It's all in the Collaboration

It’s been two months between posts and I have no real excuses other than, Christmas shopping, Christmas eating and partying, traveling for New Year and more eating and partying. There is a theme going on here and it’s about to stop. There is only one box of chocolates left in the freezer where I hid them. I do not want them! Really!

When I was not working on the edits of The Silk Shroud I was reading. Collaborating with Liz Lindsay as Jamie Tremain. I am drawn to other authors who do the same. Co- authoring is on the rise and ‘big name’ authors are getting into the act. Writing a novel is a mammoth task and sharing the load makes sense, with a few ground rules.

The books I read during party season were all co-authored.

 Melodie Campbell, an award-winning novelist, and author of ten books, teamed up with Cynthia St-Pierre and created the Fashionation with Mystery Books series published by Imajin Books  
Cynthia is also an award-winning author and marketing professional.

     The first in this series came out in 2012. A Purse To Die For. Anyone who knows me can testify that fashion is of great interest to me and I would rather have a new purse than new shoes. But the book languished on my ‘to be read pile’ until the next in the series was published last year. Killer Necklace. I like necklaces too.

     I am hooked on this series. Great characters and sexy, funny dialogue. Is there another in the works ladies?

"A Killer Necklace does not disappoint...hard to put down..."

Lorna Gray, author of Finding Daylight

Award-winning author Gloria Ferris and debut author Donna Warner  have entered the collaboration stakes with their novella thriller Targeted published by Black Opal Books.  Also available at Amazon.

This thriller has it all. An exciting ride to a beautiful Carribean resort. Blue sea and sky and sizzling sandy beaches, handsome men and those mahitos are to die for. Likable well thought out characters had me zipping along with this tension- filled story. I stayed up until the early morning hours to read the conclusion. Hope to see more of Peidmont and Blair.

  

Two authors I have read over many years are the fabulous Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. 

Both prolific writers having written many books together and alone. I follow the Special Agent A.X.L. ( Aloysius) Pendergast series. Aloysius is a law unto himself.

 

2013

       White Fire is my abosolute favourite.

"The best Pendergast book yet- a collision between past and present that will leave you breathless. " -- Lee Child

2014

"Heart pumping action and an intricate plot that pits a vengeful killer against the most interesting character in fiction". -- Suspense magazine.

2015

 I will get to this one shortly.

With today's technology, collaborators do not have to be in the same room to write let alone be near one another.

Melodie Campbell lives in a different town but the same province as Cynthia St-Pierre. Gloria Ferris and Donna Warner are within spitting distance (well maybe 10-15 km's away) and Liz Lindsay and I are 70 km's apart. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child don't live in the same State. Douglas divides his time between New Mexico or Maine and Lincoln lives in New Jersey.

For Liz and I, using email, Googe Drive to share documents, and Skype is our method of working together.Once or twice a month for a face to face, with lots of coffee and reinforcements also works. 
You do what works for you.  Liz and I had a great day yesterday and have a handle on the edits going forward. One step closer to see The Silk Shroud in print.We'll keep you posted.

Jamie Tremain's calendar is being filled for author interviews  and guests on the blog for 2016. You can look forward to learning all about Dee Willson's debut book A Keepers Truth.

The rest of the schedule TBD.

Talk soon,
Slainte,
Pam

The Day After

I second all that Liz has to say on her last post. Bloody Words /2012 was awesome. Putting a face to a name from either FB or a book you had read was neat. The panel discussions were great and one of my favourite sessions was the three hour’s we spent with Cheryl Freedman on self –editing. www.crimewriterscanada.com/bios/members-lists. The subject matter was just what we need to get our book ready to roll. It helped that I could hear what was being said. I use a personal microphone and receiver that doesn’t always cooperate. Sitting through three hours at the banquet was difficult but I just laughed when everyone else did and smiled a lot. I could hear Linwood Barclay’s jokes and stories but I missed most of the punch lines from Rick Bletcha who was a super MC.

