interview with Amy Ruttan

 Credit : Amy Ruttan -- Official Author Website -- Eternal Passion, Timeless Romance...

Biography

Born and raised on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario, Amy fled the big city to settle down with the country boy of her dreams. When she's not furiously typing away at her computer, she's a mom to three wonderful children.

Life got in the way, and after the birth of her second child, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a romance author.

Credit : Amy Ruttan -- Official Author Website -- Eternal Passion, Timeless Romance...

Questions

Do you prefer to write a series or a standalone?

I prefer to write series and have plans to do so for some indie stuff, but for the most part my Harlequin category books are stand alone books. I love reading series and I wrote a small series for the Phoenix Agency called 62 Degrees North. I love that connection between characters.

Some of my category books are connected with other author’s books or with my own, but it’s not the same scope of series that I love and that I am currently working on to publish myself.

Why did you decided to write medical romance?

I loved the show Grey’s Anatomy and my dream was to be published with Harlequin. There was a call for submissions to send in a chapter of a medical romance. It was a chance to get out of the slush pile and in front of an editor, so I wrote a chapter. I got asked to send in a partial, which is three chapters. I wrote two more chapters and then Harlequin asked for a full manuscript. After I sent in that they asked for revisions, after a few rounds I got a two book contract. Now, 30 books later I’m still writing medical romances. I’m currently writing number 33.

What are your main inspirations when you are writing?

Anything can spark off an idea. I’m a bit of a bread machine writer, so there’s always a story churning in my brain, before it comes out. Car rides often spark my imagination, but there’s no real tangible thing that constantly sparks an idea. It’ll hit me out of nowhere sometime.

Which one of your books will you recommend to a new reader?

This is always a hard question for a writer! I am proud of every book I write and it depends what you’re looking for. There are a couple of books that hit me with an emotional impact more than others. Perfect Rivals is one of my favourites. I get a lot of emails about Taming Her Navy Doc and about Dare She Date Again? I also love my 25th which is Baby Bombshell for the Doctor Prince. I also love A Reunion, A Wedding, A Family. The most challenging book for me to write was The Surgeon’s Convenient Husband because it was the first book I wrote after my mother died. It’s a great book, but I remember the emotional turmoil I was in writing it.

What advices will you give to an author who wants to write to Harlequin?

Read. Figure out what line you like to read and read all the new books you can out of that line. Once I got a request for a partial during that submission contest, I read every medical I could find. Harlequin also has a Writing Group on Facebook and there are other writer’s starting out and wanting to write for Harlequin there. They also post submission calls there too. It used to be on a forum and I met so many amazing writers who were just starting out there and have become life long friends as we were all bought around the same time.

What are your next projects?

I am working on a contemporary Indie series and I do have more medicals. I just signed another four book contract. My 30th book released end of September it’s titled Falling for His Runaway Nurse. My Caribbean Island Hospital books, which are two books about twin physicians are coming out end of March 2022.