FAQs: 1. Where do you get your ideas? I always say that a cook gets ingredients from the refrigerator, while a writer pulls ideas out of the "emotional refrigerator." The idea for Goldy, for example, came from my volunteer work in the late 1970's and early 1980's, where I saw a shocking number of so-called "upper middle class" women who'd been physically abused by their husbands. At the time (early 1980's), I simply never read fiction in which female protagonists were dealing with this kind of horror. So I decided to create a character who had put her life back together after suffering for years under the thumb of a jerk, who became "the Jerk." For the different Goldy adventures, the kernels (how I do love food images!) came from my own experience. For example, after a reader told me how much more flattering my photograph was than my actuality, I decided to have a makeover (!). As the cosmetics salesclerk was dabbing makeup on my face, she asked what I did for a living. When I told her, she sighed and said, "Boy! I sure could write a mystery about THIS place!" So I said, "Please tell me all about it." The result was KILLER PANCAKE. 2. Were you ever married to someone like the Jerk? No, my dear husband and I have been married for 35 years. I've worked for plenty of jerks, though, and they've provided lots of fodder for the novels. 3. Where do you get your recipes? The Goldy recipes come from food ideas suggested by friends, colleagues, restaurant dishes...or sometimes just right out of my head, featuring ingredients I think would taste good together. Inevitably, I've had some failures. There was Roquefort Pizza, which I pawned off on our next door neighbors. There were Cream Cheese Cookies filled with Hot Chile Jelly. (The only person who liked those was the Fed Ex man.) But then, every now and then, I've had a ZING! inspiration. My favorite occurred when I was working on the brownie for _Dying for Chocolate_. I wanted to create a brownie that was so fudgy, so rich, so dark and chocolatey, that tingles would run up your spine when you ate it. So just before going to sleep one night (when I've been told the right brain is most active!), I wondered, "Why do chocolate cake recipes always use cocoa, and brownie recipes inevitably specify melted unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate? What would happen if you combined them?" Thus was born the idea of combining the two forms of chocolate in "Scout's Brownies." For those readers who prefer a nuttier brownie, please bake up a batch of 'Brownie Points' from _Double Shot_!" 4. Why do you use unsalted butter? The salt mixed into "salted butter" is used either for flavoring (sometimes okay) or to give the butter a longer shelf life (never okay). Even worse, the home cook has little way of knowing exactly how much salt has been added to "salted butter." Good unsalted butter poses none of these problems, and has a fresh, clean "buttery" taste and texture! Yum! 5. How long did it take you to get published? I began writing fiction in 1982, wrote numerous short stories (never published) and two novels (ditto). When I was writing _Catering To Nobody_ (my third novel written, but first published), I felt it hung together better than the previous books. And of course, I loved the characters. In 1988, I found my wonderful, hard-charging agent, Sandra Dijkstra, who has landed all the subsequent Goldy books with excellent publishers. I am exceptionally blessed now to be published by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, where I am working with a lovely, brilliant editor, Carolyn Marino, who was one of my early editors on _Catering To Nobody_!