The very real romance of Yorkshire Mills & Boon author Susan Stephens

She was a cabaret singer, he was on holiday in Malta. He asked her out for dinner on Monday, they were engaged on Friday and married three months later.

It sounds like the plot of one of Susan Stephens’ romantic novels for Mills and Boon, but it is in fact the story of how she met and married her husband of more than 30 years Steve.

“I am a believer in love at first sight,” says Susan. “We are very different people. I am a dreamer and Steve is a realist - we are very ying and yang.”

Susan started out as a professional singer having trained at the Royal College of Music in both voice and piano, before spending two years with the D’ Oyly Carte opera and then as a cabaret singer on the QE2, although she always had a love of writing.

After she married Steve and they had three children she started to teach and write non-fiction. But is wasn’t until the couple attended a charity auction that her writing career took off.

“We went to a charity auction for our local hospice and one of the lots was the chance to be an author for a day with the legendary Mills & Boon author, Penny Jordan.

“I joked with Steve that he really needed to get it for me - and he did. But Penny, who became a great friend, said being author for a day was good but I should really try my hand at writing romantic fiction full-time, considering the romantic life I had had.”

After that day, Susan who lives in West Yorkshire, wrote several books before her first title, A Spanish Inheritance, was published in 2003. To date Susan has sold more than eight million books worldwide and has just seen her 50th book in 13 years published.

‘In The Sheikh’s Service’ is a love story between Sheikh Shazim Al Q’Aqabi and exotic dancer and conservationist Isla Sinclair.

“My editor really likes stories about Sheikhs and so I said for my 50th book I would write her a book with a Sheikh in it.”

She says structure and discipline are the key to her success, as well as her being a true romantic.

“Everyone’s love story is different,” say Susan. “I never tire of writing love stories and I don’t think people every tire of reading them. I have a very loyal following through social media and I get to meet a lot of my reader face to ace, they wouldn’t be happy if I changed the way I write.”

Susan gets up at 5.30am, has a shower, does her hair (‘you never know when someone might call in’) starts writing at 7am and finishes at 5pm having had an hour for lunch and coffee breaks.

“It is my job and that’s how I look at it. I’m thrilled to have reached such an important moment in my career. I’ve always been passionate about my writing and feel incredibly lucky to be able to make a living from doing what I love most.”

Susan’s 51st novel A Diamond For Del Rio’s Housekeeper is due out in November and her 52nd The Sicilian’s Defiant Mistress in March.