Be Our Guest/Interviews

Interview: Sue Fortin

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Today we’re chatting to bestselling romantic suspense author Sue Fortin.

Can you tell us a bit about your journey to publication?

I’ve been writing stories since I was a child, I think it was my love of books which made me want to write my own. However, I didn’t complete my first manuscript until about twelve years ago when I was on maternity leave with my youngest.

I was on the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme and sent my manuscript in. Needless to say it required a lot of work. I spent the next twelve months working on it and the following year sent it through the scheme again. This time it came back with excellent feedback and comments that it was ‘book ready’. I took the decision to self-publish as I was part of an indie group at the time but a year later HarperCollins started up a new imprint called HarperImpulse and I submitted my book to them. I was delighted when they offered me a three-book deal as a result and I have been published within the HarperCollins group for all my books – eight in total.

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Novels

Out today! The Colour of Mermaids

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Published on 24th March 2020. Available in ebook and in paperback from Amazon, Totally Bound and other retailers.

In a world of childhood secrets and tabloid scandals, is falling for the bad boy of British art as risky as it is raunchy?

When artist Eva Catesby is invited to an exhibition in honour of art world enfant terrible Daniel Scott, she’s expected to follow the crowd and sing his praises. Instead she tells him what she really thinks and sparks fly. As they plunge headlong into a wild affair, Eva becomes the target of unwanted attention from an unseen enemy.

Daniel Scott is famous for his paintings. Filled with darkness and tormented imagery, his canvases are as mysterious as his background. Until he meets Eva, Daniel is a stranger to criticism and doesn’t know what it means to fall in love.

Can Eva help Daniel overcome his childhood demons or will a fatal secret from the past destroy their future?

Excerpt

Of course Eva wasn’t going to turn down her invitation to the private viewing at the Hawley Gallery. Daniel Scott, enfant terrible of the international art world, was exhibiting in Brighton of all places.

She arrived fifteen minutes early, but the gallery was almost full. It seemed as if everyone who was anyone on the Brighton art scene had turned up for vast amounts of free drink and air-kissing. Eva waved to people she knew, and finally spotted her friend Lyndsey on the other side of the room in front of one of Daniel Scott’s canvases. Somehow, a glass of Prosecco had appeared in her hand by the time she had squeezed through the crowd to reach Lyndsey.

“Hello, gorgeous!” Lyndsey put her hand on Eva’s arm and leaned in to dart her lips to her cheek. As she did, she dropped her voice and whispered, “Not many laughs on these walls tonight!”

“Hello, darling!” Eva kissed Lyndsey back, her friend’s summery floral scent enveloping them both like a cloud. “No, his work’s not a laugh a minute, is it? But it’s so exciting that the exhibition’s here. And thanks so much for sorting me out with an invite.”

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Novels

The Captain and the Prime Minister – out now!

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The sixth in our Captivating Captains series, The Captain and the Prime Minister, is out now from Pride. It’s available in ebook, paperback and Kindle Unlimited from Amazon and other online retailers.

When a devoted prime minster has a second chance at romance, he discovers that love is love on Downing Street.

Captain Tom Southwell has swapped bullets for babies and works as a manny at one of the world’s most famous addresses. Behind the doors of Downing Street, he cooks dinner, puts the children to bed and is the prime minister’s best friend.

Alex Hart is the prime minister Great Britain’s been dreaming of. He’s dedicated, caring and has a conscience. He’s also a widower with two small children. The last thing he can let himself do is fall in love with the manny who has held his family together.

When an old flame from Tom’s past gets in touch, Tom’s first instinct is to keep him at arm’s length, but hell hath no fury like a yoga teacher scorned. As Alex fights to push a life-changing bill through Parliament, the tabloid vultures are circling. With rumors swirling about the prime minister and his gorgeous manny, every shark in Westminster senses blood.

Will Alex put love ahead of duty, or will the most important man in the country be the loneliest, too?

Excerpt

Tom lay sprawled on the beanbag between the two small beds—one shaped like a car, the other shaped like a boat. He’d almost sent himself to sleep with the twins’ bedtime story, but it finally seemed, from the sound of their gentle breathing, that they’d dropped off. He sat in the quiet, dimly lit room, the elephant nightlight casting its gentle glow. And in that glow, he re-read the text from Stuart.

 

Hey good lookin’, ya miss me? Through with Barca and heading home—you shud SEE my tan lines babe. Get ready Laaahndaaaan! x

 

Stuart wasn’t high on the list of people who Tom wanted to talk to. Their break-up had been acrimonious, Stuart furious at one too many dates being canceled at the last minute because Tom had to look after the twins. ‘You love that family more than you love me!’ And off Stuart had gone to Barcelona.

Except, apparently, Stuart was back.

And that list of Tom’s was rather brief.

It’d be rude not to reply, wouldn’t it?

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