Q&A with New York Times Best Seller Author Catherine Coulter

I really want to thank Catherine Coulter for taking time out to answer some questions for me. She's a very gracious and charming author. I've loved her work for so long, and it was such a blast to have her join in my blog! I hope everyone else will enjoy the Q&A as much as I did writing them up and getting the answers back. So feast and gorge yourself the way I did. I've posted links to her website so you can look for her latest book coming in July and her collaboration with J.T. Ellison, which looks to be incredible!

1) In “The Wyndham Legacy,” the Duchess spars so cleverly with Aunt Wilhelmina: "I think you're a conniving bitch." The Duchess heard her well enough this time, but she was so utterly taken aback that she couldn't think of a thing to say..... Wilhelmina merely shrugged....."Yes," she said now, "it must nice to be very rich." Within the book The Duchess comes back with her own quips that she soon is also rehearsing them on Marcus - "I wish YOU WOULD lose all your hair." "Huh? What did you say?".... "I said," the Duchess said sweetly, smiling at him, "that I wished you would call for a chair." He grinned down at her. "That wasn't bad, but you're no competition for Aunt Wilhelmina."

How did you come up with a whole book written like that and keep it so cleverly entertaining without making the reader become tired of it? (Personal note: “The Wyndham Legacy” I think is my favorite historical of yours.)

(C.C.) - I too love this book, particularly Marcus who is such a dominant alpha male. As for Aunt Wilhemina, she simply appeared under my fingers and when she opened her mouth this is what came out. I'm very pleased you found the dialog so entertaining. I'll tell you, it's harder than you'd think to come up with really nasty insults that sounds un-nasty.
2) Why did you decide to change from writing all historical romance to romantic suspense? And was it difficult?

(C.C.) - I've written both historicals and FBI thrillers for many years now. I've found that going back and forth is very 'unconstipating' since the two genres are so disparate. The four romantic suspense novels I've written are again very different from the historicals and the FBI thrillers, so I guess this means I've got the smoothest running brain in the universe. Isn't it fun to mix and match?
3) I read that you believed you were really in the right place, at the right time when you wrote your first book and got picked up for a three book contract. With all of today’s self-publishing and small Internet publishing, do you see books that don't get picked up by large publishing houses as legitimate? 

(C.C.) - I wouldn't have considered self-published books legitimate at all before five, six years ago, but now? It's a whole new playing field and authors are gaining more and more power since there are now so many publishing options venues, which is excellent. No longer are you considered sort of a "failure" if you don't get picked up by a big print publisher (and consider, as houses merge to survive, and so print publishing offers are dwindling) but now you can do it all yourself. I know of some huge successes with self publishing, also of authors who subsequently got picked up by a print publisher after they'd published e-books, and believe me, they came in with a lot more power than they otherwise would have.
4) With all of the different types of romantic genres out there today, is there any other one that you'd like to try? Also, what do you think of the huge boom in erotic romance? 

(C.C.) - I've done oodles of Regency romances, Medieval romances, Viking romances, contemporary romances, contemporary romantic suspense and the FBI suspense thrillers. You want me to do more? Vampires, maybe? I believe there are currently about a zillion vampire romances out there -- Erotic novels? I wrote one, but it's in a safe deposit box.
5) How did you decide to write a book with another author, and was it a difficult decision because you've been writing by yourself for so long?
 (C.C.) - I simply wanted to do something different and like Clive Cussler and others, I decided to try writing with an 'author for hire'. I spoke to Clive, got some great advice, spoke with my agent and he was very enthusiastic. I came up with the series concept and the general plot for the first book.  Then I began reading authors and found J.T. Ellison, a superb writer. She is also fun and smart and computer savvy since she's been tinkering with computers since she was seven.   Once I found her, moving forward wasn't a difficult decision at all. This is our first book together so both of us are learning how each of us work and believe me, there are compromises on both our sides. The first thriller in the A Brit in the FBI series, is titled THE FINAL CUT and should be out around September of this year. I might add that Putnam is very excited with the new series. And Savich and Sherlock will also appear in THE FINAL CUT to tie the two series together.

6. What is the first book that you ever fell in love with?

(C.C.) - The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer.

You can visit her website at: http://www.catherinecoulter.com/

Or you can reach her via her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/catherinecoulterbook

Feb. 27th I'll review author Kahlen Aymes's - The Future of Our Past (The Remembrance Trilogy).

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have to tell you about a really good ebook that I read over the weekend: "Champagne Toast" by Melissa Brown. It's told by both of the characters’ POV (points of view), going back and forth between them over a period of four years. I really liked it and give it 4 1/2 it's available on Amamzon for $3.99 or free if you're an Amazon Prime Member at Champagne. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did (and make sure that you don't read the ending before it really is the end of the book the way I always seem to do).

