Author Spotlight | Meet Sue Ward Drake and her romantic thrillers #romance #thrillers #neworleans
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  • N. N. Light
    • Oct 10, 2023
    • 5 min read

Author Spotlight | Meet Sue Ward Drake and her romantic thrillers #romance #thrillers #neworleans



Hello romantics. I’m Sue Ward Drake. I’ve published romantic thrillers with Harlequin and Sourcebooks as well as indie. I’m the middle child of three so I’ve always been good at entertaining myself, be that reading my dad’s suspense thrillers, or (earlier) making up stories for my dolls.


In fact, I am terrible about making up stories to fit overheard conversation or an animated, but unheard, conversation. I actually thought everyone did this!


When I was working in a small university computer programming department, one of my colleagues was storming and ranting about some supplier he’d had on the phone. I suggested maybe the man he’d spoken with had only just learned his wife wanted a divorce or his brother had been arrested. That’s why he was giving my co-worker such a hard time.


I love to pull details of places where I’ve lived—like from my 40 years living in the city of New Orleans from the French Quarter to the Garden District to the Lakefront. I loved living in the city with all its holidays and festivals: Mardi Gras, Jazz and Heritage Fest, Voodoo Fest, Creole Food Fest. And of course all those 300 years of history which accent everyday life in the city.


I also had a chance when I was just out of college to live in a little farmhouse on an island in Greece where I used a bucket to pull up water from a well. And kerosene lamps. This was good practice for all the blackouts from hurricanes I lived through later in New Orleans.


Needless to say, I had some interesting (and scary, in some instances) experiences, like being help up at gunpoint in the French Quarter. I was walking home from teaching night classes at a junior college when a car passed in the street, and a guy jumped out and ran up to me. With a gun!


Which I didn’t notice! I’d been brought up to be polite in the Southern small town manner, and I remember we discussed that he wouldn’t want my briefcase full of freshly printed test papers that I needed to administer the next night. But he took my purse and jumped back in the car and sped off. I was so thankful I’d stuck my house keys in a pocket so I could get into my apartment to call the police.


And let’s not even talk about flying into Casablanca in the days before cell phones, though it might as well have been carrier pigeon. Because the friend I expected to see waiting in the airport was no where to be found. I had to snag someone to call the naval base where she was working for the Defense schools to make contact. “Oh,” she said. “You’re here!”


LOL.


My mom says I’m working my guardian angel overtime and maybe she’s right, but I always try to handle an unexpected event with confidence. I can be scared later. LOL.



Follow on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/SUE-WARD-DRAKE/author/B06Y4TBF6Q?




Book #1:


Title CASTING THE DICE

Author Sue Ward Drake

Genre Romantic Suspense


Book Blurb:


Former Navy deep-sea diver turned bounty hunter, Hal Guidry, needs to collar a fugitive now. Not yesterday. Right now.


But inside the New Orleans mansion, he instead finds a woman who fires his blood. A woman who knows only her name. A woman definitely in danger.


As her memory returns, girl-next-door librarian, Annie Swanson, questions how she knows the oh-so-handsome hunk calling himself a friend. Then she discovers he’s a bounty hunter like the men who killed her father, and she flees…


…only to be nearly kidnapped…in broad daylight…in the French Quarter.


Annie runs to Hal with questions, but when they’re both nearly killed in a fiery explosion, he needs answers of his own.


As the sexual attraction between them heats up, can Annie cast the dice in his favor? Or will they become victims of the deadly forces intent on keeping secrets?


Excerpt


The bookshelf beside Annie wobbled. She didn’t need to think to know what was happening. “Don’t lean on the shelving,” she commanded.


“I can fix this for you later.” Hal loomed over her in all his masculine glory. Not by too much, but hard muscle packed every inch.


“There’s no point. I’ll have to clear out all these books before I can sell the shop.”


That was something else Annie hadn’t considered when planning this trip back to New Orleans. She also hadn’t factored in kidnappers and exploding cars. Or one very hunky bail recovery agent.


The overhead light gleamed on the hard butt of the gun Hal wore in a sling under his arm. A shiver froze her insides. She pointed to the pistol, keeping her hand as close to her chest as possible. “Be careful with that.”


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Author Biography


Award-winning author Sue Ward Drake has published with Harlequin and Sourcebooks as well as indie-published. She loves using her experiences living in a farmhouse in Greece and her years in the French Quarter as fuel for her stories as often as possible.


For news of the next thrilling Big Easy Brothers romantic suspense and other romances, visit www.SueWardDrake.com


Social Media Links


Facebook: www.facebook.com/SueWardDrake



BOOK #2:


Title FLEEING THE STORM

Author Sue Ward Drake

Genre Romantic Suspense


Book Blurb


No matter what else he is, Jack Guidry, former Big Easy undercover cop turned bounty hunter, is a stubborn cuss who never gives up. He works all the angles necessary to nab his fugitive even if that means getting up close and personal with the lovely, but wary French Quarter pastry chef, Grace Comstock.


Grace isn’t talking, certainly not to the handsome rogue who suspiciously pops up everywhere she goes. All she wants is to keep her job and her orphaned niece safe, so when a masked kidnapper ambushes them, she flees New Orleans—straight into the path of a dangerous hurricane.


Though she agrees to talk to Jack, she hadn’t planned to ride out the storm with him. But that’s what happens once he saves her and the baby from drowning. Even though he denies his attraction, Jack can’t help feeling protective of this beautiful, frightened woman. When they wind up fighting for their lives, can Grace trust Jack enough to help him bring his fugitive to justice?


Excerpt


“I need your help.” Jack gave her a rougish smile.


Heat flashed through Grace, but she tightened her grip on the open car door. This was another good pickup line, but she suspected Jack wasn’t telling her everything. “Why do you think I can help?”


“I’m hoping you can give me an idea where to look for my fugitive,” Jack lowered his voice. “Let me buy you that coffee I promised. Then we can talk.”


His lips quirked, and his smile melted her insides like a pat of butter in a skillet. “Please.”


“Are you begging me?”


He got down on his knees and lifted his clasped hands. “Say ‘yes.’”


“Look, he’s proposing,” one of the beer drinkers on the street corner shouted.


The guy coming out of the adjacent store with a bag of groceries stopped and stared. A businessman crossing the street paused and stepped back onto the curb.


“You’re creating a scene.” Grace waved frantically for Jack to get up.


“Is it working?”


“Yes.” She rolled her eyes. But this wasn’t funny.


Jack bounded to his feet and called over his shoulder to the on-lookers. “She said ‘yes.’”


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