A Match Made at Christmas is a festive trip to Nantucket Island. Surfboard designer Pru is tasked with decorating the town Christmas tree. The man she’s never allowed herself to love, her best friend Hayes Maguire, jet-setting travel writer returns to support her. But Hayes ends up playing the role of mythical matchmaker and everything runs amok. This novella is sure to make readers smile a little wider and engage with the holidays. Courtney Walsh has long been favorite author of mine. She graciously agreed to talk to me about the lovely tale.

First of all, I love the premise of A Match Made at Christmas, and I know writers find inspiration everywhere. Where did this idea come from?

Honestly, I’m not sure on this one! I polled my readers in my reader room to find out which character they’d love to see a story about, and overwhelmingly the response was “Hayes”, so I went back and read everything I’d written about Hayes in If For Any Reason and then I started researching Nantucket at Christmas…through all of that, the idea of an unexpected matchmaker popped in my head, and I ran with it!  

Did you write the book during the holidays, and if not, how did you put yourself into a Christmas mindset?

No, I wrote it in the summer! I think it’s easy to let yourself feel Christmas, so when I was researching, I just gave my imagination room to run!  

Side question – if you played festive music and wore Santa pjs, what did your family make of that?

Ha! I wish I had!! This novella was plotted out so I had a really good road map when I sat down to write, so I basically told everyone not to disturb me during certain hours and I wrote and wrote and wrote!  

I know from social media that you love all things Christmas. Did that make it more fun to write a Christmas story?

Oh, yes!! I’ve only ever written one other book set at Christmas, but I’m hooked. There is something soooo wonderful about the holidays, and it’s a perfect setting for the kind of books I write!

What can you tell us about your own preparations for the holidays? Are you a wall to wall Hallmark person or a classical carols a wassailing?

I’ve never been very good at taking the proper time to celebrate things–it’s something I’m working on. I find that I’m almost always busy during the holidays., but my husband is actually really good about slowing down and being intentional. He is the one who initiates the decorating. This past year, we were quarantined for Christmas, and while I missed being with extended family, there was something really sweet about my little five-some all together with no distractions and a whole lot of ordered online presents and Jackbox Games and fleece pajamas and cinnamon rolls. Quiet Christmas is my favorite! 

I watched The Man Who Invented Christmas. The characters follow the author around bugging him! Did Hayes and Prudence treat you like that? Hayes seems like he could be a little bit of a troublemaker.

I am smitten with Hayes. I think he has such a fun personality, and he’s just swoony, you know? But he’s also stubborn, so spending time with him was fun but he didn’t always do what I expected him too. I think that’s why Pru was a good match for him. She has no problem calling him out on his mischief! (I am smitten with Hayes too-D).

And as people read, is there one central message you’d like them to take away?

For this story, I just really wanted people to be able to escape the craziness and get lost in a sweet, romantic Christmas story set in one of my favorite places. It’s a friends-to-more story, which is my favorite to write, and I think I just wanted to give my readers a sweet little swoony gift at Christmas!

Finally, that cover. Seriously. Where did that come from?

Since this is a Nantucket love story, we wanted it to complement my other Nantucket love stories, so we used that as inspiration, and then found this beautiful couple who felt just perfect. I don’t usually have full faces on covers because I really prefer for the reader to be able to make up their own ideas as they’re reading, but in this case, I went for it because it took my breath away!