Jean Catherine Coulter (born December 26, 1942) is an American author of romantic suspense thrillers and
historical romance
Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Walter Scott helped popularize in the early 19th century.
Varieties Viking
These books feature Vikings during the Da ...
s who currently resides in northern California.
Biography
Early years
Coulter grew up on a horse ranch in
Cameron County, Texas
Cameron County, officially the County of Cameron, is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 421,017. Its county seat is Brownsville.
The county was founded in 1848 and is named for Capt ...
. Her grandmother, who died at the young age of 37, was also a writer. Her father was a painter and singer, and her mother is a retired concert pianist. Coulter wrote her first two novels, fifteen pages each, when she was fourteen. While a freshman at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, Coulter wrote poetry. After earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, Coulter attended
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
and earned a master's degree in early 19th-century European history.
She took a job as a speechwriter for a
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
executive. As her own husband was then a medical student, she spent many of her evenings alone, reading romance novels. One night when they were home together, she found herself in the middle of a particularly bad book and threw it across room, asserting that even she could do better. Her husband challenged her to prove herself, and the two spent the weekend plotting out a storyline for a gothic romance. She wrote the novel in the evenings.
Writing career
When Coulter finished writing her novel she sent it to an editor at Signet. Three days later Signet offered her a three-book contract. That first novel, ''The Autumn Countess'', was published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. Coulter generally publishes one historical romance and one suspense novel each year, and has been busily rewriting many of her earlier Regency romances to turn them into longer historical romances.
Personal life
Coulter sits down at her computer every morning at 6:30 a.m. to review her email before beginning writing at 7:30 a.m. She normally finishes writing by 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Coulter lives in
Sausalito, California
Sausalito (Spanish language, Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, California, Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, California ...
#''Season of the Sun'' Penguin/NAL/Onyx
#''Lord of Hawkfell Island'' Berkley/Jove
#''Lord of Raven's Peak'' Berkley/Jove
#''Lord of Falcon Ridge'' Berkley/Jove
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...
# written with
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...
# written with
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...
# written with
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...
# written with
J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' bestselling American author. She writes Domestic Noir, domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medi ...