Charlotte Stein, How To Help A Hungry Werewolf, Cinnamon Danish Hot Chocolate,

This is the last witch, I promise!  Charlotte Stein is top-tier romance. Years ago I asked her how she kept the romantic and sexual tension in her books at such an excruciating point.  She gives her insightful answer in the podcast...  if you love romance and haven't read Charlotte - do yourself a favor and pick up How To Help A Hungry Werewolf. It has her delightfully absurd world-building and delicious, delicious tension.

Find Charlotte:
https://www.instagram.com/charlotte.stein
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCharlotteStein
https://x.com/charlotte_stein
https://www.tiktok.com/@chazstein

Buy How To Help A Hungry Werewolf HERE

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Transcript

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Molly Fader (00:29):

Hello everybody. Welcome to Day Drinking with Authors, the podcast series where I pick a book, the author picks a drink, and we discuss both. I'm your host Molly Fader, and this believe it or not, is the last of my witch books. And I realised that I was so obsessed with them this fall because of the election, and I believed that women were going to save America and that did not happen. And so today, one of the things that's really been resonating with me is something that Linda Cohen Loman said in my interview with her about her beautiful book, the Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, which was that witches we're just educated women. And so today is a bad day, but I know that this is true. We are going to need books now more than ever, and we are going to need a lot more witches. And today I'm talking to one of my very favourite witches and romance authors, Charlotte Stein, about her book, how to Help a Hungry Werewolf. Now, Charlotte Stein is one of my favourite romance authors writing today, and my favourite of her books almost shouldn't work. She pushes everything right to the edge of believability or absurdity and holds onto them with her fantastic characters and their specific and crushing longing. Her characters are real and they are horny, and I am so excited to talk to her today.
(01:57)
I'm going to read the back cover copy because my mom likes that and it's in the first line of this back cover copy. So here we go. What we do in the Shadows with the small town feels of Gilmore Girls in this swoon worthy romance that leave readers delightfully cosy and hungry for more. When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Holbrook to clear out her late grandmother's ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can't imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again until she unearths. The real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around. He's an actual werewolf who's certain she's the witch that will ease his suffering, but Cassie isn't sure if she can trust him again.
(02:44)
So Seth offers a pact. He will teach her all about her undiscovered magic and she will brew the potions. He needs no feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal, totally doable until they get hit with a do or dime mating bond. And now the heat is rising in between fights with former bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted. Charlotte, welcome to authors. Hello. Hello, Molly. It's so good to have you here. You have been one of my romance heroes for the last 10 years. Is that possible? Charlotte Stein (03:25):

Yeah, yeah, I think that's as long as I've, yeah, it's definitely like I've known you for that long, I feel like at least. Molly Fader (03:32):

Yeah, I mean, time is weird, but I feel like you blew into the scene and just I couldn't get enough of your extremely, the knack you have with characters and longing and horniness like your special sauce. For sure. Charlotte Stein (03:56):

Yeah, I mean, those are my favourite things really. Why bother with that other shit, huh? Yeah, that's all my favourite things, but yeah. Yeah, it's going back a long time now. I mean, I started in, was it 2009? Oh my gosh, it was 2009. It was that long ago. Yeah, and I remember very distinctly, I dunno if this was before I actually knew you or we'd ever spoken or anything like that, but I think I remember very distinctly seeing your cover for, I'm going to get the title wrong here, everything I Left Unsaid. Molly Fader (04:34):

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a book I Charlotte Stein (04:36):

Wrote. I always remember seeing the cover of that and thought what it would be like to have such a wonderful cover and such a wonderful book out there. Listen, Molly Fader (04:46):

If we're going to talk about covers, how did you feel? For those who don't know, you get your cover from your editor with the subject line just says, tell me what you think, then you open it up. How did you feel when you saw this cover and did it take a lot of variations? Well Charlotte Stein (05:05):

See for the werewolf book? Well, for all my books, my current publisher, it's been the same thing, which has been a very, very different experience for me. It used to be exactly as you said, Molly, as you know, that it would be, you'd suddenly get it in your inbox, here's your cover, this is what it's like. Molly Fader (05:23):

Love it, hate it. We don't care Charlotte Stein (05:26):

Pretty much. You couldn't ask for changes if the hero was all wrong on the cover. Tough look, basically. But this is the first time I've ever experienced a publisher saying to me, okay, say what you want, which you usually do get, but then they come back with sketches and things like that, and the excitement of having a sketch and being able to say, oh, could we change this and can we do that? It's just been the most incredible thing. Experience. Yeah, it's just been absolutely amazing. And both with When Grumpy Met and with this and my big fake marriage, which is coming out, seeing the sketches for the first time was jaw dropping and then seeing what they actually look like and getting to say, oh, could we have this cool font? And now I've got the same font on all my books. It's just amazing. It is. To have a cover like this on Werewolf is just, Molly Fader (06:17):

