1)  What did you like most (or least) about THE RED-HOT CAJUN? It has been said that in the best of novels, the authors make you smile AND cry.  In other words, even as the book tickles your funny bone, it should also tug at your heart strings.  Did TRHC do that for you?

2)  Sandra Hill books are always heavy on characterization, rather than plot.  Do you see where characterization works in this book...i.e., Tante Lulu as the eccentric healer, René as the serious environmentalist with a sense of humor, J.B. and Maddie as the well-intentioned wackos, Tee-John as the rascal, Val as the straight-laced lawyer with a hidden libido, etc.

3)  Also, especially in her Cajun books, the bayou setting in itself is a character.  Can you see how that would be?  How does setting add to the atmosphere of a book?  Think Janet Evanovich and her Trenton setting, Jennifer Crusie and her small town Ohio settings, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her Texas setting (some books), Deborah Smith and the South.

    In TRHC, reviewers have said that she did a good job of showing the environmental disaster happening in Southern Louisiana without it being intrusive to the romance.  Do you agree?

4)  Sandra's books are always heavy on humor and sizzle, no matter the genre.

    a.  How important is humor in the books you read?  In your life?  Sandra says that the vast majority of the fans who write to her comment on the humor in her books and how it helped them, either through hard times or just to relieve the stress of everyday living today.  Where does humorous fiction fit in your life?

    b.  Sex.  Okaaay, for those waiting for that question, Sandra promised that René's story would be especially hot because, frankly, René was very hot in the other stories.  Did she go too far, or not far enough?

5)  A lot of the plot in TRHC involves pre-judging people... Valerie thinking Rene was just a dumb, lazy Cajun, and René thinking Val was a Creole stiff.  Don't we all do that?  And wouldn't we get lots more out of life if we didn't?  For example, many single fans write and ask Sandra where they can find a Cajun (or Viking) man like those portrayed in her books.  She contends they are all around us; we just miss seeing them because we are looking at the exterior of the men around us.  Like that Reba McIntyre song/video where the guys is searching and about to give up about finding that special someone and here she was all the time right in front of him.

6)  How important is career satisfaction in your lives?  Would you (or have you) given up some job or promotion for the sake of a man, or your family?  How often do women do this?  Do men do it, too?  Was Val's decision in the end one that you agree with?  Or should she have dug in her heels and refused to give up her job in NYC?  Bottom line, how do you balance ambition against family (or love) in today's society? It probably would have been a no-brainer in our mother's day...women sacrificed for their men and families.  Aren't things different today?

7)  How do you feel about some of Tante Lulu's underhanded methods to get true loves for all her nephews?

8)  TRHC is the fourth of Sandra's Cajun books (THE LOVE POTION, TALL, DARK AND CAJUN, and THE CAJUN COWBOY).  How does the Cajun culture differ from the rest of Louisiana... from the rest of the world, for that matter?  Does her portrayal of the bayous make you want to visit there?

9)  Publishers Weekly loved this book, but they said that the ending was a bit overdone.  Do you agree?

10) Do you think there should be a separate story for Tee-John?