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Meet the Neighbors – Cait O’Sullivan – Romancing the Seas

So, today the neighborhood goes international as we visit with Cait O’Sullivan, who’s book, Romancing the Seas, released with Crimson Romance January 7th. Welcome to Meet the Neighbors, Cait! So excited to hear about your new romance, the cover is amazing.

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Lynn, thanks very much for having me here, it’s really great to be set against such a lovely backdrop .

So my favorite question for newbies like me, what’s it like to be a debut author?

Totally surreal. I sent the very first 3 chapters that I had ever written off to Mills and Boon in the UK about 6 years ago. And bless, I’m being very kind to me when I say I hadn’t a clue. But they came back to say my writing was fluid and engaging so that encouraged me. I then concentrated on baby rearing and about 3 years later, started again. And now here am I. Yay!

I remember the craziness of getting my first acceptance, tell us your call story.

Aw, I love my call story. My mother was over visiting from Ireland and I was heading out that night with friends for dinner. So I was just floating around when Mum and my girls were eating and suddenly Jennifer Lawler’s name popped into my inbox. And you know, just looking at it gave me a good feeling. So I opened it and through a blur saw ‘love to have your book’. So I just whooped and laughed and sang and danced. All my girls looked at me as though I was mad and then I told them. I am so very thrilled that my mother was over at the time because it was a very special moment to be able to share with her. Even now, 3 months later, seeing Jennifer’s name in my inbox gives me a thrill.

That is so sweet. Tell us about your release.

I wrote Romancing the Seas when I was going through a bit of a rough patch and writing was my saving grace. Rather than having to deal with the stuff around me, I nose-dived into writing my book, it was my escapism. So I have a very soft spot for Pippa and Jonathon. New Zealand, for me, is also a fairy tale place, as I had the time of my life when I spent 10 weeks hiking around both islands. I would live there, if it weren’t so far away from my family. It stood out in my mind when I was thinking location. Also, the Hotel and Catering industry was one I had studied and worked in too, so that side of it – Pippa is a head-chef – was very easy to write about. All in all, I love it. Bless my little book – going out into the big wide unknown world. I hope folk like it .

Sous-chef Pippa Renshaw thinks a change of scene will mend a bruised heart, so she swaps her job in a prestigious London restaurant to head-chef on a cruise ship sailing around New Zealand. A great plan until she meets her new CEO, the delectable Jonathon Eagleton, and discovers she has to share a suite with him.

Even though sparks fly whenever they are together, Jonathon steadfastly keeps her at arm’s length, which suits Pippa just fine because she’s still getting over the betrayal of the last time she had a relationship with the boss.

The situation is starting to feel like solitary confinement until a thunderstorm traps them in a tramper’s hut while hiking. Suddenly a different kind of storm unleashes inside the hut.

But will they be able to go back to their previous status now the line has been crossed?

How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

Oooh, I have a grand total of 3! Romancing the Seas is my first, Sefton Manor is my third and I’m editing the second, ‘The Tango Champion’. I know I’m incredibly lucky to see my first baby going into print (as such!)

Tell us about your latest book, including its genre. Does it cross over to other genres? If so, what are they?

The wonderful Musa Publishing has just picked up my newest, which is called Sefton Manor. It’s a short, only 15k words and it is Gothic romance. It’s fast-paced and fun, taking place over 36 hours. There’s a little bit of the devil in a huge old pile in the English countryside, a haunted basement, a willow tree with a steel box hidden under it and strange goings-on’s galore.

I’ll be picking that one up! I love my Gothic romance! So what do you enjoy most about life?

The things I have created, my girls, my books, my friendships – both familial and other, my writings, my dancing. I enjoy it all and consider myself very blessed to have the life I do. I love music too and think that without music, all these other things wouldn’t have been so easy. Well hang on, let’s think – certainly my books, writings and dancing wouldn’t have come about so easy without the inspirational affects of live music. Some friendships definitely. My girls?! LOL. (even though their father is an amateur musician, thinking about it!).

What is the craziest thing you did as a kid, and would it ever end up in a book?

Well, I tried to knock down a car when on my bicycle? That could get into a book. But it was the crazy things as adults that are more fun for me – sky diving, bungee jumping, leaping off cliffs into rivers – you know the way. Paragliding (although that’s not very crazy).

Hmm time for more crazy things methinks.

I think paragliding is pretty crazy! Something I’d say, sure, I’ll do that, then be scared to death until my feet were back on the ground.

Thanks for stopping by the neighborhood today. Good luck with Romancing the Seas!

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Cait O’Sullivan is a romance author with a love of words and magic, having had the good fortune to grow up in Ireland. The wanderlust in her blood sent her out to travel the world and now, residing in a leafy suburb of London, it is her thoughts and memories that journey far and wide in order to create her stories.