Susan chats with author Beth Kendrick about Already Home and Beth’s latest book, The Bake-Off.

Beth Kendrick is the author of The Bake-Off, Second Time Around, and five other women’s fiction novels.

Beth: Okay, before we start this interview, I’d like to take a moment to talk to you about your Christmas card this year, which featured your adorable poodle, Nikki. Dressed up in an elaborate chiffon holiday neckpiece. Featuring jingle bells and ribbon. You and I both know that this is not an isolated incident. Oh yes, I’ve seen the photos of Miss Nikki making love to the camera in Halloween costumes and baseball jerseys. I think everyone here deserves to know the truth: does Nikki have a stylist? Or do poodles have an innate French flair for accessorizing?

Susan: Yes, Nikki actually does have a personal stylist, a friend who sends her a new outfit at least once a year. Nikki is a star. Sigh. It’s getting to be a problem. She was born in a playpen in Albuquerque, but has grown so used to attention that she demands it. When she decides it’s time to cuddle, nothing will deter her. She bats my hands away from the keyboard with her nose. Like everyone else who meets her, I have fallen under her spell. I’m helpless to resist.

Beth: Who gets more fan mail—you or Nikki?

Susan: I get more, but hers tastes better.

Beth: Already Home is technically women’s fiction, which means that in addition to the romance storyline, there’s a truckload of family drama. Oh, how I love family drama. The fictional kind, I mean. Give us a few hints about the book. What’s your favorite scene?

Susan: The story revolves around Jenna, recently divorced and in the midst of an unexpected career change. So her life is already in a state of flux when she’s hit with the sudden appearance of her birth parents who are, to put it mildly, nothing like Jenna’s “real” (aka, adoptive) parents. Jenna was raised in a conservative Texas town by loving but traditional parents. Her birth parents are throwbacks to the 1970s, vegetarian hippies who get messages from "the Universe" and have an unnatural dislike of dairy.

One of the scenes I love best takes place when Jenna travels with them to their home on a California vineyard. There, she meets siblings and other family, and she gets a glimpse of the life she would have lived if they hadn’t given her up for adoption all those years ago. What I love about this scene is that this is where Jenna’s heart begins to open. First impressions can be wrong… or at least incomplete.

But as Jenna is getting to know her birth family, she can’t help wondering why they seem to think they have to dive into deep family intimacy immediately. What’s the urgency? Why can’t they let their feelings develop over time?

Beth: Jenna, the main character in Already Home, has invited Amy and Linnie, the main characters from my novel The Bake-Off, over for a dinner party. Discussion topics will include: dysfunctional families, cooking disasters, and truly unfortunate dating choices. What is your heroine cooking, and what can my characters bring?

Susan: Jenna has discovered the joy of fusion cuisine. In the book, she experiments with Mexican-Indian fusion and comes up with a fabulous recipe for Curry Chicken Enchiladas. Served, of course, with chips and salsa and hummus and pita. As for your characters, they can bring dessert. It’ll have to be apple pie, since they are big old bake-off frauds and that is really the only recipe they can make, right?

Beth: Well, yes. But they prefer the term “counterfeit confectionistas” to “frauds”, thank you very much. Since Jenna is a sous chef who wants to open her own cooking store, I assume you had to slog through hours of torturous research at places like Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table. (These are the sacrifices you make for your art!) What is your favorite kitchen implement or gadget?

Susan: Two words: wine key.

Beth: If you had a reality show, what would it be called, and what would a typical episode be like?

Susan: I adore watching reality shows, and I’m not even embarrassed to admit it. (Okay, I’m a little embarrassed.) They’re just so grotesque. The situations are staged, but the emotions are real, and I’m an emotion junkie. But I would never go on a reality show because I don’t want people to feed off of my emotions, other than in my books, of course.

Beth: I know, I know, but humor me. If you did…?

Susan: I actually do have a reality dating show in ONLY MINE, an August release in my Fool’s Gold series of romance novels. It doesn’t go well.

Beth: So in addition to being talented and witty, you’re prolific as all get-out. How many books do you have coming out in 2011? Five? Eighteen? What gives? Have you somehow figured out how to clone yourself or survive without sleep? I demand to know your secret. And don’t give me that song and dance about “hard work” and “self-discipline.”

Susan: I have four books coming out in 2011. Already Home in April, and then I’ll continue the Fool’s Gold series in August, September, and October with Only Mine, Only Yours, and Only His. The Hendrix triplets will all fall in love this year.

My secret? I have the attention span of a gnat. If I don’t write quickly, I get bored. I start thinking about the next story I want to write, and the next one after that. I don’t lack for ideas, so I have to be disciplined about completing each one. Working on the next one is my reward for finishing the current project.