Yeah, it's super beautiful and he's super dreamy. He's a real hunk. And I feel like in some of the cartoon covers, you don't get that. And in the drama around cartoon covers, your book suits a cartoon cover, don't you think? Particularly this one? Charlotte Stein (06:37):

Yeah. Yeah. I think, well in particular is very much, it's the kind of cover that I always hope for because it looks to me like old Christopher Pike books and things like, oh my God. You know what I mean? Yes, I do. It's a little bit kind of movie ish or movies from the eighties that you would see a VHS box in the video store kind of thing, which I was thrilled about. Absolutely thrilled. Yeah. Molly Fader (07:04):

Was Christopher Pike a formative reading experience in your childhood? Charlotte Stein (07:08):

Oh gosh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Oh, massively so, massively so, because I really loved horror when I was very, very young and I went from point horror, I dunno if you remember the Point Horror Molly Fader (07:22):

Series. Charlotte Stein (07:22):

Yeah. It was all these horror books. Al Stein did Summons and things like that, and I remember then I moved that from that to Christopher Pike, and then it went to Stephen King after Christopher Pike. Molly Fader (07:33):

It was like the Gen X progression, Charlotte Stein (07:37):

I guess. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm right on the cusp of Gen X. I'm sort of like, what was it called When you're a Xal or something like that? I'm right on the cusp of both of them, best of both worlds. Molly Fader (07:53):

And the other thing that I really liked about Christopher Pike is that you always had a bit of a romance. There was always a serious longing and you'd get a hand touch and you might this, and it was a payoff. Charlotte Stein (08:08):

Oh, yeah, absolutely. One of the things I absolutely loved about the Point horror books and then the Christopher Pike books was that kind of romance element. There was a lot of teen love, all things like that, but there was that extra bit in it of danger and horror and all kinds of stuff, which is always what I've absolutely loved. I've always wanted to write a paranormal novel like this where I get to have all the feels, all the romance, all the yearning, the loving, the horniness, all that kind of stuff, but then have the scares, a bit of scariness, a bit of spookiness and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Molly Fader (08:43):

Well, we're not here to talk about RL Stein weirdly, but that leads me great segue, Charlotte. The world building in this book feels like you had so much fun. Charlotte Stein (08:57):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Just incredible fun. And what amazed me when writing it is how much of it I would start seeing it chapters ahead. Exactly. Different things that I wanted to put into it, and how they just kind of were there, which was quite surprising to me. I planned a lot of it out, but there were different elements that I was sudden, this has to be in it, I feel I'm feeling this. The microwave, you're talking microwave, microwave, microwave. The microwave was just kind of like a one-off joke at first, and then he just kind of took a life of his own. He just became his own thing. Molly Fader (09:39):

I feel like that's something that happens when the author is fully seeing their world, and you realise when you read a book like this versus reading another book where maybe the author didn't buy in, is that as a reader, you can tell those little moments that happen about the world. You brought a lot of life to it. Charlotte Stein (10:04):

Yeah. Yeah. I think the thing is, people talk a lot about a plotter versus a pan and don't really understand how a pants can just do it, but a lot of it is visualising a lot of it beforehand, seeing things playing out in your head and thinking, right, this is the scene that I want to happen, and long before you ever write it. And it is kind of a similar thing, and it's also, but it makes it, like you say, it's very easy to visualise everything or to introduce new things because it's all kind of there already in your head a little bit, I guess. Does that sound strange? Molly Fader (10:43):

No, I totally get it. The question I want to ask is, does that happen to you every time? Charlotte Stein (10:49):

Yeah. I would say pretty much, Molly Fader (10:50):

Oh, screw you, Sean. I feel like when that happens to me, it's such a gift. Otherwise I'm just plotting through a dark room. Okay, what happens next? What happens next? But when, I'm glad to hear that happens for you. Charlotte Stein (11:04):

Yeah. I mean, I'm never going to say that I don't get lost sometimes, and I'm not quite sure what this bit is or this bit is, but usually I've kind of almost run mini films of most of the stuff in my head a little bit, like certain bits that I really want to get to or really loved and I'm really passionate about. And I think that's part of how or why a lot of my books come across as quite full of yearning and passion. It's because I've already got those juicy bits there, I guess. I dunno. Molly Fader (11:39):

