a grocery store and no one is on the aisle with me, I dance to whatever song is playing over the grocery store speakers. It’s something I often did as a kid. I always thought I’d outgrow it. I haven’t.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

I loved to make up stories as a kid. Once I became a teenager, I started writing them down and realized it was something I loved to do.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I loved anything historical. Some of my favorite series were the Little House on the Prairie, Elsie Dinsmore, and Dear America.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

By learning to set my own pace, keep my eyes fixed on the Lord and walk the path He has for me without comparing it to someone else’s.

That is very wise advice for anyone. How do you choose your characters’ names?

Sometimes a character comes to me already having a name. If they don’t, I look up historical name records online until I run across something that fits.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Being a published author.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

I would like to be a bird so I could fly.

What is your favorite food?

Ice cream. Blue Bell Ice Cream to be exact. If you don’t know what that is, you’re missing out on something delicious.

Blue Bell is the best ice cream in the world. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

I’m my own worst critic. I’m learning to give myself a little slack. At least, I’m trying to.

Tell us about the featured book.

A Texas-Made Match is the last book about the O’Brien family. (The previous two being Unlawfully Wedded Bride and The Runaway Bride.)  Here is the description:

For Ellie O'Brien, finding the perfect partner is easy—as long as it's for other people. Now the townsfolk of Peppin want to return the favor. But how could Lawson Williams be the right choice? The handsome ranch foreman was her childhood friend, but he's the man Ellie deems least likely to court a tomboy with a guilty secret.

Lawson can't help enjoying the town's efforts to push him together with Ellie, though marriage isn't in his plans. Yet Ellie's become a warm, spirited woman who could chase away the clouds of his past. And with a whole town on their side, they could claim a love as big and bold as Texas itself….

I love the fact that the publisher put a scene straight out of the book on the cover. Please give us the first page of the book.

Ellie O'Brien was not the type of girl to chase after men.

That might have to change.

After all, today was her twenty-first birthday. While that hadn't stopped her from revisiting her mischievous youth by climbing to her favorite place in the whole world—the top of the waterfall that pooled into her family's creek—it was pushing marriageable age. This wouldn't have been a problem in most Western towns, where the scarcity of women allowed them to take their time picking husbands. The town of Peppin didn't have that problem, though. Women were plentiful, and the competition between them, while friendly, was still fierce. Ellie had never attempted to jump into the fray before. Now, though it might be too late, she wanted to at least try.

But first, one more moment of being a child.

Her fingers teased the hairpins from her hair with a familiarity born of desperation, then tossed them to the dry ground below like the nuisances they were. She shook out her curly golden tresses, reveling in her newfound freedom as the wind made her hair bounce in disarray. Warm mud oozed between her bare toes as she stepped closer to the precipice. The water rushed past her feet, urging her to join its free fall away from the side of the waterfall and into the creek seven feet below. If she took that final step forward, there would be no going back.

Literally and figuratively. She bit her bottom lip as she peered over through the treetops at the rolling green hills that stretched beyond their property. Perhaps it was too romantic to hope that courtship would be as exhilarating as a sheer fall or as refreshing as the cool shock of cold water that followed—but a gal could hope.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

They can check out my website http://www.noellemarchand.com and find me on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads. 

Thank you, Noelle, for sharing your life and book with us today. I read the book this week and loved it. I'm going to have to go back and read the first two in the series.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
A Texas-Made Match (Love Inspired Historical) - paperback
A Texas-Made Match (Love Inspired Historical) - Kindle


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