So of course I got a Bookbub alert about an e-sale on one of my Harlequin/Silhouette backlist books the day after I sent out a newsletter!
This’ll be short! (Okay, it’ll be Brockmann-short, which is… what it is!)
The book on e-sale is an early romantic suspense called Love with the Proper Stranger, and it’s 99-cents in the U.S. (Apologies if it’s not on sale outside of the U.S. Ugh. Do let me know in the comments if it is!!)
Here’s the page on my website which will tell you more and provide links to your favorite ebook-store: https://suzannebrockmann.com/books/love-with-the-proper-stranger/
The hero is a legendary FBI agent who has a not-quite-a-friendship-except-whoops-they’re-friends with a younger underling in the book’s non-romance subplot. I think of it as a prototype of the Max/Jules relationship that I came to love writing in the Troubleshooters series, and I bet you’ll enjoy it, too.
I wrote about Love with the Proper Stranger a few months back when there was a flash e-sale on The Unsung Hero:
Oh, and here’s a “look at how far we’ve come here in Romancelandia” story about The Unsung Hero. About secondary point-of-view character David Sullivan, our college-aged graphic novel artist mentioned above.
I created David for his role in The Unsung Hero after I was expressly told something stupidly racist by A Different Publisher for a different romance novel. See, a few months before I outlined TUH, I wrote a book that was titled Love with the Proper Stranger, (my title: Black Widow).
I was told to make a rather large and disturbing change to LWTPS’s hero’s sidekick, who was a young Asian American man named Daniel Tanaka. I was asked, pointblank, to de-Asian him and make him a white man. “Unless you do, you will not be asked to write a sequel.” They said those exact words. Right into my ear on what was an eye-opening phone call. (Category romances were all about creating secondary characters who would then become the hero of the next book, ensuring you’d get a new contract and be able to continue to feed your children. So that threat was not made or taken lightly.)
Reader, I did not make that change.
Daniel was one of my favorite characters, and I loved him very much exactly as he was. (His relationship with the hero, who was also his boss at the FBI, is an early prototype of the Jules/Max relationship in my Troubleshooters series!!)
And yes, sadly, just as the publisher promised, I was not asked to write Daniel’s book.
So when it came time to start my next project (for a different publisher!!), I created David Sullivan. He’s an Asian American man who was adopted. (Can I keep him in this book if his last name is Sullivan? Maybe I can sneak him in if I do that!) David is a bit of an unsung hero himself, and in his subplot (which remains to this day a reader favorite!) he wins the heart of the young woman he loves, and gets to have lots of awesome sex, too!
So okay! Grab Love with the Proper Stranger for the low, low price of U.S. 99-cents and meet prototype Max and prototype Jules!
But heads up, before you one-click: LWTPS was reissued in a 2-in-1 along with Letters to Kelly that the publisher renamed Unstoppable. So be sure to check your e-reader library because if you have Unstoppable, you already have Love with the Proper Stranger.
In other Very Important News, the intrepid gang at Fated States have sent out their batsignal (aka an email) announcing the date of their first GOTV phonebanking event for Harris/Walz and everyone else on the entire important save-democracy Democratic down-ballot.
(If you are saying “What’s Fated States?” you can find out more at https://fatedmates.net/fatedstates
But here it is in a nutshell:
About Fated States:
Launched during the 2020 election, Fated States is an offshoot of the Fated Mates podcast, in which hosts Sarah MacLean (New York Times bestselling author) and Jennifer Prokop (critic and editor) bring listeners together for weekly phonebanks to ensure a Democratic sweep.
Saturday, August 24th is their first event—and it’s always so much fun! And I know, I know, FUN? Phonebanking? But it really is, gathering in a giant group of romance writers and readers, because we’re fighting for our democracy and getting very important shit done! (Also, lots of authors give away books and other cool swag for our hard work!)
I’ve signed up to phone bank with Fated States on August 24th, and you should, too.
Even if you hate making phone calls, even if you despise phonebanking with the fiery heat of a thousand suns, you should give it a try. It’s not as awful as it sounds, and whenever I do it, when I’m done, I feel as if I’ve made a difference. That’s a great feeling to have at a time like this.
Here’s a suggestion: Sign up, show up, give it a try, and if it’s not for you, it’s okay to leave early, no one will be mad! (I promise!!)
Here’s what the gang at Fated States wrote in the email I received, describing how it all works:
In 2024, we are thrilled to be partnering with Indivisible once again to make calls to Democrats in Swing States and beyond to get out the vote and ensure a Harris/Walz victory, along with a full blue wave up and down the ticket!
As always, Fated States phonebanks will feature a blazing fast chat room for discussion of romance novels and democracy, giveaways of romance novels and romance swag, special guests from Romancelandia and more—all hosted by the Fated Mates team! (Note from Suz: It really is so much fun!!)
Phone banks run for two hours, beginning at 1pm eastern, 10am pacific. You are welcome to join us for any amount of that time, (Note from Suz: emphasis mine!) and training will be provided to anyone who is new to phonebanking. 🌊 Important: While you will use your own phone to phone bank, the system will mask your personal phone number during calls. You will remain anonymous to the people you are mobilizing. 🌊
To join us, please click on the link below and sign up using Mobilize.us. You will receive an email confirmation link to the group Zoom, where we will meet you on the day, with information on the candidates and locations where we will be getting out the vote.
Here’s the link to the August 24th signup: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/664084/
I’ll be there, waving to you in the zoom chat room!
And if you want to sign up for the other dates (basically every Saturday from now until the election—I’ll be signing up for most of them, too), you can find that list here: https://fatedmates.net/fatedstates
Okay, that’s it for now!
Please never stop fighting for our freedom, for our democracy, for equality, equity, peace, love, hope, and for the rights of ALL of our neighbors both here and around the world,
Suz