Well, I think it's what you think of first. I think where a lot of authors maybe try to shoehorn it in or right up to that point. Those are the scenes you're really thinking of.
(11:51)
Yes. Oh yeah. Can you talk to us a little bit about, speaking of longing and world building, your hero's Delicious, Seth, the werewolf is delicious, and one of the things that I loved about it is how you played with what we consider standard werewolf canon. And in your book, every time Seth changes, he changes back and he's a bit broken. Bones are in the wrong place, skin is ravaged, and of course, why wasn't that happening all the time? That only makes sense. Can you talk about how you started to build up the werewolf world and the witch world in the book? Charlotte Stein (12:38):

Yeah, I mean things like that, the werewolf thing of how bits are broken and things like that, that comes purely from sort of films that I've liked or TV shows that I've liked and things like that. Books that I've liked where I've always kind of thought, what happens to everything else though? Do you know when they change back? What happens to all the bits that were crooked? It comes from that. Purely from that, and a lot of the world building and things that I put in my books is just things of me asking questions about other books, TV shows, movies. What if this other thing would happen? How did this work? I don't think this would work. Maybe it should be this way instead. It is always things like that for me, for sure. That's what gives me the bare bones of world building and things I want to introduce to a world. Molly Fader (13:33):

Oh, I love that. There are two things that the book hangs on, and both are proper romance tropes, things as a reader, I love, one is the hero is keeping a secret from the heroine, and the other one is they are faded mates. And so for those who maybe haven't read a Faded Mate Romance is that you can have the worst enemies, but if they are faded to be partners, they have to have sex. And if there was ever a trope for you faded names, is it, are you like, why haven't I been writing this for a million years? You're so right. How do you know I'm a fan? Charlotte Stein (14:23):

That's wild. But yeah, that's my exact jam. My whole jam is the idea of that shouldn't a terrible idea, but somehow you have to. Somehow it's unavoidable. It is just like, oh my God, I love that. I love that. Molly Fader (14:44):

Yeah, because you get to go through the whole thing, the no we're not, or is he feeling the same thing I'm feeling? And then get the, well, we'll do it once and it will be over. You get to go through the whole romance decision making process. Charlotte Stein (14:59):

Yeah. And you get it to be, oh gosh, it's so much fun to write. I've always loved writing fad mates and sex pollen type of stuff because it's just so, yeah, you get to have all the kind of yearning and the horniness and all the stuff, but at the same time, you can still build that kind of structure of the feelings changing. The character acts. You can build it all within it while still getting at the same, it used to be kind of an old trick that I would do when I wrote Erotic Romance and things like that where the editors would always want sex upfront. You had to have sex immediately. And I was lucky that I would always, I was very good at thinking of ways to get the sex up upfront, but not ruin the arcs. And F Makes is just one of the greatest ways you can do that. It's so much fun. Molly Fader (15:58):

One of the things that also about this book, which, so I'm going to ask you a two part, well, not, it's not a two part question, but these are funnier books. These are lighter, slightly books than you. So did you find that hard? Did you find it easy? Are you happy to be EAs in that way? Charlotte Stein (16:19):

What I've discovered when I first started writing, when Gru at Sunshine before I wrote this book, what I discovered pretty quickly is that it is something that it was very freeing to write in a way that I've not really felt before. I guess because one of my main romance inspirations is sitcoms, is the romance in sitcoms, and it's always inspired my sense of humour and all that kind of thing. And I've always felt a little bit restrained in how much humour I could put in things and a feeling of if I did too much, that it would put off the audience that I was capturing, I guess. So it was very, very freeing. But at the same time, it made me realise too, it renewed my valuing of writing something more serious when I switched back to writing, because I'm writing something else that I can't talk about right now. When I switched back to writing something more serious, less humour in it, that was also really refreshing. It gave me kind of a balance, I guess. Kind of a renewed appreciation for both of them and feeling of, yeah, I feel very fortunate about that. Molly Fader (17:39):

Yeah, I mean, it's incredible mean. Well, one of the things I want to talk to you about is your publishing journey. You've been on my bookshelf and on my e-reader for 10 years, but you've written for small publishers. You did some self-publishing, and then you had a long spell where you were very honest about you were going for a big, you were trying to get back into a publishing contract. You wanted the brass ring. So can you talk to the listeners about how that journey felt from the inside and what you think made the difference? Some authors who are listening, so what do you feel like made the difference for you to get these suddenly quite a few contracts? Charlotte Stein (18:32):