Readers can enjoy extended excerpts of my books in the Members Only section at www.susanmallery.com. It’s free to join and takes about ten seconds.

New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery has entertained millions of readers with her funny, emotional stories of finding family wherever you can. Publishers Weekly says, “Mallery’s prose is luscious and provocative,” and Booklist says, “… novels don’t get much better than Mallery’s expert blend of emotional nuance, humor and superb storytelling.”

Susan: When you interviewed me about my book Already Home, we discussed my poodle, Nikki, and her fashionista ways. Well, Nikki wants me to tell you that she thinks your dogs are scandalously underdressed. She’d like to know when she’ll be allowed to give Friday and Roxie a makeover?

Beth: Well, you have to understand that not every dog possesses Nikki’s ladylike sophistication. Roxie and Friday are both mutts from the pound. High fashion isn’t really their thing—Friday would no doubt insist on wearing a sideways trucker hat and stained sweatpants. For him, being naked is a thousand times more dignified than being dressed. Roxie, on the other hand, is as bit high-strung and has an unfortunate tendency to eat everything that crosses her path. She would make haute couture into a chew toy. But if Nikki ever needs some artfully shredded denim, Roxie’s the perfect dog for the job.

Susan: So your new book is called The Bake-Off, which leads me to believe the storyline involves baking.

Beth: That’s right.

Susan: I hate to bring this up, but didn’t you once screw up brownies from a mix because you forgot to turn on the oven?

Beth: What are you saying? Are you saying that just because I can’t work my own oven that I’m not Top Chef material?

Susan: Yeah, pretty much.

Beth: Well, that’s why it’s called fiction.

Susan: When you first sold this book, you mentioned something about being inspired by a miniature lawnmower. I’m not really seeing a direct connection between baking and lawn care equipment. Care to clarify?

Beth: Oh, yeah, the lawnmower! I almost forgot about that. I got the idea for this book at 1:30 a.m. the night before my toddler’s birthday party. I was trying—and failing—to decorate a sheet cake with a tiny red lawnmower and piped green icing to look like grass. The Cake Boss I am not, and I was tired and frustrated and thinking: I can’t do this—I quit. Kid won’t remember it anyway. But then I thought, You know, if someone offered me a million dollars, I would figure out a way to make this cake beautiful. And I was off and running with the idea of two estranged sisters who can’t bake at all, but are desperate for money and recognition. So they enter a family recipe and go for the gold at a national, high-stakes dessert championship, even though they’ve been feuding for years and can barely boil water.

Susan: How did the lawnmower cake turn out?

Beth: Um—(clears throat)-- awesome. Next question!

Susan: Who would you rather have as your celebrity baking partner, Snooki or Kanye West?

Beth: Jon Hamm.

Susan: Did you do a lot of research for this book?

Beth: Girl, you don’t even know. I plunged into the first draft full of swagger and bravado: “It’s just pie! How hard could it be?!” Well. As anyone who’s ever made a pie crust from scratch will tell you, it’s not for the faint of heart. I interviewed a pastry chef, along with a woman who had won several national cooking contests. Turns out, competitive baking is a vibrant subculture unto itself, like beauty pageants or dog shows. Bursting with potential for scandal, rivalry and drama--like Melrose Place with muffin tins. Or at least, that’s how it is in my book. You know me and my wild imagination.

I also enrolled in a weekend baking bootcamp. That was humbling.

Susan: I’ll bet.

Beth: Yeah, I was definitely the problem child in that class. But you know what? I can make pie now. Lots of other stuff, too. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I baked everything from scratch—pumpkin pie, dinner rolls, cheesecake. I wouldn’t be caught dead making brownies from a mix now.

Susan: What about macaroni and cheese from a box?

Beth: Of course I still make that. My muse thrives on carbs and artificial orange coloring.

Susan: Jenna, the main character of Already Home, has to deal with some truly outrageous behavior from her ex. How would Amy and Linnie, your heroines from The Bake-Off, advise her?

Beth: Well, Amy is one of those freaks of nature who’s still buddy-buddy with all her ex-boyfriends and swaps baby photos with them on Facebook, so she’s useless here. Linnie, on the other hand, has a genius IQ—not that this helps her when she’s trying to make piecrust from scratch--and she will use it for evil if she’s crossed. I’m sure she’d be happy to help Jenna freeze her ex’s bank account, credit cards, and email. That should keep him too busy to bother her for awhile.

Susan: Every writer has themes and central conflicts they come back to again and again in their work. What would you say is the message at the heart of this book?

Beth: When all else fails, add more butter.