Medical authors Susan Carlisle and Amy Ruttan have teamed up for a very special Medical duet – First Response! Featuring two fabulous Medical stories, Firefighter’s Unexpected Fling and Pregnant with the Paramedic’s Baby, this duet features a brother and sister finding their happily ever afters with different first responders! Here, both authors talk about their stories and what it was like to work on linked books together. Read on to find out more…

Susan Carlisle: I love to read duets. When I was asked if I would write one with the fabulous Amy Ruttan I said ‘yes’ without having to think. A particularly fun part of writing a storyline with someone else is the excitement of planning the related elements of the stories. Amy and I knocked around ideas, likes and dislikes, settings and I think we came up with some wonderful characters living and working in an interesting place, Austin, Texas. We had to agree on the characters past lives, even their relationship. After some discussion we decided on a brother and sister storyline.

Even more exciting for me was that we were asked to write about first responders. I had never done that so it was a brave new world for me despite having a brother who was a fireman. To have my EMT Sally Davis, and firefighter, Ross Lawson work in a firehouse was a wonderful adventure. Most firehouses have something unique about them so I worked hard to make that happen in my book.

I loved writing the scenes which are away from the firehouse as well. Ross owns a small ranch outside of town. It’s the perfect place for romance with its old refurbished house with large oaks, pastures, barn and horses. An added bonus is Ross and Sally’s relationship with their nieces and nephews throughout the book. It’s a real family affair.

Whether you read Firefighter’s Unexpected Fling first or Pregnant with the Paramedic’s Baby or vice versa you don’t want to miss either one of these stories. You have my promise you won’t be disappointed.

Amy Ruttan: I’ve wanted to write with Susan Carlisle for a while, ever since I got the pleasure of meeting her at RWA San Diego back in 2016. She’s just the sweetest person and so supportive of her fellow writers, so when I was asked if I would do a first responder duet with Susan, I said yes right away.

Susan was a big help in getting information about the paramedics and firefighters in the USA, because where I live, they’re not usually in the same station, so she was a great source of information about how it worked.

Immediately, we decided to do a brother sister set of characters. She had a basic idea already mapped out for her book and I love writing about brothers. I just grew up with a lot of brothers, what I mean by that is, I have one brother, but my mother had 3 brothers and my father had 6 brothers, so the brother dynamic is something I’m very used to.

Once I learned about Sally and we established stuff about their family, Kody just came walking into my head pretty well formed.

I’ve written a paramedic before (Dare She Date Again?), so I was eager to write another one and Kody was just a wonderful hero, as was Susan’s heroine Sally.

Even though we wrote our books separately, you could feel their connection. The books are both standalone, but to get that really family feel, you need to read both Firefighter’s Unexpected Fling and Pregnant with the Paramedic’s Baby. And I think that Susan and I gave both Sally and Kody worthy romances with Ross and Sandra.

I’m really excited for this duet to come out.

Pick up the First Response duet by Susan Carlisle and Amy Ruttan here.

By Becky Lushey