2012 Summer Literary Showcase: Siggy Buckley

Former matchmaker par excellence - or Dating Guru as the Irish media liked to call me- I was born in Germany. Having achieved a Masters Degree in English, I got married, had two children and then emigrated to Ireland with my family for the GOOD LIFE.

 

Involuntary life on an Irish farm produced a crop of misgivings and the break-up of our marriage. Single again, I launched a dating service in Dublin which eventually planted the seeds for this novel.

Now happily married, I live in sweltering Florida. I write for American Chronicles and Opednews. My other blog deals with my previous life on an organic farm. It's called  "I once had a farm in Ireland" and you will find it at www.Inandoutofireland.blogspot.com.

I'm a proud new International member of the National League of American Pen Women:www.Americanpenwomen.org

NEXT TIME LUCKY: LESSONS OF A MATCHMAKER 

A professional matchmaker who can’t find Mr. Right for herself?

After the break-up with her love of three years, CHERIE’S world comes tumbling down when GEORGE tells her during a Sunday afternoon romp he never really loved her. The German-born forty-something divorcée, teacher turned businesswoman, i.e., matchmaker, transplanted to Dublin feels it’s time to get on her hindlegs and try some new approaches.  

Cherie faces the ultimate challenge to find a soulmate for herself. She is at a loss because her professional ethics forbid her to mix business with pleasure. Her additional problem is that everybody in Ireland knows who she is. Therefore she decides to look for Mr. Right further afield via the Internet where the possibilities seem to be endless.

            Her escapades take her around the world and her adventures become more daring with the experience she gathers on her journey. Chat-rooms prove to be intoxicating and Cherie feels like a kid in a candystore where she can choose from all the men in this world. Too many prospects that first appear to be worthwhile candidates for Mr. Right turn out to be only the “Mr. Right Nows”. Something is missing or disturbing about each and every one of them. Still, she doesn’t lose hope; it only strengthens her resolve and adds to her adventure. Among the Lotharios she encounters are recycled bachelors, breezy islands of ego, fly-by-nights, birds of paradise, commitment phobics, and the odd sex maniac. She learns the hard way that it is easy come, uneasy go at this sexual smorgasbord of cyber-dreamboats. Nothing in her work, however, prepared her for the realities of modern mate selection.

          During her country-hopping exploits, she muses about her fate that took her away from her home country, Germany, and she feels increasingly uprooted, even as she becomes more comfortably multicultural. 

          In the process she learns what is most important and constant in her life: to find a sense of belonging with a man she loves and who loves her, going forward in a life plan that suits them both together. She lives a woman’s dilemma of being independent yet longing for coupledom. Cherie continues her search always believing, “Next Time Lucky!” At long last she meets the love of her life, CONNOR, not on the Internet, but unexpectedly in a bar when she is just about to abort her quest. 

Click the button below to listen to Siggy's interview.