American author of romantic suspense thrillers and historical romance, Catherine Coulter celebrates her birth date of December 26, 1942, in Cameron County, Texas.

Coulter grew up on a horse ranch, her dad was a painter and singer, her mother was a retired concert pianist. Her grandmother died at the early age of 37; but she was also a writer.

Catherine would sit on her grandmother’s lap when she was three and her grandmother read to her. Her mom read to her until she was five and learned to read herself. Her first word was “comma” instead of “mama” and when she was 11years old, she wrote stories about Little Joe Cartwright, who she faithfully watched on the television show Bonanza.

She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and her master’s degree in early 19th Century European History from Boston College.

One night her husband who was a medical student at the time challenged her to write a book better than the one she was reading and together they plotted a gothic romance storyline. She wrote her novel in the evenings while working days as a speechwriter for a Wall Street executive. Her first novel, The Autumn Countess was published in 1978. By 1982 she earned enough to become a full-time writer and now has one historical romance and one suspense novel published each year. She spends 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at her computer writing each day.

She has approximately 97 books published several are New York Times bestsellers. Published in 1996 was her first book of her best-selling FBI Suspense Thriller Series, The Cove spent nine weeks on the New York Times list and has sold over five million copies.

Catherine and her husband live in Sausalito, Calif. Our library has 34 of her novels.

Happy New Year 2025 to everyone!