MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Erika Leonard is known by her pen name E L James.

The British born former TV executive and mother of two first became popular for Twilight fan fiction.

Then “50 Shades of Grey” hit book stores in 2012.

“So the first comes [50 Shades] and it goes boom right?” asked CBS4’s Lisa Petrillo.

“Yes, my husband and I watched in awe. We haven’t even still now gotten our head around it. It was an exciting time,” James said.

“Did you and your husband blush afterward, how did that work?” asked Petrillo.

“We had lots of fun researching and I’ll leave it at that,” she said laughing.

Right away the next two followed making the 50 Shades trilogy one of the fasted selling paperbacks of all time.

When the films were released fans lines up to see the steamy scenes between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

“What did you think it was about the books that struck a nerve with predominately women all over the world?” asked Petrillo.

“The books I write about are about female desire and we don’t look at that very often, we don’t examine that very often and I think that’s why it struck a nerve because we have feelings, you know?” James responded.

“Have they done any research on the fact that maybe there was baby boom during that time [after your books came out]? It upped peoples sex lives for sure!” exclaimed Petrillo.

“I got a lot of letters saying thank you for my baby and other letters about spicing up peoples love lives,” she said.

Her new book The Mister, a Cinderella story for the 21st Century, is a passionate romance set overseas.

“What is like for you now with this new book, saying to fans to give this new thing a try?” asked Petrillo.

“It’s nerve-wracking, but these characters stayed with me for very long time,” said James. “I fell in love with Christian Grey and Anastasia and then I fell in love Maxim and Alessia. I think the fans will fall in love with them as well.”

“What’s going through your mind as to all you’ve been able to accomplish in this short time?”

“I think for me the thing I’m most proud of is to get women reading,” James said. “My books are for women and they are written by a woman. I love when women say I haven’t a read book for 37 years, or I started my first book club with you books, I think that’s what I’m going to take from all of this.”

The Mister is now out in bookstores everywhere.