So, about my interest in the sex scenes in romance books… I truly did skip them because I wasn’t reading the books for that, I was reading them for the actual romance, or story if you’d like. You could always tell if I tried to read the sex scenes when I first started reading romance novels because I would turn really red in the face -- my friends got a kick out of it. I only let close friends know that I read romance books because I hated being teased about reading them. People were so used to seeing me read serious books or adult-type material that it shocked them when they found out that I was reading romances. Only very few people knew how many I could go through in a week. I ate them up like candy.

On that note, instead of an all-romance posting this week, I'm offering up something else that’s a little sweet. This delicious Devil’s Food cake recipe (which will make 24 cupcakes or 2 9-inch round cake, but feel free to make a 9x13 if you don't have any round cake pans) is awesome. Use really good cocoa powder for this recipe (it deserves it). I think that your valentine will be very pleased with the recipe below.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. I’m just finishing up putting together that first author interview I mentioned last week. You’ll see it here next week around Feb. 20^th.

Here’s the recipe:

Devil’s Food Cake – from The Modern Café

You are going to want to use an electric scale so that you're able to use this recipe because I broke it down into grams. Make sure that you use a really good cocoa powder.

This is one of my very favorite cakes that I learned to make while getting my degree in the Baking and Pastry Arts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ingredients Needed: (make sure that all the wet ingredients are at room temperature.)

Sugar – 562 grams

Pastry flour – 161.5 grams

Bread flour – 161.5 grams

Cocoa powder – 151.5 grams

Baking powder – 5 grams

Baking soda – 2.5 grams

Salt – 1.5 grams

Eggs – 178 grams

Egg yolks (only) – 71.5 grams

Butter (melted, but cool) – 76 grams

Butter Milk – 327 grams

Coffee – 303.5 grams

1. Preheat your oven to 320 degrees and get your two 9” and spray them with Pam or your cupcake pans ready.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients onto a sheet of parchment paper or into bowl.

3. Bring all the liquids, including the melted butter up to 70°. Place the eggs and egg yolks in a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients in the recipe, and then slowly whisk in the melted butter. Slowly whisk in the buttermilk and, finally, the coffee.

4. Whisk all the dry ingredients until liquid, whisking constantly until it is thoroughly mixed

5. Pour your batter into prepared cake pans or scoop even amounts into the cupcake holders in you pans.

6. Bake for 10 min., and rotate the cake pans, and then bake for 7 to 9 more minutes or until the cake springs back when gentle pressure is applied with your fingertips. Check doneness with a toothpick at the center of the cake pan or one of cupcakes. If you're not sure. Press the middle of the cake with your finger. If it springs back, it is done.

7. If you do not plan to use the cakes right away. Make sure that you wrap them twice in Saran wrap and label them with the date that you made them they will freeze to up to two months. Do not stack them

8. Once the cakes and or cupcakes are totally cooled you can start decorating. You don't need to add the extra cake around the side as I did. I just use it for decoration because I really like it.

For the buttercream frosting to decorate with you can basically use any buttercream frosting that you like or use. I cheat sometimes (if I know I won’t have the time to make frosting) and use the Wilton frosting which works just as well.

Very first blog posting!!

Feb. 9, 2013

I've started this blog about romance books, authors’ interviews, and a little bit of baking thrown in for a college social media class that I'm taking. We were told to do something that we love and are passionate about. I found a red-covered book titled "Between the Covers," by Laurien Blair a Silhouette Desire romance novel, in my 8th grade shop class. Until that point in time, I was basically reading my dad's books, "The World According to Garp," "Catcher in the Rye," and any other book I could get my hands on -- you see, I was a reading nut. But when I found THAT book, well, let’s just say my life was changed and in my opinion for the better (in my dad’s opinion, um, not so much).

Although I read other books, I was hooked like a crack addict is to the pipe. I would go to the library and check out 20 books at a time, dragging my then-best friend Beth along with me who had no interest reading at all. I would gobble them up like candy, reading them on the city bus on the way to school, in class hiding them under the desks while the teacher was talking (if I couldn't wait to finish it) or in bed at night, covering them up when my dad would come in to see what I was doing. I am being completely honest when I say that I wasn't interested in it for the sex; it was the romance. More on that in my next blog.

P.S. Within the next week or so, I’ll be posting an interview with one of my favorite romance authors, who answered some questions for me. She’s huge on The New York Times bestseller list. I also have some other author interviews in the works. Come back soon and check it out!