I think in some ways I'm reluctant sometimes to say how this happened, because I feel like I'm very much an outlier, and it's very much to do with my own fear, because I still struggle with the idea that I was ever good enough for a bigger contract for trade deals and all that kind of thing. And it meant a lot of the time that I didn't try. That's the main thing with me. This won't be the case with everybody, but it meant that I didn't try. And I just very, very gradually built up a career and got very lucky with finding a readership and all that kind of thing, and having some books that hit off without having that kind of major trade deal. So by the time I did Dare and I basically dared because of books like Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dad and Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbett, because I saw books like that that were mine, things that I knew that I could write, that I thought, right, I've got to try enough's enough, I've got to try. But what I didn't realise is that people had kind of been waiting for me to try a little bit. Oh, I love it. I love it. Yes, Molly Fader (19:47):

Charlotte. Charlotte Stein (19:48):

Yeah, because I'd built this whole thing up. It's not just the fact that that just fell in my lap or anything like that. I had built this thing up and a lot of it was luck. But yeah, when I actually submitted, when Grumpy Met Sunshine, when I went on Sub with it terrified, I had three editors get back to me within a week, within two weeks to say we're interested, which is very unusual. So that's what happened. That was, Molly Fader (20:21):

Well, I feel like in a lot of ways as a fan and the idea that people were sort of waiting, but I think it's, it feels like your wholehearted embracing of this zany, quirky, absurd characters
(20:40)
Longing, how you keep them apart. And the Horniness, A million years ago, I used to do workshops on how to write sex and sexual conflict, and I asked a lot of authors, how do they approach sex? My favourite authors, how do they approach it? And I approached you and I used your quote, I've used it forever. And do you have any idea? Would you know at all? I have no memory of this at all. So what you said was on one level, the simplest thing, but it's so profound what you said. You've got to make them horny for something and then not give it to them. And it's like the permission, you give permission for a character to want something specific, want the heroine to sleep over at their house, or to want to go on a date or to want to kiss on the lips or to want something filthy or whatever it is. And either they're scared to say it or the other person won't give it. Just keep that sustained tension. Speaker 1 (21:56):

And Molly Fader (21:56):

It's harder than you think. Charlotte Stein (22:00):

It sometimes is very difficult, but yeah, that's basically it. That's how you do it. That is a big trick to how I create tension in my books if people think I've got chemistry intention. That's how it's so simple. It's essentially, yeah, it's essentially like it's using the character and who they are against them. It's kind of like they're horny for this thing and they're thinking of ways that it cannot be theirs. And a lot of those ways are, they've got to be internal too. I think the mistake that is quite easy to make is to make a lot of external issues and why you can't. And I think that that takes away a little bit sometimes from the tension, because it's how people feel that really kind of pushes it. That puts you in their heads, that puts you in them and makes you feel it too. I guess Molly Fader (23:03):

I Charlotte Stein (23:03):

Would say. Molly Fader (23:05):

I did feel like this book, how To Help A Hungry Werewolf was kind of your most plotty book. You have a lot of plot going, you're building quite a big world. How did you find the plotting? How involved are your editors when you're handing something in? Is it very similar to what comes out publication wise, or does it go through quite a bit of change? Charlotte Stein (23:33):

I mean, I'm trying to think. With Werewolf. With Werewolf, it was a little bit of, I had more sex scenes towards the end, and some of that got cut to balance it out a little bit. Molly Fader (23:54):

I can't remember. Where are those sex? Have you given them to your newsletter list? You would like to read those. You Charlotte Stein (24:01):

Should. I cut out a whole scene where, I dunno if I can describe it on here. You can very, this is not a family show has heard of Morning Glory Milking Farm. Oh my. It was just say that it was very, we need a certain thing for this potion to work, and I think it's that. So yeah, I cut that scene and there was a bit of, I think my editor is very much, I wouldn't say that she's super messing around with anything or changing anything or anything like that, but at the same time, she's very thorough and very kind of like, this will work. These are the kinds of things that I think should do all the stuff that you need, essentially. Yeah, she's a great editor. Very, very good. Oh, that's Molly Fader (25:00):

Great. Do you feel like you're getting the experience that you dreamt of? Charlotte Stein (25:05):

Yes. Molly Fader (25:06):

Oh my gosh. Isn't that awesome? Charlotte Stein (25:07):

