Featured Interview With Deborah Coonts
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My mother tells me I was born in Texas a long, long time ago. I’m not so sure; my mother can’t be trusted. I do know I was raised there on barbecue, Mexican food, and beer. I currently split my time between Texas and Las Vegas where my friends tell me I can’t get into too much trouble… silly people.
I’ve been a lot of things in my life: accountant, business owner, tax lawyer, pilot, flight instructor, dilettante, mother, friend, chief cook, bottle-washer, and all ’round good egg. Yes, I have career ADD and, at this point in my life, am completely unemployable…. so I write. Actually, I have always written, just never made it my vocation until a few years back. And, to tell the truth, writing is the best job ever, well, except for that mom thing.
In my spare time (ha!) I like to fly airplanes, drive fast cars, drink good wine, enjoy the company of those I hold dear, see the world and hear other people’s stories. I used to like to workout, but I got over it.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Books. I’ve always loved stories. and, to listen to my mother tell it, I have always been quite the storyteller. In fact, she has kept copies of some stories I concocted to try to weasel out of trouble and she regularly holds them up as blackmail. But my fascination with books began with a locked closet in the garage….my father’s locked closet. He wouldn’t tell anyone what was in there. Well, I hate secrets, so that just wouldn’t do. At the age of five It took me quite awhile to pick the lock, especially under the cover of darkness after my parents had gone to bed. I finally did, and you can imagine the door creaking open just a bit, darkness beyond, my heart hammering in my chest as my imagination ran wild.
I figured I was in trouble either way, so i might as well finish the job. So, I eased the door open, braced to flee at any moment. when nothing leapt out, I reached inside, having to stretch on my tip-toes to flick the light on. And what was in there?
Three and half walls covered, floor to ceiling with bookshelves containing every paperback my father had ever read. A treasure trove better than anything in Fort Knox. I couldn’t breath as I walked the room. Hardy Boys, Hammett, Spillane, Tarzan, Quartermaine….
I took the first Hardy Boys, killed the light and shut the door. My grandmother had given me a flashlight–she was a great co-conspirator. It took me a few years, but I read every book in there. I even learned it was possible to have sex standing up from the Godfather…of course, that was before I had a good grasp on what exactly sex entailed. You should’ve seen my parents’ faces when I trotted that little tidbit out at the dinner table….
Yes, The Godfather was the last book in my father’s room. After that, I took to riding my pony down the four-lane road to the nearest bookstore. No, my mother didn’t know….
Writing–I won a contest in the 7th grade. I took the Night Before Christmas and rewrote it to reflect life in the ’70s. It wasn’t until single-parenting days that I tried my hand at commercial fiction. Many folks ask me if my stint as a lawyer was good preparation for telling lies. I plead the Fifth on that one, but it didn’t hurt. Anyway, I wrote a terrible international intrigue thing that is buried in the backyard of the house I lived in four houses ago. Then I tried my hand a legal thrillers (yawn). But, I was getting better. Then it was WANNA GET LUCKY?, the first in my current series, and well, I was off and running.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read across genres and anything recommended to me. Right now I’m immersing myself in women’s fiction as I’m working on a new series (while continuing the current one) that is a cross between contemporary romance (there HAS to be romance) and women’s fiction. The title is CRUSHED and it’s set in Napa. Halfway through, I’m liking where it’s going.
In recent years I really have enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Deborah Harkness’ trilogy beginning with Discovery of Witches. I read Nora Roberts because, well, she is a powerful presence in the romance universe–and I love her stuff. Susan Wiggs, Diane Mott Davidson, Catherine Coulter, Allison Brennan, Nancy Martin…..the list of wonderful writers and absorbing stories is endless. However, I must tell you, I’m a happy ending gal…..can’t do a lot of death and dismemberment.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
To set the stage, I write a humorous romantic mystery series set in Las Vegas. The next book out is LUCKY CATCH, the fifth full-length novel in the series.
