Today, I'm very pleased to have the lovely Louisa Edwards visiting drey's library. She has a new
Recipe for Love book out--
Just One Taste, and is blog-hopping to celebrate! As part of the festivities, she's answering some questions (poor girl!), and has some goodies for you!
About Louisa:
Louisa Edwards grew up in Virginia and graduated from Bryn Mawr College before moving to Manhattan to work with some of the biggest names in book publishing. She later moved to Ohio, where she worked as a restaurant reviewer. She decided to bring her love of romance and cooking together by writing the Recipe for Love series.
Find Louisa online at her official website,
www.louisaedwards.com, and her blog,
Recipe for Love.
FTC Disclosure: I am an affiliate at IndieBound, The Book Depository, and Amazon, and any purchases made by clicking on the cover or the links provided may result in monetary compensation.
The interview:
drey: Hello, Louisa! Welcome back to Drey’s Library, and congratulations on releasing
Just One Taste! I’m jumping right in... Can you share your first sale story with us?
Louisa: My first sale only happened because I jumped off the paranormal bandwagon (I love to read them, but apparently shouldn’t write them!) and started writing a book I thought would never sell. Okay, not never—I obviously hoped it would sell. But I knew it was risky to do a contemporary romance with an unusual occupation for the hero (a chef is not a billionaire tycoon, a small town cop, or a Navy SEAL, after all.)
My incredibly smart agent suggested that I set aside the paranormal manuscript I’d been working on for the past year and a half, and write something I felt truly connected to and passionate about, and for me, that meant the connection between food and love, and the fast-paced pressure cooker of a professional restaurant in New York City. I wrote the proposal in three months, and she sold it to St. Martin’s in two weeks.
drey: That's awesome! Not about the paranormal manuscript, about selling your book in two weeks! *grin* Where do you find inspiration for your books? And when you have one, how do you capture that “a-ha!” moment?
Louisa: I get inspiration from lots of places—food television shows like “Top Chef” and “No Reservations,” culinary memoirs like
Heat
by Bill Buford and
A Return to Cooking
by Eric Ripert, and from my own experiences in the kitchen.
I always tell myself I’ll start carrying around a little notebook to write down the funny things I hear and the snippets of ideas that occur to me in random places, but I haven’t managed it yet! I actually have a note file on my phone for that stuff.
drey: Can you tell us about
Just One Taste, your latest Recipe for Love novel?
Louisa: Just One Taste returns to trendy Manhattan eatery, Market, and its crew of misfits and renegades. This time, they’re joined by ex-con-artist-turned-culinary-student Wes Murphy, who's hiding out and nursing a broken heart—until the object of his affections, food chemistry genius Dr. Rosemary Wilkins, shows up at Market, looking to continue their research project on aphrodisiacs!
These two were a total blast to write—Rosemary is shy, awkward, brilliant, and a complete nerd, which gave me free rein to let that part of me loose on the page.
(drey: I was very impressed by the ultra-geekiness that resided in Just One Taste...)
And Wes is maybe the most romantic hero I’ve ever written, because he takes Rosemary exactly as she is and loves everything about her.
drey: Will there be more books in this series? What’s next?
Louisa: Can’t Stand the Heat
,
On the Steamy Side
and
Just One Taste together make up the Market trilogy, and while each can definitely be read as a stand alone story, there are subplots that arc through all three books. I feel good about how those subplots were wrapped up in
Just One Taste, so I’m moving on to a new trilogy in 2011.
Don’t worry, though! It’s set in the same world, and even in real life, the culinary scene is small; chefs tend to know each other. It’s the same with my characters. You’ll see some familiar faces pop up in
Too Hot to Touch,
Some Like it Hot, and
Hot Under Pressure, my trilogy following a group of talented young chefs through a high-stakes culinary competition! The first one is due out in August 2011, with the other two scheduled fairly closely after it.
drey: Your book on the screen: which one, and who’s in it?
Louisa: You know, what I’d really love to see is a television series based on the Market trilogy. There are so many great reality-based shows about chefs; I think the time is ripe for an evening drama set in a restaurant!
As for casting…well, if I could have anyone in the world, I’d steal Jared Padalecki from the set of “Supernatural” and make him play Wes Murphy. And I think Kristen Bell would make an adorable Rosemary Wilkins! Anyone else have any casting ideas, say for Executive Chef Adam Temple or celebrity chef Devon Sparks?
drey: What’s your favorite accompaniment to chocolate?
Louisa: Strawberries, of course!
drey: Um, yeah, I think I knew that... *wink* What do you indulge in, when not writing?
Louisa: When I’m not under deadline, I like to play around with short stories to offer for free on my website. I’ve done a couple of free reads, just for fun, and I love being able to talk about them with readers on Twitter and Facebook!
drey: What books have you read recently? Why’d you pick them up?
Louisa: Right now I’m in the middle of
Medium Raw
by Anthony Bourdain and
Something About You
by Julie James. Both phenomenal! Tony’s book
Kitchen Confidential
was a huge inspiration for the Recipe for Love series, and I adore the way he writes about food, chefs, and travel. I grabbed Something About You because it’s a contemporary romance that got a ton of buzz when it came out, and I wanted to see why. Turns out, it’s because it’s great. : )
On my TBR pile:
Infamous
by Suzanne Brockmann,
Heart of Fire
by Kristen Painter,
Make Her Pay
by Roxanne St. Claire,
Demon From the Dark
by Kresley Cole, and
Maybe This Time
by Jennifer Crusie.
drey: Thank you for taking the time to visit again! Come back often!
Louisa: Thank you for having me here! It’s always fun to hang out at drey’s library.
Giveaway!
Ok y'all, put your thinking caps on. Who do you think should be cast in a TV series based on the Market trilogy? Up for grabs: why, the books themselves, of course! 1 autographed set (
Can't Stand the Heat, On the Steamy Side, and
Just One Taste)! US and Canada residents only. Comment with your ideas, include your email address so I can contact you if you win. Tweet for an extra entry (comment with your twitter status). Do it before 6:00pm CST September 23rd, and
good luck!!
Title: Elizabeth, Captive Princess 
is my favorite book, and that's an assertation I can't argue with. It's a book about a country whose name was taken away from it--no one not born there can hear it spoken, and the few who were born there are dying out--and about the fight to break the magic that took the name away. And I love it. I re-read it more often than any other book, and I *keep* loving it, which is quite a trick. The relationships in it break my heart, even after dozens of re-reads, and that's about as much as you can possibly ask from a book, I think.
, which both as individual books and as a whole are possibly my favorite books ever, too. The wonderful thing about them is I read them first when I was eight and now, nigh unto thirty years later...they're still as fantastic as they were when I was a kid.
