Linda Jones & Linda Howard – A day in the life of a writing team

 

Ever wonder how two people work together to create one seamless, fabulous novel? We have, and now Linda Jones and Linda Howard, the authors behind Frost Line, have answered in their #WelcomeToMyWorld piece.

 

5am – We’re both up, drinking coffee with iPads or computers in our laps. We touch base with our exciting plans for the day (laundry, grocery shopping, walking dogs or plans with grandkids, and oh yes, writing. Where are we in the book today?)

 

9am – By this point, something has been written by at least one of us. We’re both morning people and the writing is more critical than the humdrum, so laundry and grocery shopping will have to wait. Dogs and grandkids do not wait, but we do the best we can. Linda Howard writes a scene and sends it to Linda Jones. Linda Jones realises she has just written a scene that might be either nearly identical or contradictory. Wait! In some email last week, didn’t we decide we’d do something entirely different? We begin sorting through our folder of emails, looking for the one that addressed this. Oh, yeah. Delete, delete, start over. No, maybe that isn’t right. We need to think about this.

 

10am – This isn’t working. We get in our cars and head for the Cracker Barrel restaurant that is conveniently situated midway between us, about an hour from each of our houses. Trying to hammer down details over email or the phone is just not the same as discussing face to face. We draw a map and realise that we’ve been looking at the scene in a mirror image. No wonder one of us went left while the other went right! Other customers give us strange looks, and the wait staff avoids us. Yes, we are definitely discussing murder, but it’s of a character, not a real person.

 

Noon – We have avoided arrest, and head home. Linda Jones has decided the laundry can wait, and she’s sent her husband to the grocery store. An hour drive gives us both time to ponder, which is always a good thing. When we get home, we head straight to the computer to share whatever good ideas came to us in the car, via email. Linda Howard deals with a dog or husband situation, sometimes both, and becomes snarly at the interruptions.

 

2pm – A final scene, or perhaps even a chapter, is done. The laundry is still not done, and Linda Jones’s husband came home from the grocery store with far too many chips and cookies, but we can sigh with relief and walk away from the computer, for a while. Then Linda Howard realises she has a stretch of time when both husband and dogs are possibly napping, and she heads back to the computer where she first reads through the folder of emails to make certain she’s got the details straight, consults the notebook of notes she made while they were at the Cracker Barrel, and tries to get a head start on the next chapter, and the next day.

Linda Howard & Linda Jones have been writing together for years, and they have now launched an all new series centred on characters of the Tarot cards as they enter our world.

Frost Line is now out:

Amazon

Waterstones

Kindle

Kobo

iBooks

Google Play