I was going to add some pictures here today but for some reason I can’t get them attached from camera to computer. I only took a few at the conference, so another time. I intended to add a picture I took this morning of a white resin Buddha. He is about 5 inches high and laughing his head off. He has plentiful breasts and a large stomach. How he manages to cross his legs in the lotus position is beyond me. My husband Peter gave me this .....token this  morning to commemorate our forty sixth wedding anniversary. Yes, forty six years of wedded bliss! Never a cross word or argument. And if you believe that....

So what is the significance of this object d’art you might ask? Was he thinking of me as he gazed upon this Buddha with his ample physique? Or was it the laughing smiley face? I think I’ll assume that he liked it and thought it would give me pleasure. Phew... Another crisis aborted.

We did meet another couple of women at the conference that collaborate as we do. Mary Anne Wollison and Michelle Cooke. They’ve just finished their first book together and we wish them well with it. It was probably the most asked question for us at the conference. “How do you write together?” The writing is still the lonely act it always is but we do get together face to face to iron out any ideas or problems with the plot line. Once we have decided on a general story the characters emerge. We are nearly always in agreement with the characters. Some characters Liz owns and some are mine but we can both write using them. It’s just that; a collaboration (The action of working with someone to produce or create something) We also trust and respect each other. That helps.

Look for these authors new books.

C.B Forrest - The Devil’s Dust- www.cbforrest.com  Dundurn

Mary Jane Maffini – The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder- www.maryjanemaffini.com -  Berkley Prime Crime

Erika Chase-A Killer Read- www.erikachase.com Berkley Prime Crime

Janet Bolin- Threaded for Trouble- www.threadvillemysteries.com   Berkley Prime Crime

Deryn Collier- Confined Space- deryn@deryncollier.com Simon & Schuster

Vicki Delany- Gold Mountain- www.vickeydelany.com  Rendevous Crime

Happy reading,

Slainte,

Pam

New Word: Skypeing

Quoting Burns is becoming a habit of mine but it is so fitting.

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Or in plain English (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go often askew.) I am sure I have used the quote before so forgive me. Liz and I were so looking forward to a day of rewrites as we have been on a roll of late. Getting some advice from friends who are knowledgeable about the business has put a spark in both of us and the writing is flowing much better.

Friday evening came dire warnings from my husband about the snowstorm that was imminent. Snow, ice, freezing rain and cold. Yes, it did snow and it was about -13 in the morning, but what has happened to us? Canadians I mean. We are turning into a nation of wimps. I never used to have this fear of driving in all conditions. I learned to drive and received my license in December so it has never fazed me. Now before you say it... It’s an age thing, well I think maybe it is the age of the car my husband is worried about. Ten year old Hyundai with 300.000 kms and no snow tires!! Time for new wheels.

I called Liz first thing Saturday morning. Not to worry, we can Skype she says. Not quite the same but it helps. Then she had the cheek to eat all the treats in front of me that she had bought for us to nibble on while we worked!!

We did accomplish quite a bit and I left Liz to make the corrections of my editing. By 2pm the sun was blazing and it turned out to be a beautiful day but I did hear the hwy's were icy and slushy so I was actually grateful to be inside to finish the latest from Peter Robinson. www.inspectorbanks.com/

His new book is a departure from the Inspector Banks series. I enjoyed the way this book changed from the main protagonists point of view to a journal kept by a woman who was hanged in the 50’s when she is accused of poisoning her husband. The journal was written when she was a nurse during WW2. His descriptions of time and place were very familiar to me and I always enjoy his references to music which are a recurring theme in his books. Very enjoyable.

Liz and I are always on the lookout for other writing collaborators whom we can learn from. My Writers Digest magazine www.writersdigest.com/ this month has just such an article. They feature an interview with the best selling thriller writing team Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. http://www.prestonchild.com/ It was very reassuring to find that others work as we do. It is not for everyone but it has been successful in their case.

Liz and I have a tentative date for the 22^nd of the month but in the meantime we will be Skypeing. Don’t suppose she kept me any of those chocolate cookies!

Talk soon,

Slainte,