Bestselling Canadian author Carley Fortune has never been so busy in her life

George does appear, and Frankie is relieved and thrilled. But the joy of George re-appearing in her life is soon sidelined when the man she is supposed to marry dumps her, with a note no less, on the morning of the wedding.

Destroyed, Frankie returns to the family home to feel all the feels. But her time wallowing is interrupted by George’s appearance and insistence that the pair make use of the already booked honeymoon in Tofino. Frankie agrees, and soon they are in the gorgeous, rugged surroundings of Tofino where they have to weather both environmental and emotional storms.

An Ontario native, Fortune discovered Tofino, which is frequently named Canada’s top travel spot and a top global destination, when she moved with her then-boyfriend (now husband) to Victoria where he had an internship at the Times Colonist newspaper and she was hired to be the editor of the University of Victoria’s Martlet newspaper.

“I lived on Vancouver Island for almost a year following graduating university,” said Fortune, whose journalism career includes working as editor at Toronto Life magazine, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Refinery 29. “I visited Tofino twice while I was there and fell in love with it. I had never been in a rain forest before.”

Fortune, who grew up partially in Australia, had seen some great beaches in her day. But Tofino’s natural beauty hit her like a 10-foot wave.

“The beaches were unlike anything I’ve ever seen, so dramatic. And I felt like I was on the edge of the world, which you kind of are. It just stuck with me,” said Fortun,e who points to Tonquin Beach and the local hot springs as her favourite Tofino locations.

Flash forward a decade and a half, and Fortune, in search of inspiration, decided to return to Tofino. Once there, she did all the great Tofino activities including whale watching, beachcombing, surfing and just taking in the mightiness of the place perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

“I didn’t have a story for it. I wanted something that would match the drama of the place, and that took a little while before I found the right story,” said Fortune.

Amazon Prime Video obviously thought Fortune’s first novel Every Summer After was the right story for streaming and is putting all eight episodes up at once, giving viewers a chance to binge it like a great beach read.

As for changing the name to Every Year After, Fortune says that happened because the studio wanted something broader than just the summer season to work with.

“It’s just one of those things that, when you get into the adaptation process, things change,” said Fortune about the name change.

Despite the success of the bestselling book the new series is based on, Fortune was surprised her story made it to camera at all considering the TV/film business slowed a bunch after the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023 and a global production contraction.

“It was wild. I sold the rights to that book the summer it came out, and with everything that Hollywood has gone through since that time and the industry, it’s kind of one of those things that you think, if it’s happening, that would be great. But I don’t really expect it to happen,” said Fortune.

The romantic drama set over six years stars Sadie Soverall as Percy and Matt Cornett as Sam and was shot in the Vancouver area. Fortune visited the set last summer on her way to Tofino.

“I’m so grateful to our showrunner. Her name is Amy B Harris. I think she’s done just the most beautiful job of staying emotionally true to the story while expanding it for a series,” said Fortune.

After seeing the series, Fortune reports that she was happily surprised to see new additions to her original story.