Ava Miles | How Mad Men Inspired My Heroine

So happy holidays. I’m Ava Miles, a new contemporary romance writer who kicked off her Dare Valley Series with NORA ROBERTS LAND a few months ago. I’m here to talk about the newest release, THE TOWN SQUARE, which is set in 1960 and finally tells the story my readers have been begging for: the love story of the wonderful Arthur Hale in my other books.

Arthur Hale has captured everyone’s hearts as the grandpa figure to all of my main characters. He’s a journalistic legend, and readers wanted to know: how’d he get that way? Who was the love of his life? He’s a widower when we meet him in present-day Dare Valley in my other books.

Well, I love giving my readers what they want, and besides, I wanted to know more about the young Arthur Hale and the woman who captured his heart. Plus, after Mad Men, I was eager to jump into the 1960s timeframe. I mean, Kennedy had just become president, Jackie was changing the course of women’s fashion in Camelot, and there was so much going on politically between Civil Rights, women’s rights, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.

When I started to conceive this story, I just knew it would be my own ode to Mad Men in a small town with a happy ending. Because let’s face it. The TV show is not a particularly happy one. The drama is incredible, and the plot twists are gut-wrenching.

And then there’s Don Draper, played by the ever so handsome, John Hamm. For me, he’s pretty much the gold standard when it comes to Alpha Men. He’s tortured and has a mysterious past.

Just like it turns out my heroine does. Harriet Wentworth comes to Dare Valley under an assumed name—very Don Draper-like—and she has an agenda. A newspaper article ruined her father and sullied her family name, and now she’s out for revenge on the journalist who wrote it: Arthur Hale. Sound interesting yet? She takes a job as his secretary, and to Arthur, she’s just a mysterious redhead named Harriet Jenkins. And the attraction between them is undeniable. Arthur is nothing like Harriet expects, and Arthur knows there’s much more to Harriet than she lets on.

As Harriet pursues her plans, she must set aside her feelings for Arthur, but when he discovers who she is and why she’s in Dare Valley, can they build a relationship on her lies and agenda?

Sound a little like Don Draper? I loved having my own female Draper—sans all the philandering, of course. And Harriet finds her happy ending. Maybe the Mad Men people will hire me to help write the final season, so Don Draper can sail off into the sunset like my own heroine. A girl can dream.

So what do you think of Don Draper and men or women of mystery? Come on, I want to hear from you.