Very much so. I mean, every author Dreams of being on TV and things like that, but I knew that stuff like that would not happen. This is feeling like this is my dream, really. To have a book that I know that would sustain me and things like that and that I can make a living from and stuff is just, yeah, that was always my dream. Just I said on Threads, there was a thing going around asking a question, would you rather have a massive bestseller or a series of moderately successful books? And I answered that. Moderately successful books that every single time that people don't realise how amazing it is to have a series of moderately successful books. Molly Fader (26:03):

Yeah, the being a Mid List author has been my bread and butter for 20 plus years. Charlotte Stein (26:10):

I was going to say, well, I mean, you are more successful than me, Molly, but you coming, Molly Fader (26:16):

You're coming, you and your werewolves, and when Grumpy Men, sunshine are coming. So there's going to be more in this series. This is like you've created a world where she has a supernatural haven. Her grandmother's old house is a supernatural haven. So what else is coming Charlotte Stein (26:37):

The next book in the series? Well, my editor is just finishing up with the next book in the Now it's finished. It's all done so far. She said, fingers crossed. She's really loving it. So that's good. And that's dealing with a desperate demon. I've just seen cover sketches for that, and they're amazing. Yeah, really excited about that. And that's basically it. Is Nancy the bookstore owner? Molly Fader (27:05):

Oh, there we go. Charlotte Stein (27:06):

Yeah. Yeah. It's her and a man. She kind of accidentally, when she was younger, someone from hell as like her ideal soulmate, but neither of them, she doesn't know that and he's very embarrassed that he's not the right kind of soulmate for her. And Shenanigans ensue. Molly Fader (27:29):

Oh, I can't wait. And then is there more in the Grumpy Sunshine world too? Charlotte Stein (27:33):

Yeah, my big fat fake marriage that's available to pre-order now, that's out March the 11th next year. And then the Desperate Demon will be October the seventh, I believe. Molly Fader (27:46):

Oh man. You're starting to get busy and then now you've got a secret project that you definitely can't tell us about. Charlotte Stein (27:55):

It's not been announced or anything, but yeah, there's something I'm working on something cool that might involve Toothy. Toothy people. Molly Fader (28:08):

I get it. I get what you're saying. A question I want to ask you is, if people have read your book and they are loving, faded mates, do you have any recommendations? Charlotte Stein (28:20):

Oh gosh. Molly Fader (28:20):

For other authors? Charlotte Stein (28:24):

Oh no, you put me on the spot. I can never think of recommendations. Molly Fader (28:27):

Oh, I know. I'm sorry. We Charlotte Stein (28:29):

No, it's okay. Okay. Lemme think. Lemme think. Faded mates. Faded mates. I know there's things that I love that I like that all I can think about is Ferry V, but I don't even know. I can't even remember if that has faded mates in it, but Ferry V by Emma Holly, I'll say. Molly Fader (28:45):

Oh, Emma Holly? Yeah. Have you read Kate C Wells, her faded Charlotte Stein (28:50):

Mates? Yeah, I believe I've read something. Molly Fader (28:54):

They are not funny, but I think you would like them because they are longing horniness for days. Charlotte Stein (29:01):

I feel certain that somebody has recommended that to me and that tells me why. Yeah. Molly Fader (29:06):

Yeah. It would suit you for sure. It would suit you, for sure. Well, Charlotte, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Charlotte Stein (29:15):

No, thank you, Molly. It's been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so Molly Fader (29:19):

Much. I'm so delighted to see all the success, and I can't wait to read everything you have coming out. Charlotte Stein (29:25):

Thank you. Thank you so much, Molly. Molly Fader (29:27):

Thank you. And to everybody at home, read a book. Stay safe, have a, oh, we didn't even talk about the drink. Okay, really quick. Oh man. We got right into RL Stein and we forgot Charlotte. Tell us about the drink we're having today. Charlotte Stein (29:47):

It's cinnamon Danish hot chocolate from Hotel Chocolate, and it is absolutely as delicious as it sounds. Molly Fader (29:54):

So it's hotel chocolate in the uk? Charlotte Stein (29:57):

It is, yeah. It's a pretty big chocolate store. Mostly just all chocolate. There's no hotel involved. I still to this day have no idea where it's called Hotel Chocolate. But yeah, they do a Danish cinnamon hot chocolate, and it's delicious. Molly Fader (30:12):

Is it super cinnamon forward? Charlotte Stein (30:15):

It's quite sweet. Not a cinnamon as I can take it, but I think most people would like it. I like my mouth to be burned out. My cinnamon. Yeah. Molly Fader (30:27):

Oh, Charlotte. Okay. Everybody out there. Stay safe. Read a book, get some cinnamon hot chocolate, Charlotte. Thanks for listening or being here. Thanks.