The Birth of an Idea
Lisa: We both belong to a larger writer’s organization that is a great forum for announcements and opportunities in the publishing field. When my first publisher, Barbour, offered an opening for a popular format of books called “Four in Ones” I asked Shellie if she’d be interested in writing this type of book with me. The company calls for four novellas of around 20,000 words with a similar theme. I wanted to try something unique – four stories based around a summer, but not the same story told from four points of view.
Shellie: Several brainstorming sessions over never-ending tea refills at Paneras and we developed our four-in-one into four novellas that tell one family’s story. A stretch for this young adult author for sure, but we managed to develop the concept into something that pulled from each of our strengths. Romance with a touch of suspense that spans three generations.
How We Worked
Lisa: Shellie came up with great character names; we had an initial plot that we both molded until we thought we knew where we wanted to go. We spent several hours at Panera’s and a local coffee house, online, giggling and coming up with all kinds of scenarios. I can’t imagine what the people around us thought. We looked up information to make up a fictional community. Shellie researched everything from organic farming rules to visiting the county government for assistance on tax laws. We developed a calendar to work with and then fine-tuned events and weather conditions to match the scenes. Sometimes we surprised each other – like the time Shellie had one of her characters discover something I thought was going to be a secret, but it worked out well. We both had a few different readers to tell us if we were going in the right direction. We came up pretty empty on a title though and thought the publisher would like to weigh in. She didn’t; so I appealed to my brother who came up with one we adapted.
Shellie: Working with Lisa stretched my skills and whittled me into a sharper author. At first we wrote our separate stories, meeting to compare major events and characters, then we swapped manuscripts. Lisa’s strength lies in her romance plots and sweet characters, so her critiques, gentle as they were, cued me in on the nuances that surround romantic fiction, making the story both richer and stronger. She’s awesome to work with. I missed the camaraderie when the writing concluded. I’ve heard many tales of co-authorship gone awry, but for me, writing with a friend and mentor rocked.
The Outcome
Lisa: The original target publisher filled the schedule, so we turned around and came up with ideas of other publishers. We’d both had contracts with other publishing firms, but tried one of mine first—BlackLyon. It took a few months, but Kerry liked the idea and offered us a contract. This is not typical, but we wrote the book in December/January of 2010-2011, fine-tuned and submitted in April and received our contract at the end of July. We had worked it well enough not to need substantive edits, so the book was released the first of September in electronic format and in print.
Shellie: A benefit of co-authorship for certain. The level of expectation and craft rises to meet both writers’ abilities. Did Lisa mention she’s an editor, too? She kept me on my toes, but produced a sparkling manuscript as a result. I’m grateful Kerry and BlackLyon enjoyed the book enough to publish it before year’s end.
A Summer in Oakville, a new romantic novel from BlackLyon.
ISBN: 978-1-934912-39-3
ASIN: B005KF6I2E
ASIN: B005KF6I2E
Price: $16.95 paperback
Price: $8.00 Ebook (PDF format)
Pages: 268 paperback
Price: $8.00 Ebook (PDF format)
Pages: 268 paperback
Thanks so much for hosting us. Writing as a team is such a blessing. Breaks away from the writer's lonely lifestyle:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this with us. In college, I wrote several articles for academic journals with a co-author. Reading this has made me think, "Hmmm...could I possibly try it for fiction?"
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me what writers organization you belong to?
Thanks, Carly.
ReplyDeleteWe're both members of American Christian Fiction Writers, which is how we met. I'm also in Wisconsin Writers Association. We both have more books coming out with MuseItUp next, which offers a great online forum once or twice a year. Maybe we'll teach on how to co-author.
Very interesting! I'm not sure I could co-author one of my books, but it's wonderful to see that others can do it with such camaraderie.
ReplyDeleteLove how you collaborated on this! Sounds like a great read!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. Writing as a team has it's challenges, but if you respect the strengths of your co-author, the process can be fun and successful. Sounds like these two authors had lots of fun, which is a big plus. I write with another author and we have great times together, she wrote two characters, I wrote two, then we edited one another's work and come up with stronger characters. Mia Crews
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what it would be like to collaborate on a project. This sounds like what I had envisioned.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting interview. Sounds like you had fun writing together, especially the tea at the Panera Bread Company. Congratulations on your new book!
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone!
ReplyDeleteTweeting this! Very interesting.
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