AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Karen Cote and Erotic Deception



Karen Cote



Tell us about yourself. How long have you been writing? I live in Southern California and I’m married to my best friend and promoter. I have a little black pug who is my critique partner (she gets jealous of my keyboard) and I began seriously writing in 2006.

How did you get from your day job to writing romance?  My husband’s wonderful belief in me (and his job-LOL)

Who is your favorite author(s) and why?  Too many to mention. Linda Howard, Rachel Gibson, Judith McNaught, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Karen Rose are a few. They all have tortured heroes who need to be saved.

Tell us about your new book.

Blurb: Told she’d never have children…abracadabra, she’s pregnant. Would the man she loved disappear when he found out? 

Her brother was dead. He’d practically raised her and stood by her during a miscarriage that left her barren and the sole person she’d had left in this world. How had Dr. Lily Delaney with a PhD in Psychology missed the psychotic signs of Anthony Capriccio, the Kansas City District Attorney and her ex-fiancé? Now at twenty-nine she was on the run to hide from the impending threats to her own life. But on the road to a safe secluded lake community, Lily crashes into the path of a new dangerous element, literally. One with deep blue eyes who totes a badge and carries a gun. 

After his experience as a detective in Kansas City, Missouri, Jet Walker enjoyed his life as sheriff of the quiet lake community, Windom Hills. However, when Lily Delaney literally crashes into his car and life, his world disrupts into chaos. Couldn’t the woman do anything normal? Between fighting to protect her and fighting against his growing attraction for her, the previous peace Jet had found was now falling apart. And how could he possibly trust another woman after the trick his ex-wife played in trying to pass off another man’s child as his?

Excerpt:

What in the world was going on? Rewind five years earlier and there’s the same symptoms at the onset of her one and only pregnancy. She hasn’t started her period yet either. Could her body be faking a pregnancy? She’d read somewhere that it happens to some women. What about a woman unable to have children? Only one way to find out.

Lily grabbed her cell phone and plugged in the number, accompanied by the usual cynicism. Keeping her same doctor after the miscarriage had been the one decent thing Fred’s mother had insisted upon. As the Bailer family doctor, his elite services were not available to just anyone. Lily chalked it up to Patricia Bailer’s guilt for covering up her son’s alcohol level the night he’d crashed the car.

Anticipating the phone to ring on the other side, instead Lily got a long beep and recording that the number was no longer in service. She tried again, but with the same result.

Her last appointment was just a few months ago, but she supposed the number could’ve been changed. She dialed information and was given the exact digits already tried.

Calling Fred’s mother was out of the question so Lily dialed his secretary instead. It gave her an excuse to get an update on Fred’s return.

What Fred’s secretary imparted made Lily forget all about his whereabouts. She sat in front of her laptop still numb at the revelation she’d learned. Although Fred’s secretary didn’t provide much information, the search engine had spit out a plethora of it.

Malpractice for taking bribes? Evidently, her doctor had been working from the pockets of his high-powered clients. He’d manipulated reports and given false information based on the periodic requests from a handful of people. Patrick and Barbara Bailer’s names were on that list.

Bile rose at the possibility that Lily had been one of their victims. She shoved aside the computer and barely made it to the bathroom. The cruelty was too horrible and too wonderful to contemplate.

Nevertheless, she had to know the extent of her doctor’s deception. After a hurried brushing of teeth and hair, Lily grabbed her keys for the short trip to the drugstore.

A short while later, once again in her bathroom and feeling enormously ill again, Lily couldn’t open her eyes. What if she tested positive? How strong would her disappointment be if she didn’t?

With heart in chest and non-prejudicial tears to the outcome in her throat, Lily peeked at the E.P.T.

One by one, her tears fell onto the plus sign.

“Oh Jerry,” she whispered. “Look what’s happened to us. What kind of monsters exists in this world?”

Lily placed a protective hand over her womb and a deep inhalation caught in her lungs. It burst out in a cacophony exhalation of sobbing.

She cried for Jerry, she cried for herself and she cried for this little human being inside of her. My baby. The one she was told would never exist.

What is the appeal of writing Romantic Suspense?  A little bit of spice (intrigue) mixed in with the hero and heroine’s journey outside the conflict of their relationship.

What kind of writing turns you off?   Wishy-washy, predictable no-conflict type.

What stops you from writing?  Outside pressure of “things to get done”

How have you shocked your readers?  I might have made some feel uncomfortable. I do have a scene with a worm where the “ick-factor” might be applied.

How do you get your ideas? What is your writing day like?  My ideas come late at night when all is quiet and I’m trying to get to sleep. My normal writing day would be a little time in the morning conversing with hubby, exercise, get him off to work and start writing. Life seems to have other plans lately, however.

Can you share 3 writing tips: 1/make time to write every day…no days off. 2/schedule a time for your muse to appear even if he/she doesn't always show up. It gives them a routine to follow (we're all creatures of habit; the muse is no different). 3/let go of those little darlings you like that is holding your story back.

Fill in this blank: My ideal fictional hero would think me gorgeous if I

Made him think I’m the boss, LOL. No…but a partnership certainly lends a hand to beautiful moments and respect.

What's your favorite dessert? Chocolate brownies and not the cake kind. I like moist ones with walnuts.