This whole story started with a smoking gun.
You see, I’m not much of a foodie. And, I’m not much of a cook either. In fact, I have a love/hate relationship with food—I love it, but I hate it when my jeans don’t fit. And it doesn’t help that I’m more of a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives kind of gal rather than one who favors an exorbitantly-priced, twenty-item tasting menu that stills leaves you lusting after a Whataburger. So, when it comes to fancy food prep, I’m a bit clueless.
Which leads me back to the smoking gun thing.
I was eating dinner at one of my favorite local restaurants in Vegas, Due Forni, with two of my best buds, one of them a chef. As a first course, we ordered some of the homemade mozzarella and their famous bread (totally to die for). I ordered the smoked cheese and, through mouthfuls I expressed my pleasure and my wonder at how they imparted the smoky flavor. I’m originally from Texas and the whole smoked thing is a religion there—but it requires a huge smoker and tons of hickory and I didn’t see that sort of set up at Due Forni. So, I wondered out loud how someone might give fresh mozzarella a smoked flavor.
My bud, the chef, looked at me as if I’d been living under a rock and announced, “With a smoking gun, of course.”
But, of course! A smoking gun. Who knew?
That little tidbit stopped me mid-bite and totally derailed his dinner as I peppered him with questions.
I mean, there’s just something so prosaic about killing someone with a smoking gun, don’t you think?
So, off the story ran, as stories are wont to do. Before long I found myself mired hip-deep in the world of gourmet cookery. And I became interested in the conundrum of serving incredibly fresh food in a place that is as hospitable to the nurture of delicate plants and exotic fish as the surface of the moon. And that led to research into the pipeline for gourmet foodstuffs, the need for temperature control, for impeccable and consistent quality and lightning fast shipments. All of this is incredibly competitive, with the top-tier chefs locked in a fierce battle for the freshest, most unique items on the planet.
The perfect recipe for murder.
Or several, as the case may be… kitchens are dangerous places, you know.
And, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for this sort of culinary chaos.
In LUCKY CATCH, Lucky has been promoted. She is now the Vice President of Customer Relations for the Babylon, Vegas’s primo Strip property, which really doesn’t change anything, it just sounds more important. She’s still charged with keeping the lid on guests, entertainers, chefs and staff who decide to turn up the heat while at the Babylon. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but with the dishy, world-renowned chef, Jean-Charles Bouclet in hot pursuit and the return of her former lover, Teddie, setting her emotions on sizzle, Lucky’s is a bit distracted.
And then, with Thanksgiving approaching, a young woman gets smoked in Jean-Charles’s food truck on the Babylon’s back lot and he becomes the prime suspect. Of course, he goes on the lam leaving Lucky to deal with his sister and his niece who stick to Lucky like a good roux, leaving her to wonder what game he is really playing. To make matters worse, Mona, Lucky’s mother, is up to her normal shenanigans, throwing fat in the fire just when Lucky seems to be taming it to a manageable flame.
Of course, all of this would be easy as pie for Lucky…except the Babylon is hosting a nationally-televised celebrity chef cooking competition and the prized white truffle, one of the main ingredients, goes missing. Not even the truffle pig that Miss P has ensconced in Bungalow 7 in the rarified air of the Kasbah, can find it.
Would someone really kill for a truffle?
As usual, in a bit of shameless product placement, I insert many of my favorite local restaurants in the book, which is one of my favorite things to do. And, of course, I had to sample them anew before doing so… quality control and all of that. Not to mention the tax-deductible thing.
I wonder if the resulting gym membership is deductible as well?
Anyway, please join Lucky on her wild ride through the kitchens of Vegas and find out whether Lucky can clear her chef before his goose is cooked, whether she decides it’s possible to love again without being parboiled in the process, and who her LUCKY CATCH might be.
And whether I might be shot for working a metaphor so hard it rolled over and died.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles