AUTHOR INTRO - Brenda Coulter

I met Brenda through her blog. She has some interesting opinions that keep me coming back daily. When I asked her to participate in the online conference, she was right there, so that gives her a few points on my book. Brenda writes inspirational romance. I thought an interview would be a nice way to plug her book and introduce you to another writer.

See Ya On The Net: Please give a brief bio on you the person and the writer.

Brenda Coulter: I've been married for 30 years and was a contented stay-at-home mom for almost two decades. I baked bread from scratch, volunteered in our public schools, and was heavily involved with church activities. When my "baby" was preparing to enter high school and the mommy years were winding down, I began looking around for some new ways to spend my time. I had never tried writing fiction before, and I'll never know what made me think I could write a novel, but it turned out that I could. When that first manuscript sold (just over a year after I started writing), I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

SYOTN: What is your current book and what inspired you to write it?

COULTER: The hero of A Family Forever is a semi-pro cyclist and is very loosely based on my 23-year-old son, who has been crazy about bikes all his life. His first love was mountain biking, but he now rides and races track bikes. He and I have been watching cycling events on TV for years, so all the "bike stuff" in the book came right off the top of my head and was a blast to write. Oh, I should add that my hero's physical attributes are based on cyclist George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong's faithful workhorse.

SYOTN: When you're not writing, what do you like to do in your spare time?

COULTER: I'm a blogging maniac. But I occasionally tear myself away from the computer to spend time in the garden. I love my roses! I also enjoy hunting through antique stores for bone-china teacups.

SYOTN: If you could pick one of your books for a movie, which one would you,
choose, and whom would you cast in it?

COULTER: Well, I've published only two books, and I'm not sure either of them would make a good movie without a whole lotta quality screenwriting to make them more visual. And I think I'd rather see my characters played by unknown actors rather than big names.

SYOTN: Is being a published writer what you thought it would be like?

COULTER: I got The Call about 14 months after I decided to try writing a novel, so it wasn't as though I'd spent years dreaming about what it would be like. I'm not sure I ever thought about it at all.

SYOTN: What advice would you give to writer trying to get published?

COULTER: Nobody's going to hold your hand and lead you to publication. If you don't have the gumption to figure out what you want and how to get it, you'll probably never be published. So if you really want it, go after it with everything you've got.

SYOTN: In honor of Valentine's what would you consider a perfect valentines gift?

COULTER: Roses, chocolates, and jewelry are always nice, but no gift on earth beats a handwritten love letter.

Read the first chapter of A Family Forever, an inspirational romance coming in March; pick up some romance-writing tips; and browse several "afternoon tea" pages at http://BrendaCoulter.com

Sign up for my quarterly(ish) newsletter by sending a blank e-mail to
Brenda-Coulter-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Read my daily musings on "writing, life, and the writing life" at No rules. Just write.
http://BrendaCoulter.Blogspot.com