Romancing the Stove

Bestselling novelist Debbie Macomber was a cook long before she was a writer. And although the part-time Vero Beach resident writes three books a year and maintains a heavy travel schedule promoting her new releases, she still loves to cook.

To describe Debbie as a prolific author is an injustice to her actual literary production. Since she started writing in 1978, she has published close to 150 books – with over 100 million currently in print. These include the popular Cedar Cove series (a new novel comes out each year in September), the Blossom Street series, other romantic novels, a children’s book, Christmas novellas, and — not surprisingly – a cookbook.

Storytelling came easily to her, as did cooking. But Debbie had to develop both her writing and cooking skills to become a success – one in the eyes of her publishers and the other in the eyes and stomachs of her four children. As the Washington State native explains it, her mother, Connie Adler, was a “phenomenal cook” and Debbie had some catching up to do. “When the kids were little and we would be driving to Yakima where my parents lived, they would say, ‘Oh goody, we’re going to get Adler food!’”

Read the entire article in the February 2010 issue